On first review this makes no sense. Why would any military officials give so much detailed and advanced notice of the intents to attack ISIS in Mosul Iraq?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The operation to retake Iraq’s second largest city from Islamic State militants will likely begin in April or May and will involve about 12 Iraqi brigades, or between 20,000 and 25,000 troops, a senior U.S. military official said Thursday.

Laying out details of the expected Mosul operation for the first time, the official from U.S. Central Command said five Iraqi Army brigades will soon go through coalition training in Iraq to prepare for the mission. Those five would make up the core fighting force that would launch the attack, but they would be supplemented by three smaller brigades serving as reserve forces, along with three Peshmerga brigades who would contain the Islamic State fighters from the north and west. (more…)

Al-Baghdadi is the town recently captured by ISIS as they work to surround the 300+ U.S. Marines stationed at al Assad Air Force base to aid and support the central Iraqi military. This past week a probe attack was launched against U.S. military stationed at the air base.  The attack was presumably launched from the staging ground in the town of Al-Baghdadi.
In another alarming development, today the BBC is reporting that ISIS militants have burned to death 45 people in this town in western Iraq.  According to the report the local police chief, Col Qasim al-Obeidi, is saying members of his security forces are some of the 45 victims.

It was less than a week ago when ISIS fighters captured much of the town near the air base. Now local officials are claiming a compound within the town -said to house the families of other security personnel and local officials- is under attack. Police Chief al-Obeidi is pleading with the central Iraqi government as well as the coalition and international community for assistance. (more…)

Marie Harf joined Chris Matthews on MSNBC yesterday to advance an ideology we have actually heard before. When discussing radical Islam, and more specifically ISIS, according to Harf:

“We’re killing a lot of them and we’re going to keep killing more of them. So are the Egyptians, so are the Jordanians. They’re in this fight with us. But we cannot win this war by killing them. We cannot kill our way out of this war. We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s lack of opportunity for jobs”.

Now pause for a moment, turn your head at a 25° angle, cross your eyes, pretend she is in direct eye contact with yourself…. and ask the obvious:  “Dear Ms. Harf, if that be true – then why in sam kittens is President Obama asking for AN AUTHORIZATION OF MILITARY FORCE” ? {{Mic Drop}} (more…)

A united coalition of Islamist Extremists, fueled by a hatred for The West and secular minority protection, is now expanding its footprint to include Afghanistan, Pakistan, Algeria, Egypt and Libya.   The capability for ISIS to expand is based in large part on the U.S. Obama policy of retreat from all regions where fighting is taking place.
Last week President Obama delivered a shocking comparison of modern terror in the name of Islam and the Christian crusades which ended in 1050 AD.  It would appear ISIS agrees with the perspective of President Obama as they announce their intentions to fight Christian nations, “nations of the cross”, which the Islamic State conflates to mean (essentially) any non-Muslim region; a global jihad.

WASHINGTON — The Islamic State is expanding beyond its base in Syria and Iraq to establish militant affiliates in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, and Libya, US intelligence officials assert, raising the prospect of a new global war on terror.
Intelligence officials estimate that the group’s fighters number 20,000 to 31,500 in Syria and Iraq. (more…)

(Via FOX NEWS) A small band of ISIS fighters mounted a bold, dawn attack Friday on an air base in Iraq where U.S. forces are training troops, in what experts believe may have been a probe that could foreshadow a coming clash involving Americans.
All eight Islamic State fighters were killed by Iraqi forces in the 7:20 a.m. raid on Ain al-Asad air base in the western province of Anbar, and none of the 400 U.S. military personnel at the base were involved, according to officials. Sources rejected reports that the militant fighters, who killed at least two Iraqi troops, had infiltrated the base wearing Iraqi army uniforms.
“It was a regular ISIL attack,” a senior defense official told Fox News. “It happened at the gate about 3 kilometers from where U.S. forces are. We sent drones and Apaches [attack helicopters], but it was all over before they arrived and neither fired a shot.”
Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said that initial reports Friday showed that all of the Islamic State fighters were killed at or inside a gate to the sprawling, 25-square-mile base. (more…)

When you won’t admit you have an enemy, and you won’t admit who the enemy is, it goes without saying – You don’t have a “Strategy”, let alone have a possibility of success:

We often say ‘we accept the world as it is rather than as we wish it to be’. Because to do anything else only creates frustration from projecting our own perspectives, dreams, wishes and hopes into a situation that may not -heck, often doesn’t- evolve to provide a better outcome.
Today, Susan Rice delivered a speech outlining the Obama administration’s 2015 National Security Strategy. The full 35pg pdf. is available here and below is the introduction by President Obama himself.

(more…)

ISIS is naming and providing pictures of the U.S. Hostage they hold in captivity and claim she was killed today by Jordanian airstrikes.

The claim is almost impossible to verify and could be nothing more than pure propaganda.  This comes on the heels of ISIS demands of ransom for the Jordanian pilot yet he was killed a month earlier.

Apparently Cotton has had enough with this GITMO as “recruiting propaganda” nonsense.
Fired up, and well done.