Rudaw.net, a great site for news of Iraq from the Kurdish point of view reports -
Backed by US Air Strikes, Peshmerga Regain Most of Mosul Dam
US jets pounded Islamic State (IS/ISIS) positions as Peshmerga forces moved in to regain control of most of the Mosul dam, which the militants captured earlier this month.
Kurdish authorities, who reported ongoing fighting, have been especially concerned about the dam in IS hands, because its destruction would flood Mosul and waters might even reach as far south as Baghdad.
The United States said it carried out nine strikes with FA-18 jets and drones against the militants, backing the Peshmerga in their push.
“Fighting is ongoing at the Mosul dam and we have caused big losses to ISIS and now more than 80 percent of the dam is controlled by the Peshmergas,” said Abdul-Khaliq Babiri, a senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
The expansion of bombing missions targeting Islamic State fighters around the Mosul Dam was enough of a "mission creep" that President Obama wrote to Congressional leaders explaining his reasoning. I not only fully support the President's decision, but if new Iraq Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi can form a unity government that brings the Kurds and Sunni into full partnership, I say creep the hell out the mission and help destroy IS.
In my 62 years so far into this life I have always been an advocate for peace. In my teens in the 1960s I protested vigorously against the Vietnam war; I spent a night in jail because of that. When I lived in Las Vegas in the early 2000s I was so overwhelmed by the huge protest on the Las Vegas Strip protesting W's intention to invade Iraq that I parked my car and joined the protest and the chanting "No Blood for Oil!"
But this is different. Those wars were American Military & foreign policy adventurism. If I were 92 years old instead of 62, I would not have protested our entry into World War II. Besides that were were attacked first, that war was to free Europe and Jews from the murderous oppression and Holocaust of Nazi Germany, and to free Asia from the rape and oppression of Imperial Japan. In my humble opinion, the Islamic State is a threat at least as dangerous and more murderous and cruel - they don't ship those they don't like off to death camps, they behead them, and take their women as spoils of war, to be sold off as personal property into sexual slavery. The Islamic State is an affront to Islam. The Islamic State is an affront to humanity.
American suicide bomber Moner Abusalha, the fair-skinned son of a Palestinian father and American mother who grew up in Florida, where his friends called him Mo. On May 25 2014, only 22 years of age , 'Mo' drove a truck packed with explosives into a Syrian government outpost and blew the truck, himself, and an unknown number of Syrian soldiers and civilians into oblivion. Actually, Mo thought he was blowing himself up to "paradise". In his suicide video made just before his mission he said "We're coming for you, mark my words":
Know that Islam is coming and will dominate over you. We will come with AKs. We will come with our bombs. We have small weapons, but we will take you down. We have hearts of lions. You are scared of death, while we love death.
How do you fight a whole new generation of fighters who think killing innocent people is the wish of their God, and that their death is 'glorious' and an express ticket to 'paradise'?
That's a 7 year old Australian boy holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier (I chose a copy that has been digitally obscured). His father, an Australian citizen, is fighting with the Islamic State in Syria. He posted the picture online, with the text:
That's my boy!
What is going to become of children exposed to and encouraged to embrace brutal barbarism at such a young age? What's going to happen when they come home? There are thousands from all over the world rushing in to fight with the Islamic State, many from Europe, America, Canada, and Australia. What's going to happen when they come home?
The Islamic State plans to establish a Caliphate under an extreme sharia law in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan - for starters. Those living in that territory who don't believe the exact same religious beliefs as IS will be given a choice to convert or be brutally slaughtered, their prettier women taken for sexual slavery, the spoils of war. This would make for a very dangerous and unstable Mideast, and pose a very real and very dangerous threat for Israel.
Yeah, we're all sick of sending our money for fights in the Mideast. We're all sick of seeing the lives of our men and women in uniform endangered, shattered, or lost. We're all sick of war. Hell, I've been sick of war since 'Nam. But this shit is real, and the lives of thousands and thousands of innocent men, women and children are at stake. And if not us, then who? Creep the mission all you need, Mr. President, before the next thousands and thousands of peaceful, innocent people have to flee to the top of rugged mountain in the dead of night trying to save the lives of their women and children.
BTW, I'm not really smiling, that was obviously a ploy to use that catchy phrase to get your attention. There is nothing to smile about in the land of the Islamic State, there are only tears.
OK, I've said my piece, now you get to go have at it.