Saturday, June 29, 2019

Big news out of Iraq

Major news from Iraq today.

  1. A 3,400-year-old palace has emerged from a reservoir in the Kurdistan region of Iraq after water levels dropped due to drought.
  2. An ancient palace has emerged from a reservoir in the Kurdistan region of Iraq as a result of receding waters due to a severe drought. Read more about this here:

CNN explains:

A 3,400-year-old palace has emerged from a reservoir in the Kurdistan region of Iraq after water levels dropped because of drought.
The discovery of the ruins in the Mosul Dam reservoir on the banks of the Tigris River inspired a spontaneous archeological dig that will improve understanding of the Mittani Empire, one of the least-researched empires of the Ancient Near East, the Kurdish-German team of researchers said in a press release.
"The find is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the region in recent decades," Kurdish archeologist Hasan Ahmed Qasim said in a press release.

In other news, Adel Abdul-Mahdi is demanding more money from the international community.  AP reports:

Iraq‘s prime minister says his country’s sacrifices fighting the Islamic State group mean it deserves greater support in its reconstruction efforts from the international community.
Adel Abdul-Mahdi made his comments Saturday during a meeting with a visiting U.N. Security Council members’ delegation, the first such visit to Iraq.

Iraq has one of the most corrupt governments in the world and has since at least the 2003 invasion.  It regularly ranks at the bottom of Transparency International's most transparent countries list.  He wants more money?  How does he intend to ensure that the money goes towards reconstruction when easily half of the reconstruction money has disappeared every year due to government corruption.  So how is Adel Abdul-Mahdi, an ineffective ruler at best, going to ensure that the money goes towards reconstruction?

In other stupidity . . .

Mike Schauer is an idiot.  Lindsey is correct in what he states.  The 2008 SOFA is the issue.  Bully Boy Bush and Nouri al-Maliki pushed it through on Thanksgiving 2008.  That year, Barack ran against such an agreement and said that any agreement would need to have Senate approval or it would not be valid. 

The SOFA did not have Senate approval.  The Iraqi Parliament approved it, but not the Senate.  Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer and many others publicly called out the Bully Boy Bush administration over trying to go around the Senate.

Barack did not have to follow that at all.  He could have come in and said, "No Senate approval on this so it's not valid."  That was his position -- the one he campaigned on.  It was only after the election that he and Joe Biden removed that position from the Obama-Biden website.

So that's, A.  But Mike Schauer is an idiot or a liar or both in so many ways.  The 2008 SOFA did not force US troops to withdraw.  Barack's refusal -- and Lindsey knows this -- he and John McCain visited Iraq about this issue and spoke with then-prime minister Nouri al-Maliki -- to leave 25,000 to 35,000 troops is why Nouri didn't fight for US troops to stay in Iraq.

Each year, with the UN mandate, had been a fight for Nouri and had cost him.  The UN mandate was yearly.  That's why the SOFA was for three years, to give Nouri some breathing space before he had to fight with the Parliament again. 

Nouri wasn't going to fight for a handful of US troops.

Third, the drawdown was not supposed to be the end of discussions and you can look at statements from Joe Biden, from Barack Obama and from Leon Panetta -- Leon was the Secretary of Defense.  They were saying that discussions would continue into the new year.

Lindsey is not lying.  He knows what happened.  He's not shading or bending the truth.

The following sites updated: