U.S. Sends New Contingent of 4,000 Troops into Iraq

credit: sundance at CTH

First, the explanation from former CIA Director, current Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo:

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Does this “escalation” have a familiar feel about it?

Let’s review the timeline:

A joint U.S. DoD, CIA and State Department effort initiated the background for an impeachment effort against U.S. President Donald Trump.

♦ A DoD Lt. Colonel named Alexander Vindman (Defense Dept.) sends false information to CIA operative Eric Ciaramella (CIA)…. that kick-starts a manipulated anonymous whistle-blower complaint through congress and the intelligence inspector general… which precedes a litany of U.S. foreign service operatives (State Dept.) testifying against President Trump.

Despite the known compromise and his certain inability to do his job, the National Security Staffer, Lt. Col. Vindman, is not removed from his position inside the White House National Security Council by Joint Chief’s Chairman Mark Milley.

♦ At the same time Vindman’s activity hits the headlines, U.S. Secretary of Navy Richard Spencer extorts the White House over President Trump’s decision to grant clemency for U.S. Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.   Spencer offers to drop the Trident review for Gallagher if President Trump backs away from the issue.

After public exposure of the extortion, Defense Secretary Mark Esper is forced to fire Navy Secretary Richard Spencer.  Using Spencer’s firing as the starting point, a contingent of former flag officers mount a mass-media campaign against President Trump.  Joint Chief’s Chairman Mark Milley remains silent.

[NOTE: President Trump has an administration-wide military policy of allowing field commanders to make decisions closer to combat operations.  Offensive military engagement requires Commander-in-Chief approval, defensive operations do not.]

♦ U.S. officials and a coalition of Afghanistan tribal leaders representing the Taliban in Afghanistan announce a joint cease-fire as terms of U.S. withdrawal are discussed.

♦ On the same day the U.S-Afghanistan ceasefire agreement is announced, Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Esper and JCS Mark Milley travel to Mar-a-Lago to brief President Trump on a range of new airstrikes carried out in Eastern Syria and Western Iraq as retaliation for an Iranian proxy militia attack against a U.S. base in Kirkuk, Iraq, that killed an “American contractor”.

A U.S. civilian contractor was killed and several service members and Iraqi personnel injured Friday in a rocket attack on a base in Iraq, military officials said.

The attack on the base in Kirkuk occurred Friday morning, said Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, which is tasked with fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. The base is hosting coalition troops, the military said in a statement.  –  Kirkuk is in the northeastern part of the country, south of Erbil. (LINK)

President Trump is silent for three days as Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Esper and JCS Milley inform the media of new issues in/around Iraq.

The evidence of Iranian involvement against the Kirkuk base is a located abandoned truck with unfired rockets -with Iranian labels- located near the origination of the attack.

♦ The U.S. response to the airbase attack takes place 300+ miles from the Kirkuk incident.  Secretary Pompeo calls the retaliatory strikes “defensive” operations against Iranian -back proxy militias.

The Department of Defense took offensive actions in defense of our personnel and interests in Iraq by launching F-15 Strike Eagles against five targets associated with Kata’ib Hezbollah, which is an Iranian-sponsored Shiite militia group. The targets we attacked included three targets in Western Iraq and two targets in Eastern Syria that were either command and control facilities or weapons caches for Kata’ib Hezbollah.

~Def Sec Esper

♦ Iranian-inspired proxies inside Iraq then use the U.S. retaliatory strikes to mount a protest against the U.S. embassy in/around the “green zone” in Iraq.   Chaos ensues.  U.S. troops are dispatched to reinforce the massive embassy compound.

♦ As a result of the increased risk and hostility to U.S. interests in/around the U.S. embassy in Iraq; and as a result of escalating friction caused by the original Iranian-militia attack; and as a result of the two U.S. air strikes in response to that initial attack; and out of an abundance of caution that our U.S. embassy in Iraq does not turn into another Benghazi-like outcome; we are now sending 4,000 more U.S. troops into Iraq.

All of this, we are told, is the result of rockets fired into an airbase in Kirkuk by “Iranian” militia; who our intelligence services identified from an abandoned truck and un-fired missiles with Iranian stickers.

You decide…

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