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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Well at least Trump was honest about it: We are there to steal their oil. Unlike Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr and Obama who all lied about it. fab.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Francis A. Boyle<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Law Building<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Champaign IL 61820 USA<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">217-333-7954 (phone)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">217-244-1478 (fax)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">(personal comments only</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">)</span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Peace [mailto:peace-bounces@lists.chambana.net]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Karen Aram via Peace<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Saturday, February 25, 2017 7:32 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Peace-discuss List <peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net>; Peace <peace@anti-war.net><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Peace] This is something we should all be protesting, and soon, very soon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<h2 style="mso-margin-top-alt:5.05pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-line-height-alt:14.4pt">
<span style="font-size:31.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333;font-weight:normal">Pentagon prepares for bigger, bloodier war in Iraq and Syria<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<h5 style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:15.6pt"><i><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#666666;font-weight:normal">By Bill Van Auken <br>
25 February 2017<o:p></o:p></span></i></h5>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">The Pentagon has prepared recommendations to be submitted to President Donald Trump at the beginning of next
week for a major escalation of the US military intervention in Iraq and Syria.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">According to unnamed US officials cited Friday by the <em><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Wall Street Journal</span></em>,
the proposal is expected to include “sending additional troops to Iraq and Syria” and “loosening battlefield restrictions” to “ease rules designed to minimize civilian casualties.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">The new battle plans stem from an executive order signed by Trump on January 28 giving the Pentagon 30 days
to a deliver a “preliminary draft of the Plan to defeat ISIS [Islamic State] in Iraq and Syria.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">According to independent estimates, as many as 8,000 civilians have already died in air strikes carried out by US and allied
warplanes against targets in both Syria and Iraq, even as the Pentagon routinely denies the vast majority of reported deaths of unarmed men, women and children resulting from US bombings. The new policy to be rolled out next week, which the <em><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Journal</span></em> reports
is aimed at “increasing the number and rate of operations,” will inevitably entail a horrific intensification of this bloodletting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Speaking before the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institution in Washington
on Thursday, the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford, said that the Pentagon would be presenting Trump with a “political-military plan” to deal not only with ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but to “advance our long-term interests in the
region.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Referring to the intense contradictions besetting the US intervention in the region, which has relied on the
use of Kurdish militias as proxy ground troops in Syria, even as Washington’s NATO ally, Turkey, has intervened to militarily counter their influence, Dunford insisted that Washington “can’t be paralyzed by tough choices.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Pointing to the regional scope of the planned US military escalation, Dunford echoed earlier bellicose rhetoric
from the administration against Iran, listing it alongside Russia, China, North Korea and “transnational violent extremism” as the major targets of the US military.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">The US military commander stated that “the major export of Iran is actually malign influence across the region.”
He said that the US military buildup against Iran was designed to “make sure we have freedom of navigation through the Straits of Hormuz, and that we deter conflict and crisis in the region, and that we advance our interest to include our interest in dealing
with violent extremism of all forms.” All of these alleged aims are pretexts for continuous US provocations aimed at countering Iran’s regional influence and furthering the drive for US hegemony in the Middle East.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">In relation to Iraq, Dunford signaled US intentions to maintain a US military occupation long after the campaign
against ISIS is completed. He referred to a “dialog about a long-term commitment to grow the capacity, maintain the capacity of the Iraqi security forces,” adding that Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Abadi had spoken of “the international community continuing
to support defense capacity building.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Dunford’s comments echoed those of Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis during a trip earlier this week
to Baghdad. While disavowing Trump’s crude comments last month—“We’re not in Iraq to seize anybody’s oil,” Mattis said—he also suggested that plans are being developed for a permanent US military presence in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">“The Iraqi people, the Iraqi military and the Iraqi political leadership recognizes what they’re up against
and the value of the coalition and the partnership in particular with the United States,” Mattis told reporters Monday. “I imagine we’ll be in this fight for a while and we’ll stand by each other.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Currently, Washington has more than 5,000 US troops in Iraq and another 500 Special Forces troops operating
inside Syria. These forces are backed by tens of thousands of military contractors as well as other military units that are rotated in and out of the region. The plan to be presented next week will likely involve the deployment of thousands more US combat
forces.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Trump has repeatedly indicated his support for establishing “safe zones” in Syria, an intervention that would
require large numbers of US soldiers backed by air power to seize and control swathes of Syrian territory. It would also entail threats of military confrontation with Russian warplanes operating in support of the Syrian government.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">As the Pentagon prepares its plans for military escalation in the region, US ground forces have reportedly entered
Mosul, operating on the front lines with Iraqi forces in the bloody offensive to retake Iraq’s second-largest city from ISIS. American Special Forces “advisers” joined Iraqi troops Thursday in the first incursion into western Mosul, with the retaking of the
Mosul International Airport as well as a nearby military base. The operation was conducted with close air support from US warplanes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">The airport and the base, located in the southern part of western Mosul, are to be used as the launching pad
for a major assault into the most densely populated area of the city, where an estimated three quarters of a million civilians are trapped with no means of escape.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">The International Rescue Committee warned that this stage of the offensive would represent the “most dangerous
phase” for civilians.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">“This will be a terrifying moment for the 750,000 people still in the west of the city, and there is a real
danger that the battle will be raging around them for weeks and possibly months to come,” said Jason Kajer, the Iraq acting country director for the humanitarian group.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">Referring to the increasingly desperate plight of civilians in western Mosul, the International Committee of
the Red Cross’s field coordinator in Erbil, Dany Merhy, said: “Supply routes have been cut from that side of the city and people have been facing shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine. We can only imagine the state people will be in.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:7.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt"><span style="font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333">As in previous US-backed offensives against Fallujah and Ramadi, Mosul faces the prospect of being reduced to
rubble. It is in this city where the proposed changes in the “rules of engagement” will find their first expression in the elevated slaughter of Iraqi civilians.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__wsws.org&d=DwMGaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=iioab8BLQ6IJxt-3gLhYzf1aAvTbGVgzPJj9W_0ugn0&m=sGRzSvg_B0DeomMuQfXQ7gtiGI4TbueiulDMylv24i8&s=1vVbFkZ92Z664MzqlkF7_s-VOgr931Qn8_JjNL3iTCQ&e=">WSWS.ORG</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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