From three separate stories in all the news that's fit to print, let's bookend Iraq's clusterfuck with our helpless diplo-speak and pitiable pleas.
Sect. of State John Kerry said yesterday he was gratified that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had "called on all Iraqis to put aside their differences to unite in their efforts against terrorism." He said this after Maliki refused to form a more inclusive, caretaking government and "blamed other political groups for not cooperating with him."
Meanwhile ...
More than "1,000 American private security guards" are headed to Iraq to guard our 300 military advisers, although the private security force could soon grow to 1,700. The U.S. has upped its surveillance flights--many of them manned--to more than 30 daily.
From a former American airbase in Baghdad, Iran is also conducting (drone) surveillance flights. It has 10 divisions amassed on the Iraqi border, is shuttling across it about 140 tons of military materiel every day, and is also supplying advisers.
Syria's Bashar al-Assad, our mortal enemy, is now bombing ISIS, our mortal enemy, in western Iraq.
Sect. Kerry added that "one of the reasons why" a fresh, more inclusive Iraqi government "is so urgent [is] so that the leaders of Iraq can begin to make decisions necessary to protect Iraq without outside forces moving to fill a vacuum."
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