Possibility of a Genocide Made President Obama Authorize Military Action Against Islamic State, Iraq

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <header style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 class="title" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> </h1> <div class="headline group" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(223, 223, 223); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: -8px 0px 10px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="times" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="posted" style="border-right-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); border-right-style: solid; border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">P</span></span><img alt="BARACK OBAMA" class="" data-img-path="http://i0.huffpost.com/gen/1956722/thumbs/n-BARACK-OBAMA-large570.jpg" src="http://i0.huffpost.com/gen/1956722/thumbs/n-BARACK-OBAMA-large570.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br /> <br /> <br /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="facebook-share-btn label" style="border: 0px; bottom: 6px; box-shadow: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important; left: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="social-fb-share-btn" data-caption="www.huffingtonpost.com" data-image="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1956722/thumbs/o-BARACK-OBAMA-facebook.jpg" data-title="Here's What Motivated Obama To Act In Iraq" data-url="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/09/obama-genocide-iraq_n_5664412.html" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2014%2F08%2F09%2Fobama-genocide-iraq_n_5664412.html" sl-processed="1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Share</a></span></span></div> </div> </header><div class="content" id="mainentrycontent" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 20px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The vivid reports streaming into the Situation Room that morning from U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials were unsettling, to say the least: Stories of mass executions, women being enslaved as child brides, members of a small religious group trapped on a mountain and potentially dying of thirst. The situation was falling apart — fast.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then the president, for the first time, was given an assessment that thrust the crisis into an entirely new category.</span></div> <div class="ad_spot" id="modulous_mid_article" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="ad_wrapper" id="ad_mid_article" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" hspace="0" id="adsonar_serve132059" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="adsonar_serve132059" scrolling="no" src="http://ads.tw.adsonar.com/adserving/getAds.jsp?previousPlacementIds=&placementId=1523113&pid=2345767&ps=-1&zw=300&zh=250&ssl=false&url=http%3A//www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/09/obama-genocide-iraq_n_5664412.html&v=5&flash=false&fv=0&dct=Possibility%20Of%20Genocide%20Moved%20Obama%20To%20Act%20In%20Iraq&metakw=possibility,of,genocide,moved,obama,to,act,in,iraq,politics" style="border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" vspace="0" width="300"></iframe></span></div> </div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As one top official put it: "I had not heard the word 'genocide' used in the Situation Room before."</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By the time 90-minute meeting ended, it was clear Obama planned to order humanitarian aid to be airdropped to the Yazidis, a religious minority being targeted by the Islamic State militant group. But advisers were still unsure whether Obama would go one step further: airstrikes in Iraq, just three years after the U.S. pulled out from a war that Obama never liked.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">___</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As a fast-growing Sunni rebellion overran major Iraqi cities in early June, Obama began weighing his options. A U.S. aircraft carrier was ordered into the Persian Gulf, and Obama began dispatching hundreds of special forces to advise Iraqis and protect U.S. personnel.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On one point, Obama was firm: No ground troops would return to Iraq. Yet the prospect of airstrikes hung in the air like an unpleasant smell — Obama was clearly reluctant to take that step, but it could prove critical to preventing a security collapse in Iraq.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">___</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As the thermometer climbed in July, temperatures were also rising in Washington, where some lawmakers were demanding immediate drone strikes while others were urging the opposite. A top senator threatened to block arms sales to Iraq, and House lawmakers easily passed a resolution to bar Obama from sending forces into Iraq long-term without their go-ahead.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pentagon leaders were reviewing what assistance might help Iraq's beleaguered military, while diplomats pressed Iraqi leaders for a political transition that would enfranchise Sunnis and Kurds.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">___</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wednesday was a major tipping point. Obama was engrossed in three days of meeting with dozens of African presidents he'd invited to Washington. But roughly 6,000 miles away, the Yazidis were in trouble, having fled to the mountains to escape the extremists.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With Obama at the summit, his team met throughout the day at the White House, where they learned that the Iraqis had tried — and failed — to resupply the Yazidis, who were in dire need of food and water.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Kurds, America's closest allies in Iraq, had sought to hold off the extremists. But on Wednesday, the Kurdish militia started falling back, moving precipitously away from Iraq's largest hydroelectric dam as they sought to consolidate their forces to protect Irbil.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Eventually, insurgents took the dam. If fully breached, the dam could flood major swaths of land, endangering the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, joined Obama for the limo ride back to the White House, where Obama said he knew the Yazidis' humanitarian crisis must be addressed. Obama had plans to join the first lady at an Italian restaurant, but the Oval Office meeting dragged on. Dinner would have to wait.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">___</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By Thursday morning, things had only gotten worse. People were fleeing Irbil. Obama made clear he was inclined to approve military action, officials said, but held off on the final decision as he left to sign a veterans bill at a nearby army base. The officials discussed Obama's decision-making on the condition they not be identified.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Upon his return, Obama met for two hours with his team in the Situation Room, where Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, both abroad, were linked by videoconference. Obama announced he was authorizing two missions: airdrops for the Yazidis, and military strikes in the event Americans were in danger.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">___</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As dusk fell in Washington, cable news and Twitter were abuzz with reports about U.S. military action in Iraq. Though many were false, the White House didn't comment, fearing it could jeopardize the first humanitarian drop, which was underway under the cover of night.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just after 9 p.m., reporters were hastily summoned to the State Dining Room, where a stoic Obama spoke to the nation.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"When many thousands of innocent civilians are faced with the danger of being wiped out, and we have the capacity to do something about it, we will take action," Obama said.</span></div> </div> <footer style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><section class="also-on" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h3 style="border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /></h3> <div class="promo_holder" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="hp-slideshow-wrapper no-pin" data-beacon="{" data-slideshow-id="354156" id="hp-slideshow-wrapper-354156" p="" slideshow_id="" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 570px; z-index: 5000001;"> <div class="hp-slideshow-top" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; min-width: 555px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 5000002;"> <div class="hp-slideshow-main" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; display: inline-block; float: left; height: 554px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 570px; z-index: 5000002;"> <div class="hp-main-slide" style="border: rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; height: 430px; margin: 5px 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 10px; position: relative; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 550px;"> <div class="hp-main-slider-content" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; display: table; height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; width: 550px;"> <div class="hp-slideshow-img-container" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; height: 430px; line-height: 430px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"> <img src="http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/354156/slide_354156_3864431_free.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(60, 60, 60); box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-height: 400px; max-width: 96%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto !important;" /></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </section></footer></div>

Possibility of a Genocide Made President Obama Authorize Military Action Against Islamic State, Iraq

P Share The vivid reports streaming into the Situation Room that morning from U.S. diplomats and intelligence offici...

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Conversion of Iraq: As Isis drives Christians out of their homes, the group’s genocidal intentions take on horrible clarity

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-507 inpage-widget-8099193 articleContent voicesArticleLayout" style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 135px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px !important; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <span class="storyTop " style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div style="outline: none; padding: 0px;"> While Israel ramped up its offensive in Gaza on Sunday, with appalling loss of life and injuries, 1,200km to the north-west in Iraq a different, but hardly lesser, tragedy was under way as <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/time-runs-out-for-christian-iraq-isis-deadline-passes-with-mass-flight-9617606.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px !important; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">the Christian community of Mosul poured out of the city</a> where they have lived for 1,600 years in search of refuge.</div> </span></div> <div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-507 inpage-widget-8099200 articleContent voicesArticleLayout" style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 135px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px !important; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <div class="body " style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The organisation we are invited to call the Islamic Caliphate (Isis) possesses the virtue of clarity, if nothing else. Hitler’s genocidal plans for the Jews became public knowledge only years after he came to power. The Soviet gulags were for a long time shrouded in secrecy. But Isis has never made any bones about either means or ends.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The ends: to establish a worldwide Islamic state based on the most reductive and intolerant version of Sunni Islam. The means: the elimination of everyone who believes something different and refuses to convert.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Since their capture of Mosul on 10 June, these fanatics have wasted no time slaughtering large numbers of brother Muslims who follow the Shia tradition. They boast of having “executed” 1,700 Shia soldiers n the town of Tikrit.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But there was no reason to suppose they would look more benignly on other types of “infidels”, and now they have turned their attention to the remnants of the other communities that until recently made Iraq a rich patchwork of ancient beliefs.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So it was that on Friday the Christians of Mosul, a community of thousands settled in the city since the early days of Christianity, were given 24 hours to either convert or face the sword. A third alternative was to pay jizya, an Islamic tax historically levied on religious minorities.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But only a brave or gullible “infidel” would put much faith in protection of that sort, and Christians as well as Yazidis and Shabaks, two other Iraqi minorities, are now fleeing for their lives.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For the Christians this is not a new catastrophe but rather the consolidation and systemisation of a terrible process of extirpation from their historic homelands that has been under way for years. It is nonetheless remarkable that the West has so far had nothing in particular to say about it.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The reason is that the Middle East policy of the US and the UK is in a total mess. If the Iraq war of 2003 was motivated by the absurd notion that Saddam was allied with al-Qa’ida, and justified by the erroneous claim that he possessed weapons of mass destruction, the more recent support for opponents of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad – which, but for an intelligent  vote by the House of Commons, could easily have tipped us into another counter-productive war – is now beginning to look just as misconceived.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">President Assad is unquestionably a murderous and ruthless tyrant. But as an Alawite, a variety of Shia, he was at least protective to Syria’s minorities, however horrific the rest of his rule.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Meanwhile, the rebels of the Free Syrian Army, in whom we placed our rash hopes of converting Syria into a pluralistic democracy, have dwindled into impotence, their role taken by Isis – a well-funded band of compulsive killers in control of a new state bigger than Great Britain that sprawls over large areas of both Syria and Iraq.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This may be the first time that an up-and-coming power has advertised its genocidal intentions, while starting to carry them out. How these monsters are to be confronted is not yet clear, but confronted they must be. </span></div> </div> </div> </div>

Conversion of Iraq: As Isis drives Christians out of their homes, the group’s genocidal intentions take on horrible clarity

While Israel ramped up its offensive in Gaza on Sunday, with appalling loss of life and injuries, 1,200km to the north-west in Iraq a dif...

Read more »