(Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday authorized the U.S. military to deploy up to 1,500 additional troops to help train and advise Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State militants, the White House said.

The White House will ask Congress for $5.6 billion for the operations in Iraq and Syria, which includes $1.6 billion for the new “Iraq Train and Equip Fund,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said.  (link)

Gee, you mean other than the Kurds the administration can’t actually locate the Syrian “moderates”?  Ya don’t say…

(CNSNews.com) – An Islamist rebel group that has been fighting both the Assad regime and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) said Thursday that its base in western Syria had been targeted in an overnight U.S. airstrike.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, made the same claim about a strike on the headquarters of Ahrar al-Sham in Idlib province. (more…)

Somehow I doubt Samantha Power, Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton thought things out this far…  Just a hunch.

(Via Front Page Mag) A new generation of the Libyan army was supposed to be trained in the West as part of international efforts to rebuild the country after the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi. Hand-picked recruits were invited to rural England for basic infantry and junior command training.

On Tuesday, however, the British Ministry of Defense announced that all 300 trainees would be sent home early after a string of sexual assaults were perpetrated against the residents of Cambridgeshire, culminating in the alleged gang rape of a young man.[…]
Two of the recruits have admitted to two sexual assaults and a bicycle theft in Market Square right at the center of the old town. They also pleaded guilty to threatening a police office. Another cadet, aged 18, has been charged with three sexual assaults.
In total, police have investigated reports of 11 sexual assaults in central Cambridge within nine days. (more…)

It is well known and accepted in international circles that President Obama’s BFF is President Recep Erdogan of Turkey.
It is also reasonably accepted that Erdogan is a Sunni Islamist and power thirsty Marxist who views his job to resurrect the ottoman empire.
Those of you who have followed our research into the psyche and ideology of Erdogan might be interested in the newly finished palace he built for himself.
At a cost of over $500,000,000.00 (£384,000,000.00) and boasting 1,000 rooms covering a total floor area of 3.1 million square feet, the palace is four times the size of Versailles, allowing Mr Erdogan to exceed the residential grandeur of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” of France.

Inside the palace, a majestic hallway leads up to a sweeping staircase. The quixotic architectural style seems to cross the Ottoman and Seljuk traditions with that of a modern Chinese railway station.  (see more pics and details)

LIBYA – Dozens of residents of a town in eastern Libya have pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of Islamic State militants fighting in Syria and Iraq, according to a video and a resident.
Around 50 young people could be seen in a video posted on social media gathering in Derna to support Baghdadi, who calls himself “caliph”, or Muslim leader, of Islamic State, an Al Qaeda offshoot.

A Derna resident confirmed the authenticity of the video, taken late on Friday. (more…)

Almost worse than my severe disdain for President Obama’s short-sighted political decisions, is my supernova level dislike for the U.S. media who refuse to call him to task.... almost.   To retain my own personal sense of center I have tried to remove the word “hate” from my psyche, but it’s hard, really, really hard, right now…. can you just imagine the Fallujah ROE with Obama coordinating from the White House! 

(h/t Weasel Zippers – Via Hot Air) Fallujah. Ramadi. Haditha. Americans know the names of the cities and assets in Iraq’s Anbar Province well. Their liberation was paid for in American blood. […]
“U.S. advisers currently operate in areas around Baghdad and Irbil in the north of the country,” CNN reported. “The new proposal would put U.S. troops in the middle of some of the most violent situations in Iraq.”

U.S. officials maintain that Iraqi support for Sunni tribes going on the offensive against ISIS will be a necessary part in the effort to defeat the militants, who are also called ISIL and refer to themselves as the Islamic State.
In a news conference with reporters Thursday, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Joint Chiefs chairman, signaled the possibility of the new role when he said the Iraqi government had not yet requested U.S. military support in efforts to defend a Sunni tribe that has suffered mass executions at the hands of ISIS militants.

“That’s why we need to expand the train-advise-and-assist mission into the Al- Anbar Province,” Dempsey said. “But the precondition for that is that the government of Iraq is willing to arm the tribes. […] (more…)

WASHINGTON – Deputy National Security Adviser and MFA in creative writing Ben Rhodes likened an Iranian nuclear deal to Obamacare in a talk to progressive activists last January, according to audio obtained by the Washington Free Beacon (below).
The remarks, made at a since-discontinued regular meeting of White House personnel and representatives of liberal interest groups, reveal the importance of a rapprochement with Iran to President Obama, who is looking to establish his legacy as his presidency enters its lame-duck phase.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/174586449″ params=”color=ff5500″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
(more…)

For all intents and purposes Libya is the forgotten mess created by President Obama’s team and their insufferable incompetence.   Perhaps a time will surface when someone in the Western media will actually call Obama or Hillary Clinton to account for the mess they have created, but it doesn’t seem likely.

Imagine if Islamists were raging a power struggle throughout Canada while a Russian armed civil war was taking place in Mexico ~ imagine the position of our country in the face of such a problem.  That’s the analogy to a situation faced by Egypt as a consequence of our 2011 action, ISIS in Syria (with their eyes on Jordan), and neighboring Libya simultaneously in a civil war.
It’s easy to cast aspersions to the heavy-handed decision making of Fatah el-Sisi as he deals with the Sinai highway between Hamas (East) and the Muslim Brotherhood factions, which include ISIS, (West) along his borders with Gaza and Libya respectively.

President Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Susan Rice and Samantha Power deconstructed the governing authority of Libya under the auspices of a “Responsibility to Protect“.   All of those “good intentions” went to a land of perpetual FUBAR once Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed and it all, well, needed to be brushed under the proverbial rug. (more…)

YOU BREAK IT – YOU OWN IT

ISIS is active in Libya under the new assembly of “Libyan Dawn”; a collective of groups formerly within the various islamist Libyan Fighting Groups.  ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood financed, supported and evolved the various militia factions into this central body, Libyan Dawn, to defeat the extremely weak Libyan National Government.

Libya – Factional warfare in Libya is pushing the oil producer “very close to the point of no return”, the UN special envoy to the country said on Tuesday with efforts to bring about a ceasefire and political dialogue showing no result.
The death toll from two weeks of street fighting between pro-government forces and Islamist armed groups in the eastern city of Benghazi has risen to 170, medics said. Seven people were killed alone on Tuesday, 15 on Monday.
The North African country has had two governments and parliaments since a militia group from the western city of Misrata seized the capital Tripoli in August, setting up its own cabinet and assembly. (more…)

Last week a U.S. journalist, Serena Shim, was murdered in Turkey for exposing the truth of Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan allowing and facilitating ISIS militants going to and from Turkey into strategic positions around Kobane (Kobani).
Now an independent journalist team have used video to show Turkish police and military meeting with ISIS militants on the Turkish border.

Obviously the brutal reality of this expose’ is dangerous to Erdogan’s deceptive claims to the contrary. (more…)