The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: EC on August 07, 2014, 10:25:21 pm
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CBS Evening News @CBSEveningNews 1m
#BREAKING: President Obama has approved air drops of food and water in Iraq and the effort is underway.
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CBS News @CBSNews 2m
More on Iraq: Humanitarian effort has begun; planes loaded with food and water have taken off, reports David Martin
Tweets only, at present.
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Food and water, so they can hold out longer before the jihadis kill them?
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President Obama has approved air drops of food and water on a mountain in Iraq where a group of religious minorities remains trapped by Islamic militants, CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports.
The president also considering using airstrikes to help break the siege by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which is increasing its march toward the Kurdish region of Iraq and seized the country's largest dam Thursday.
ISIS has targeted religious minorities including Christians and the Yazidis, a religious group with ties to Zoroastrianism. An estimated 15,000 of them are caught on a mountaintop with no food or water, but afraid to descend into ISIS-held territory where they might be killed.
The decision to deploy U.S. air power represents a significant escalation of America's involvement in the bloody civil conflict. As ISIS gathered strength over the last few months, the U.S. stepped up its nonlethal assistance to the Iraqi government. And at the end of June, Mr. Obama sent approximately 300 troops to Iraq to train and advise Iraq's army, though they were not to be deployed in combat. An additional 450 U.S. personnel followed shortly thereafter.
But he has pledged several times that the U.S. will not send combat troops to Iraq.
More: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-approves-humanitarian-air-drops-in-iraq/
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2719203/US-weighs-airstrikes-humanitarian-aid-Iraq.html?offset=0&max=100&jumpTo=comment-60949859#comment-60949859
Possible air strikes as well
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Iraq begins food drops
By: Philip Ewing
August 7, 2014 01:55 PM EDT
Iraqi authorities are air-dropping relief supplies to try to stave off a humanitarian catastrophe in northern Iraq, the Pentagon said Thursday, but officials would not confirm reports about potentially imminent air strikes.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest condemned the “cold and calculating manner” in which the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has targeted religious and ethnic minorities in the territory it has seized. “It is a situation we are deeply concerned about and closely monitoring,” he said.
But other than confirming President Barack Obama met with national security advisers this morning, Earnest and other White House officials would not comment on a report in The New York Times that Obama could decide soon about potential air strikes or additional humanitarian assistance for the crisis in the north.
“I’m not in a position to rule things on the table or off the table in this context,” Earnest said.
A defense official told POLITICO that Iraq’s government had begun dropping relief supplies to some 40,000 Iraqi Yazidis trapped on a mountaintop without access to food or water and cut off by ISIL fighters. The U.S. is in “constant communication” with Baghdad and Erbil, the official said, “on how we can help coordinate additional relief, enhance their efforts and provide direct assistance wherever possible.”
The Times reported Thursday evening that air strikes had begun in Iraq, but Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby denied that on Twitter. Such reports are “false,” he wrote. “No such action taken.”
At a White House briefing earlier in the day, Earnest restated the administration’s position that American military action in Iraq is dependent upon Baghdad forming a new, inclusive government.
“You don’t want to have a situation where you have an Iraqi government that is relying solely on American military might to remain in power,” he said. Washington especially wants to see a new government in Baghdad that does not include the incumbent prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, whom American officials have blamed for alienating large sections of Iraq’s population.
Reporters pressed Earnest about the difference between a political process in Baghdad and what appeared to be an imminent humanitarian crisis on Mount Sinjar in Iraq’s north. By all accounts the Yazidis need food and water now and can’t wait for Iraq to get a new prime minister.
Earnest allowed that Obama has taken action in the past when confronted with imminent potential humanitarian crisis, as in 2011 when the forces of Libyan president Moammar Qaddafi seemed poised to sack the city of Benghazi. That pressing danger prompted Obama to authorize airstrikes, Earnest said, so it’s possible the White House could apply a similar calculation to the Mount Sinjar situation. Still, he did not convey any sense of immediacy.
“At this point, I’m not in a position to describe to you any conclusions that have been reached by the president or anybody else in the administration about the national security implications for the United States of this specific humanitarian situation other than to say it’s one that we condemn and we’re very concerned about.”
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yah...bottled water, MREs and diapers.
Thank you very little.
:smokin:
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Nothing short of sending in the Stratofortresses will be sufficient.
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I hear they are beheading children while on their way to the area where most of the refugee Christians are. Food will only keep them alive till they are beheaded. I think it is actually a slap in the face to those Christians that fled to be safe and are now surrounded. Our country should be ashamed of itself.
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West Wing Reports @WestWingReport 4m
President coming into State Dining Room shortly to talk about Iraq
targeted air strikes .....against ISIL
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The Caucus @thecaucus 7s
President Obama says he ordered targeted military strikes if ISIL makes moves toward Irbil in Iraq where U.S. personnel are based.
Air Strikes are only agaisnt ISIS conveys and ONLY if they move toward the city .... so they aren't really targeted
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Ed Henry @edhenryTV 35s
POTUS: authorized two operations, airstrikes to protect US personnel & humanitarian relief to save thousands in N #Iraq
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Jim Hoft @gatewaypundit 50s
Horray! Obama to send relief to #Zahidis in Iraq - After a Week He Finally Acts! Too bad we don't have a stronger 8 yr. old in White House
...it only took him a month to act
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Andrew Kaczynski @BuzzFeedAndrew 25s
Obama: “Today America is coming to help."
NO US combat troops...
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Shannon Bream @ShannonBream 25s
Pres says: I know many concerned about any military involvement here - I understand - won't allow US to be dragged into another war in Iraq
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Steve Brusk @stevebruskCNN 46s
Pres. Obama says "As Commander-in-Chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq"
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BuetanxIUAA4mgN.jpg)
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His poll numbers must truly be in free fall.
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NBC Nightly News @NBCNightlyNews 1m
President Obama says American combat troops will not be returning to Iraq
West Wing Reports @WestWingReport 8s
President, alluding to criticism of his foreign policy, says U.S. global leadership is essential - but says force not always the answer
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Julian E. Barnes @julianbarnes 42s
Obama: Tonight we give thanks to men and women in uniform ... who are saving the lives of men women and children they will never meet
Andrea Mitchell @mitchellreports 1m
Obama says taking action to avoid potential genocide when we have capacity to help have to lead that's who we are
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BuzzFeed News @BuzzFeedNews 5m
President Obama: "Today America is coming to help."
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Zeke Miller @ZekeJMiller 1m
Obama: “When many thousands of innocent civilians are in danger of being wiped out, and we have the capacity to help, we will take action"
David Frum @davidfrum 1m
Not that I’m complaining but … no congressional authorization for these airstrikes
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Moe Lane @moelane 38s
You know what would be really handy to have in Iraq right now? Warthogs. Those SOBs are like those giant angry killer hornets to infantry.
Ahhh...love to see that!
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So I guess we are going to bomb the Islamic State??
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http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2551822 (http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2551822)
Obama authorizes limited airstrikes in Iraq, citing potential for genocide
BY SUSAN CRABTREE | AUGUST 7, 2014 | 9:39 PM
President Obama on Thursday night announced that he had authorized limited air strikes in Iraq, one of the boldest military moves of his presidency.
The decision marks a reversal of Obama's current, more supervisory approach to the violent turmoil in the region caused by Islamic insurgents' siege of large swaths of the country.
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http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2551822 (http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2551822)
Obama authorizes limited airstrikes in Iraq, citing potential for genocide
BY SUSAN CRABTREE | AUGUST 7, 2014 | 9:39 PM
President Obama on Thursday night announced that he had authorized limited air strikes in Iraq, one of the boldest military moves of his presidency.
The decision marks a reversal of Obama's current, more supervisory approach to the violent turmoil in the region caused by Islamic insurgents' siege of large swaths of the country.
So I guess we are going to bomb them.. Good, but since it is limited I don't know if it will do any good.
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I am truly surprised he is doing this. Anything they do is political, must have had some horrible poll numbers for valjar to do this.