Iran-US Relations: Is the US On the Verge of a War with Iran?

Trump: we will help Saudi Arabia
in their struggle against Iran

"The main question is not whether Soleimani is responsible for carnage in the region (he is) or whether he has blood on his hands (he does), but whether Soleimani’s assassination increases or decreases the risk of a wider conflict between Washington and Tehran. Does this strike put American soldiers, diplomats, and citizens in the region at risk?"

The answers are as obvious as the day is long. The strike on Soleimani is a gigantic leap forward on the escalation ladder, a move so dramatic that Iran will be forced to respond. And it will do so at a time and place of its choosing. The 60,000-70,000 U.S. military forces in the Middle East are now all potential targets of Iranian retaliation, the extent to which Washington can’t fully estimate. The State Department’s travel advisory urging all U.S. citizens to leave Iraq immediately is an indication that the Trump administration recognizes that Americans on Iraqi soil could very well be sitting ducks for some kind of violent response.

Note EU-Digest: The Washington Post  reported that several European diplomats said Friday that they were not aware of any warning from Washington ahead of the strike on Soleimani in Baghdad, though the mission was almost certain to increase the security risk for hundreds of European troops and for other European citizens in the region.The Netherlands government advised all its citizens in Iraq to leave the country. Once again as he did with pulling troops out of Syria it shows he does not have any respect for his Allies and the lives of their troops, who have always supported the US, and put their lives at risk. it is high time the EU tells the US Trump Administration that " the party is over", and that they should start fighting their own ridiculous wars around the world.

Read more at: Are We On the Verge of a War with
ran? | The National Interest

CAPITALISM: OIL RICH COUNTRIES AND CAPITLISTIC COUNTRIES ARE WARNED BY UN CONTRACTED SCIENTIST OF IMMINENT CAPITALIST DEMISE

Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism's Imminent Demise

Read more at:
http://flip.it/J2.VCW

EU ASYLUM LAW: EU granted 500,000 people asylum protection in 2017

EU member states as well as Norway, Iceland and Switzerland granted protection status to 538,000 asylum seekers in 2017, according to new data released by Eurostat recently.

Another 24,000 refugees were resettled in the region last year.

Last year's asylum seeker figures represent a 25% drop from 2016, when 710,000 asylum seekers qualified for international protection in the bloc.

Two forms of protection are offered under EU law: refugee status — for people fleeing persecution, and subsidiary protection — for those who face serious harm if they return to their country of origin, and who don’t qualify as refugees. But protection may also be given for humanitarian reasons, such as on grounds of ill health or if the person is an unaccompanied minor.

Around a third of such asylum seekers in Europe came from Syria last year, followed by Afghan citizens (19%) and Iraqis (12%).

Note EU-Digest:The Eurostat figures in this report are not very clear. 

According to the data listed in this re, a third (33.%) of asylum seekers come from Syria, followed by Afghanistan with 19% and Iraq with 12%. Added together 64%. 

Where do the rest of the asylum seekers (36%) come from? 

Probably a large number of them from Africa, who come to Libya by illegal means to make the crossing to Europe. In our  opinion, these are mainly "economic migrants" and not asylum seekers, just as most of them from Afghanistan and Iraq. It is also striking that many of the asylum seekers are young and able men . The EU and the governments of the Member States must, as far as their migrants and asylum policies are concerned do a far better job, Right now it can only be qualified as being barely functional.

READ MORE: EU granted 500,000 people asylum protection in 2017 | Euronews

Kurdistan: It's Time for an Independent Kurdistan - by Stanley Weiss

The dispossessed have become dangerously destabilizing. The overlooked can no longer be overlooked. And what was once a Middle Eastern flashpoint may yet become a safety valve for spiking regional tensions.

It will not be easy, but the uncertainty and plasticity in the region today offers an opportunity to secure a Kurdish homeland and remedy the capricious map-making of the early 20th century. Iraq is threatening to split into the pre-Iraq Sunni, Shia and Kurdish divisions of the Ottoman Empire, with the Kurds semi-independent and the Iran-allied Shiites ruling the Sunnis. Iran’s economy is in free-fall. Syria will soon have no central control and no choice. And while no country is eager to surrender a fifth of its population, Turkey would do well to get ahead of this issue — ending the vicious, ongoing war with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), saving countless lives and positioning themselves to reap the benefits of a long-term strategic alliance to counterbalance Iranian influence. Not to mention, membership in the European Union will forever be out of reach for a Turkey at war with itself.

For proof of what’s possible, look no further than Iraqi Kurdistan, a pro-American, pro-Israel and semi-autonomous parliamentary democracy most Americans have never heard of. Nurtured by an American no-fly zone in the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was established under the Iraqi Constitution in 2005, a stunning testament to the success of Muslim representative government. Of more than 4,800 American soldiers killed in the brutal battles for Iraq, not a single one has lost their life — and no foreigner has been kidnapped — within the borders of Iraqi Kurdistan. Boasting two international airports, a booming oil industry and a dawning respect for the rights of women, this 15,000 square-mile territory of nearly four million Kurds is the one part of President George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” that was actually accomplished.

Building on this unanticipated success, the U.S. should rethink its previous opposition to an independent greater Kurdistan and recognize that the advantages of a friendly, democratic and strategically-positioned ally far outweigh the outdated assumption that the Kurds’ national liberation would result in regional conflagration. At this point, inaction is far more likely to provoke continued regional conflict. Whether that means calling for U.S.-brokered talks with Turkey or a temporary UN peacekeeping force, sanctions or scaled up foreign investment, the U.S. should make every effort to incentivize the consolidation and emergence of a single, stable, secure Kurdish homeland.

After a thousand years of turning a thousand blind eyes, the world can’t keep kicking the Kurdish can down the road. Somewhere along that bloodstained road to Damascus, the region needs to experience this epiphany — and soon. The first major protests in Syria began outside the Ummayad Mosque, Islam’s fourth-holiest site and the location of Saladin’s tomb. Saladin’s descendants, it seems, are on the march once more. These Kurds want to be heard. Will the U.S. - - and the world — listen?

No EU-Digest:Creating an independent Kurdistan, which stretches from the Mediterranean  to Iraq, along the borders of Syria, Turkey, Iran is the only solution to guarantee a lasting peace for countries who presently are opposing the creation of this independent Republic of Kurdistan. 

These include, Iran, Iraq , Syria and Turkey, which all have large local Kurdish populations.   

Once there is an independent Kurdistan, which has the global recognition and legitimacy of an independent state, it will be far easier for specially Turkey to deal with the PKK and other Kurdish factions at home,  by offering local Kurds to either stay or migrate to this new Republic of Kurdistan. A far better proposition than fighting these factions endlessly, which so far have had no results at all. 

The EU could in this case become a key player and broker in this process, together with the Russians and Americans. So far, unfortunately, they have not had the vision and willpower to do so. and made the weapons industry richer by the day

Read more: It's Time for an Independent Kurdistan | HuffPost

Middle East: EU Offers Support after Quake Hits Iran, Iraq

In a message on Monday, November 13,  Mogherini extended condolences to the people and governments of Iran and Iraq over the earthquake, offering the EU’s “support in anyway considered useful”.

At least 348 people have been killed and 6,000 injured in the quake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.

Iranians, fighting time, hurried early Monday to dig out survivors trapped in dozens of collapsed buildings in the quake, whose epicenter was near Halabjah, southeast of Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah.

Hospitals in the western cities of Eslamabad-e-Gharb, Sarpol-e-Zahab, and Qasre-e-Shirin are packed with the injured people as the death toll is expected to rise.

 Read more: EU Offers Support after Quake Hits Iran, Iraq - Tasnim News Agency

Peace and War: Whatever happened to peace? Arms, oil and war by proxy- by Jonas Ecke

When will the killing stop to finance weapons industry

The end of the Cold War was one of the few historical moments in which people around the world looked forward to a future that promised to be more just and peaceful for everyone. The Berlin Wall was finally torn down, following years of tireless civil society activism in one of the world’s few peaceful revolutions. Liberal democratic systems seemed to be spreading everywhere, compelling Francis Fukuyama to craft the (nowadays often-scorned) argument that “The End of History” – and consequently the cessation of constant conflict – had finally arrived with the falling of the Iron Curtain.

The promising world 'peace dividend', a term initially coined by US president George H.W. Bush and UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher, was on everyone’s lips. Hope was in the air. The Soviet Union and United States vowed to work together to further cut down on a nuclear arsenal that could have blown up the world many times over. And they also seemed to be hard at work getting rid of another major – and often underestimated – impediment to peace: proxy wars, the type of war waged in the developing world for most of the Cold War, from Latin America to Central Asia to the Horn of Africa. 

These were wars in which the Soviet Union and US did not directly fight, but paid and favored local fighters, often through highly classified operations and byzantine financial networks that have inspired generations of spy novelists. Before the Cold War, colonial regimes paid local proxies to advance their agendas and “divide and conquer”.

As the Cold War finally came to a close, it was hoped and anticipated that weapon donations would be replaced by UN Peacekeepers and a new generation of NGO activists. Indeed, the new crop of peacemakers seemed to be more liberated. Free from the stifling imperatives of geopolitics, they could implement deals that had previously died prematurely at the conference tables of diplomats, anxious over the advances of an enemy superpower. The tit-for-tat strategies that would reap destruction seemed to be a thing of yesteryear.  

The “War to End all Wars” is a coinage that stems from the First World War. In the global public imagination: the Cold War would be the real “War to End all Wars.” Following its conclusion, an era of enduring peace was within immediate reach. Or so it seemed.

Fast forward 28 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and few such promised realities seem to have materialized. On the contrary, we have entered a new era of proxy wars.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria,Yemen, Somalia etc.

To bring these complex wars to a halt, we have to be very precise about what keeps them going. Saudi Arabia and Iran, probably the two main players in proxy wars in a destabilizaion of the Middle Eastern region that is steadily increasing, fund proxy forces to bolster their versions of Islam—Sunni and Shiite Islam, respectively. It is safe to assume that from the perspective of Riyadh and Teheran, furthering sectarian interests, inextricably intertwined with access to resources and geopolitical influence, are of more importance than peace in the region.

But it is not only sectarian strife—often highlighted in the western media—but also global unregulated capitalism that pours kerosene on a Middle East that is already in flames. 

Western weapon companies see the newly emerging proxy wars as momentous opportunities for increased revenues. During a 2015 conference of Lockheed Martin in Palm Beach Florida, its executive vice president Bruce Tanner predicted “indirect benefits” from the war in Syria. Similarly, as the Intercept reports, Raytheon chief executive Tom Kennedy spoke of “a significant uptick” for “defense solutions across the board in multiple countries in the Middle East.” Referring to Saudi Arabia, Kennedy elaborates, “It’s all the turmoil they have going on, whether the turmoil is occurring in Yemen, whether it’s with the Houthis, whether it’s occurring in Syria or Iraq, with ISIS.” And sure enough, stocks for arms have soared in recent years.

But it is not only weapons but also oil which disincentivizes policy makers from de-escalating proxy wars. As Christopher Davidson, who the Economist called “one of the most knowledgeable academics” writing about the Middle East, shows in his 688-page long tome “Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East,” how many covert operations in the Middle East were historically supported to advance the explicit geopolitical or economic interests of the funders. 

According to Davidson, the emergence of the US as a major oil producer has motivated US policy makers (Trump included) to let Saudi forces engage in exhausting proxy wars throughout the region so that a weakened Saudi Arabia is forced to sell its state assets.

Whatever the precise motivations, aside from the publicly touted humanitarian rationales, oil and weapons play a role in the decisions made by states, even when lives are at stake.

But whatever the argument, the evidence in support of proxy wars as an effective means in the interest of peace is scarce. At least this is the case if one follows the analysis coming from the proverbial mouth of the horse, the CIA. The spy agency has funded proxy fighters for most of its history. 

Reportedly president Obama, at least an initial skeptic in the use of proxies, was interested in finding out if funding insurgents generally accomplish the stated strategic goals and commissioned an internal study.

The report concluded that conflicts were not decided in the interest of the US following the funding of proxy actors, unless, according to the report, US personnel were on the ground along with the proxies. The notable exception—according to the study—was the support for the Mujahidin against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. However, although the Mujahidin did ultimately chase the illegally invading Soviet forces out of the country, Afghanistan did not regain stability. One thing to come out of this instability was the merging of the Mujahidin into Al Qaida: the very same enemy the US fights in the current global 'War on Terror'. 

This is not just one war, but multiple new proxy wars that cause immense suffering and which have, according to the Global Terrorism Index, contributed to an almost nine-fold increase in deaths caused by terrorism between 2000 and 2016. If we consider the entire historical context, the Afghanistan example serves, at best, as a very cautionary tale. 

Tthe Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), demonstrates that 2014 saw an increase in the number of active conflicts and also the casualties from battle. Forty armed conflicts were active in 2014, whereas in 2013 34 conflicts were designated active. The increase in conflicts since 1999 stood at 18 percent. Whatever gains were brought about by the 'peace dividend', they have been reversed, with people all over the world paying the greatest price.

President Donald Trump, by contrast, initially critical of Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy, has stepped up military activities since he took office. For example, drone strikes, an important component in the theater of war in Yemen, have gone up by 432 percent and his $ 110 billion weapons sale to Saudi Arabia also won't help in getting hostilities slowed down.

A new type of vigorous and principled peace movement must be formed in this time of crisis. Peace movements in rich countries should join Middle Eastern peace movements that rally for more democratic and less sectarian governance. Social movements can become stronger by integrating divergent points of view, histories and ideologies, which inform interpretations of complex conflicts. It necessarily has to look at the various internal roots of conflict, and also at how foreign governments, from Moscow and Washington to Riyadh and Teheran, fuel conflicts.

Supporting and holding political platforms accountable will be key to demilitarizing political ideologies and stopping the world in its “ruinous race” to global war, to use the words of Gorbachev. More often than not, a call to arm a party to a conflict prolongs said conflict. 

The public’s immediate question with regards to conflicts probably shouldn’t be “Whom should we support militarily?” Instead, we should more seriously consider questions such as “Who keeps a conflict going?” and “How can we de-escalate it?”

Somehow we the people—who, against all odds, want to raise our children in a more peaceful world—have to let our politicians know that arms should be removed from most regions of conflict.

Far from being out of touch with reality, the global peace movement—though worryingly weakened—in fact holds the most realistic solutions to conflict. Given the data, it is clear that negotiation with the actors in a conflict is the best route to peace. De-escalation is the only framework in tune with the realities of the contemporary world as well as the lessons of recent history. 

We the people have to compel and force if necessary regional and global political forces to work towards de-escalating conflicts. Challenging the financial conglomerates that bring weapons into the hand of proxies may be one of the most effective ways to do so.

Please get out of your comfort zone and act- the future of your children and grand-children are at stake. 

EU-Digest

EU Refugee Crises: Why Are EU Politicians Never Mentioning US Is To Blame For EU Refugee Crises? - by A. Bacevich

The Middle East: From Bad To Worse

‘If you break it, you own it.” Colin Powell’s Pottery Barn Rule, warning George W. Bush of the consequences of invading Iraq, turned out to be dead wrong.

Make that half wrong. Bush broke it — “it” being a swath of the greater Middle East. But the U.S. adamantly refuses to accept anything like ownership of the consequences stemming from Bush’s recklessly misguided acts and you will never hear a European politician openly admit to it.

Not least among those consequences is the crisis that finds refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the Islamic world in search of asylum in the West. The European nations most directly affected have greeted this wave with more hostility than hospitality — Germany, for a time, at least offering a notable exception.

For its part, the U.S. has responded with pronounced indifference. In a gesture of undisguised tokenism, the Obama administration has announced it will admit a grand total of 10,000 Syrians — one-eightieth the number that Germany has agreed to accept this year alone.

No doubt proximity plays a part in explaining the contrast between German and U.S. attitudes. Viewed from Wichita or Walla Walla, the plight of those who hand themselves over to human traffickers in hopes of crossing the Mediterranean plays out at a great distance.

Syria is what Neville Chamberlain would have described as a faraway country of which Americans know nothing (and care less). And Iraq and Afghanistan are faraway countries that most Americans have come to regret knowing.

Such attitudes may be understandable. They are also unconscionable.

To attribute the refugee crisis to any single cause would be misleading. A laundry list has contributed: historical and sectarian divisions within the region; the legacy of European colonialism; the absence of anything even approximating enlightened local leadership able to satisfy the aspirations of people tired of corruption, economic stagnation, and authoritarian rule; the appeal — inexplicable to Westerners — of violent Islamic radicalism. All play a role.

USA: The Creator Of The George Bush Refugee Crises 

Yet when it comes to why this fragile structure collapsed just now we can point to a single explanation — the cascading after-effects of a decision made by Bush during the spring of 2002 to embrace a doctrine of preventative war.

The previous autumn, U.S. forces toppled the government of Afghanistan, punishing the Taliban for giving sanctuary to those who plotted the 9/11 attacks. Bush effectively abandoned Afghanistan to its fate and set out to topple another regime, one that had no involvement whatsoever in 9/11.

For Bush, going after Saddam Hussein’s Iraq formed part of a larger strategy. He and his lieutenants fancied that destroying the old order in the greater Middle East would position the U.S. to create a more amenable new order. Back in 1991, after a previous Iraq encounter, Bush’s father had glimpsed a “new world order.” Now a decade later, the son set out to transform the father’s vision into reality.

The administration called this its Freedom Agenda, which would begin in Iraq but find further application throughout the greater Middle East. Coercion rather than persuasion held the key to its implementation, its plausibility resting on unstoppable military power. For Bush’s inner circle, including Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz (but not Powell), victory was foreordained.

They miscalculated. The unsettled (but largely ignored) condition of Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban already hinted at the extent of that miscalculation. The chaos that descended upon Iraq as a direct result of the U.S. invasion affirmed it. The Freedom Agenda made it as far as Baghdad and there it died.

That Saddam was a brutal tyrant is a given. We need not mourn his departure. Yet while he ruled he at least kept a lid on things. Bush blew off that lid, naively expecting liberal democracy or at least deference to American authority to emerge. Instead, “liberating” Iraq produced conditions conducive to the violent radicalism today threatening to envelop the region.

The Islamic State offers but one manifestation of this phenomenon. Were it not for Bush’s invasion of Iraq, ISIL would not exist — that’s a fact. Responsibility for precipitating the rise of this vile movement rests squarely with Washington.

So rather than cluck over the reluctance of Greeks, Serbs, Hungarians and others to open their borders to those fleeing from the mess the U.S. played such a large part in creating, Americans would do better to engage in acts of contrition.

On the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, former president Bush visited New Orleans, implicitly acknowledging that his administration’s response to that disaster just might have fallen a bit short. It was a handsome gesture. A similar gesture is in order toward the masses fleeing the region into Turkey and Europe.

It’s never too late to say to say you’re sorry. 

Note EU-Digest: as to our own "whimpy" EU politicians, who are supporting these totally failed US Middle East Policies, they ask no questions. 

They continue backing this madness with costly military assistance from the air and on the ground, financed by taxpayers money. 

Why are European Politicians not coming to their senses and develop their own independent foreign policies based on the real needs of the EU.

After all, as the saying goes, "charity begins at home" . 

Read more:  - by Andrew Bacevich The George W. Bush refugees – POLITICO

Middle East: "A call for Peace, Forgiveness and Hope - Not for War but for Love"

While most of us in the more affluent societies around the world are enjoying, praising, and, often also bragging (to friends, family,on social media, etc.), about the pleasures of life this corrupt consumer society has brought us, let us also not forget to pray for those who are suffering and living under unimaginable conditions of despair and hopelessness.

Often, as a result of war, created by political deceit, greed and hypocrisy. Unfortunately, all this terror of war is also often caused by not only their, but also our very own Governments.

 May your prayers, however, not be one for Revenge, but for Peace, Forgiveness and Hope. Not for War. but for Love.

Check out the video: A call for Peace

America’s big blunders: Has everyone forgotten that the Vietnam and Iraq wars were unnecessary, stupid and destructive? - by David Masciotra

tt is always equally nauseating and amusing to see America, an individualistic country, get in touch with its inner Marx and transform into a nation of collectivists whenever discussion of war rises to the level of unavoidable noise pollution. “The pursuit of happiness” mutates into “give your life for your country” with little scrutiny of the nobility or necessity of the military misadventure at hand.

Ever since Donald Trump, in an act of stupidity and indecency now becoming characteristic, spoke ill of the Khan family, whose son died in the Army during the Iraq War, the entire country has communicated a pro-military mindset that papers over the truth regarding America’s foolish and lethal wars in Vietnam and Iraq.

It is basic courtesy and kindness to express sympathy for anyone who has to bury a child, and to demonstrate respect for anyone who suffers injury or dies in war, but in an understandable and natural urge to honor the grief of the Khans, the Democratic Party, major media figures and Republicans desperately trying to distance themselves from the traveling disaster of Donald Trump have dragged out the big, rancid words “service” and “sacrifice.” These words act as censors against honest evaluation of American foreign policy. Throughout the rush to give the Khan family the regard they deserve and that Trump could not offer, it is disturbing to see almost no acknowledgement of the reality that their son, along with 4,485 other Americans, died in a war that should have never taken place. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis also died, and many more sustained life-altering wounds and trauma, but Americans are never much for counting the casualties their country creates, rather than endures.

As much as Trump should apologize to the Khan family for his rude and thoughtless remarks, shouldn’t the architects and administrators of the war that killed Humayun Khan also apologize?

The failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the lack of any operative connection between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda, and the creation of a terrorist playground in place of a once stable, albeit oppressive and miserable, country has led the overwhelming majority of Americans to view the war as a “mistake” and “not worth it.” The Iraq War, like the Vietnam War before it, was unnecessary, stupid and destructive. A rational observer who just awoke from a coma the week before the Democratic Convention would have little awareness of the blunder and crime of the Bush administration, given that for the past week, the entire country has spoken about the optional failure of policy as if it was World War II.

When the words “serve” and “sacrifice” populate political dialogue, it becomes crucial to ask, serve what and sacrifice for what?

Read more: America’s great mistakes: Has everyone forgotten that the Vietnam and Iraq wars were unnecessary, stupid and destructive? - Salon.com

The Netherlands: Dutch MPs visiting Kurdistan assess Netherlands’ part in ISIS war- by Judit Neurink

A Dutch parliamentary delegation visited Erbil, the Kurdish capital this week where they saw the Netherland’s contribution to the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) through helping the Peshmerga forces and whether to decide later this year to extend the mission.

“It is great to see how Dutch military are contributing directly to the fight of the Peshmerga against ISIS,” said Social Democrat parliamentarian Michiel Servaes. “We know that explosives cause most of the victims, so it’s great that in this way you can literally save lives.”

The Netherlands has trained Peshmerga troops and supplied equipment such as radios, bomb disposal equipment, helmets and vests.

Currently Dutch military trainers are training a group of female Kurdish combatants who impressed the MPs on their visit.

Part of the training includes first aid administration. “Again we contribute to save lives, as we hear that too many die for lack of knowledge how to treat the wounded,” Servaes said.

The delegation, representing all but one of the Dutch parties in the parliament, members of the Foreign Affairs and Defence committees, met with different Kurdish high officials and visited the Kurdistan parliament.

A trip to Baghdad was cancelled because of the ongoing unrest and the storing of the Iraqi parliament by protestors.

The delegation was told by their Kurdish hosts that it takes too long for the Dutch military help especially bomb disposal equipment to reach the troops, Joel Voordewind of the Christian Union stated. “They waited six months for the radios to arrive. And for the explosive’s clearing materials, recently a tender has been published, while we know that some seventy percent of the wounded are the result of those devises.”

Servaes explained that they were in Kurdistan to see the work of the Dutch military mission a year after the parliamentary defense committee decided to send deploy them to the war against ISIS by helping local forces.

The delegation found the outcome of the mission’s work satisfactory and will decide whether it will be extended.

Servaes of the Social Democrats said meanwhile, that as the Kurdish forces have reversed the initial ISIS advance and the group weakened, it is time to start thinking about after ISIS.

“The Kurds are almost done against ISIS, and there are signs ISIS is internally collapsing. We have to think how to prevent a vacuum,” he said. “We have to change over to stabilisation policies, to make the recaptured areas liveable again, especially for the Sunni communities. So that we will not have another ISIS.”

This, he said, includes solving the continued disputes between Erbil and Baghdad as well as internal Kurdish political impasse. “I think internationally the pressure should be increased on Baghdad to break the impasse.”

“I gave off the message, that although the Kurds do justly get support from the international community, they must realise that they should focus on internal issues too, like the expired term of Kurdish president and keeping Goran from the political process.” Servaes added.

The Dutch delegation told the Kurdish government that they recognize the external threat posed to the region, but in the meantime it was important for Kurdish parties to “put their act together” in order for the international support to continue.



Read more: Dutch MPs visiting Kurdistan assess Netherlands’ part in ISIS wa

Middle East: Netherlands probing civilian deaths in air strikes against ISIS in Iraq

he Netherlands is probing two incidents in which civilians may have been killed or injured in air strikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the government has said.

"Two incidents in which there may have been possible civilian casualties are being investigated in around 1,300 missions carried out by the Netherlands," The Hague-based government said in a letter to parliament late on Saturday.

Citing "operational reasons", the Defence Ministry said neither details of the incidents nor the probe are being made public.

The probe was prompted by a raft of  questions raised by lawmakers in parliament on the Netherlands' role in the fight against IS after The Hague announced last month it would  expand air operations into Syria.

Read more: Netherlands probing civilian deaths in air strikes against ISIS in Iraq

Turkey: Iraq demands Turkey withdraw troopsfrom its territory

Iraq appealed Friday to the UN Security Council to demand that Turkey remove its troops from northern Iraq, calling the incursion a "flagrant violation" of international law.

"We call on the Security Council to demand that Turkey withdraw its forces immediately ... and not to violate Iraqi sovereignty again," Iraqi Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said in a letter to the Security Council.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, who this month holds the rotating presidency, said the letter was being taken seriously.

"There's growing alarm from the Iraqi government," Power said. "Any troop deployment must have the consent of the Iraqi government."

Read More: Iraq demands Turkey withdraw troops | News | DW.COM | 12.12.2015

Paris Massacre: It's not only a "war on terrorism" but also a war on "political hypocrisy" - by RM

The tragic events in Paris are deplorable, but when you listen to the comments of the politicians, or most of the corporate controlled press, very few are focusing on the real reasons behind this ongoing  tragedy..Is it maybe that the root of the problem lies in the failure of the political establishment to accept failure and change course.?

In a way, it is quite simple. Anyone who has a bit of a brain and has been watching the developments in the Middle East over the past  20 years will be able to recognize that the result of this disaster really is the totally failed Western foreign policy in that region. .

Unfortunately even though the real culprits of this failed policy - based on lies and greed - are known - for some reason the facts are usually covered up.  Why are Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Tony Blair., still enjoying a comfortable life, instead of being locked up for war crimes and misleading the public about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and for leading the so called "coalition of the willing" -  which really should have been called "a coalition of the dimwits", - into a war, which basically destroyed the social and cultural structure of Iraq. A war, which also probably lies at the origin of the creation of ISIS. 

The political hypocrisy, however, continues unabated. 

Just look at the reasons politicians give us today when it comes to our ongoing friendship with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel. United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.. Terrorism, in this case, is the keyword  used for their smoke screen, and the cover-up of  the real problems. Right wing politicians even go one step further and blame it all on either the influx of refugees or the Islamization of Europe.

Don't get misled by your politicians or Government. Keep asking  the critical questions and vote them out of office when they avoid telling the truth.

Therefore as is stated in 1 Thessalonians 5. - "Test everything - hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil".

EU-Digest

EU - Middle East: ISIS Defectors Reveal Frustration Over Corruption, Atrocities and Sunni Infighting - by Jack Moore

An increasing number of ISIS fighters are becoming disillusioned with the group and defecting from its ranks, according to a new study published on Monday. Furthermore, Western governments should protect these defectors from reprisals and legal "disincentives" to encourage them to speak out about the group, the study says.

A report published by the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) at King's College London, entitled Victims, Perpetrators, Assets: The Narratives of Islamic State Defectors, argues that governments and activists should "recognize the value and credibility" of defectors speaking out against the group and should assist in their "resettlement" and "safety."

The jihadi monitoring think tank, which has tracked foreign fighters traveling to and from the terror group's self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria, has recorded 58 defectors in total but says that these only "represent a small fraction" of the total number as there are many more who are unwilling to come forward for fear of reprisals or imprisonment.

Read more: ISIS Defectors Reveal Frustration Over Corruption, Atrocities and Sunni Infighting: Study

Wanted Dead or Alive: ISIS' Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi profiled - by Pamela Engel

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,

The world knows little of the Islamic State terror group's brutal leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but a new article from counterterrorism expert Will McCants provides one of the most extensive accounts yet of his background.

McCants, director of the Project on US Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution, wrote an upcoming book on the Islamic State — aka ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh — and researched Baghdadi's life to explain his rise to become one of the most wanted terrorists in the world.

Since Baghdadi became the self-proclaimed "caliph" of ISIS in 2014, he has only appeared in public once, at a mosque in Mosul, Iraq. He was rumored to have died in an air strike earlier this year, but ISIS subsequently released a statement from him along with proof that he was still alive.

Even with new information about his life tricking out in the press, Baghdadi — aka Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Al-Badri — remains a mysterious and reclusive figure.

Click on the link below to know more about his background, as laid out by McCants in his Brookings essay.

Read more: ISIS' Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi profiled - Business Insider

European Migrant Disaster: EU commission says "Worst migration crisis since WWII" - by Mo Ahmad

The European Union says the scale of migration, driven by war, disaster and poverty in Middle East and North Africa, has no parallel since the end of World War II.

So far Italy and Greece have borne the brunt of the emergency in the EU, while Turkey is already coping with housing more than a million refugees.

Greece recently  sent a ship to the resort island of Kos to speed up the registration of hundreds of Syrian refugees following mounting tensions over a huge influx of new arrivals.

While in Italy the situation was not much better. “We were faced with a very emotional scene”, Commander Massimo Tozzi, told the Italian news agency AGI, describing how some bodies were floating on the water. Three hundred and nineteen people, including a dozen women and children, were saved, according to Massimo Tozzi, commander of the rescue patrol.

Nearly 400 other migrants were picked up in the Mediterranean Saturday August 15 by other vessels taking part in the EU’s patrol and rescue operation, Triton.

The Corriere della Sera newspaper revealed that the migrants who lost their lives were in the hold of the vessel. When the sailors got on they discovered the bodies.

“Either the global community is able to resolve the Libyan question, or today’s (migrant tragedy) won’t be the last”, Alfano said.

Survivors of the hazardous crossing from Libya often tell of how traffickers lock migrants in the hold who pay less for the voyage – mostly black Africans.

“The human smugglers have found that road and flows of migrants have been growing, which is a cause of concern”, he said.

UNHCR European Director, Vincent Cochetel, has said facilities on the Greek islands are “totally inadequate”.

“There is still no care being provided for the refugees”, Vangelis Orfanoudakis said. The two fishermen filming the footage can be heard saying there are “many migrants” on the boat. The number is a little less in Italy, where 102,000 migrants have made the journey.

But after the precarious boat trip to Kos and sleeping rough on the streets, a young Syrian man, Anas, who is travelling to Athens with his daughter, feared more hardship was to come.

“Then when the Greeks saw what happened, they decided to pull us out of the water and bring us to land…” The ship is expected to speed up the registration process of about 7,000 refugees who are stranded on the Kos island.

Almost a quarter of a million migrants have crossed the narrow stretch of water from Turkey in small boats and dinghies to Europe this year, according to the worldwide Organization for Migration.

Note EU-Digest: the EU Commission and EU member states better get their act together on solving this crises which has the potential to result in a variety of serious consequences. It should also acknowledge and remedy the fact that this Middle East exodus of refugees to the EU is a direct result of a totally failed Western US led Middle East policy, which goes back many years and is only getting worse.


Read more: EU commission: Worst migration crisis since WWIIPress Examiner

Middle East - US launches first manned strikes on IS group from Turkey

The U.S. on Wednesday August  12  launched its first airstrikes by Turkey-based F-16 fighter jets against Islamic State targets in Syria, marking a limited escalation of a yearlong air campaign that critics have called excessively cautious.

In a brief statement the Pentagon announced the F-16 strikes were launched from Incirlik air base in southern Turkey but provided no details on the number or types of targets struck. It did not say how many of the six F-16s now based at Incirlik were used in the initial strikes.

Earlier this month the U.S. began flying armed drones from Incirlik, but the F-16 flights add a new dimension to the air campaign, in part because of the added risk to pilots who might encounter Syrian or other air defenses.

Pentagon officials have said the main advantage of using Incirlik is its proximity to Islamic State targets in northern Syria, although a senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday that the F-16s may also be used on missions over Iraq. The official was not authorized to discuss F-16 mission details publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Most U.S. aerial combat missions over Iraq and Syria are being flown from more distant air bases in Qatar and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf region, although the U.S. also is flying F-16s from Muwaffaq Salti air base in Jordan.

Read more: Middle East - US launches first manned strikes on IS group from Turkey - France 24

British Labour Leader Ed Miliband's Easter message highlights persecuted Christians in Syria and Iraq - by Ruth Gledhill

Ed Miliband

British Labour leader Ed Miliband has used his Easter message to express his concerns for the fate of persecuted Christians around the world.

The brief and to-the-point seasonal message of Miliband, an atheist, contrasts with the overtly Christian offerings from Conservative politicians such as David Cameron and Michael Gove.

Miliband says he is looking forward to sharing the weekend with his family in Doncaster, where he was MP for Doncaster North until Parliament was dissolved at the end of March.

"In the midst of the Easter celebrations our hearts goes out to those who face difficult times both overseas and closer to home. My thoughts are particularly with Christians in Syria, Iraq and other countries where the church suffers terrible persecution," he wrote.

Miliband cites statistics from the International Society for Human Rights which state that Christians are the victims of 80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today.

"We must all do everything we can to speak out against this evil and work to alleviate the suffering of those who are persecuted simply for their creed," he says.

"But we don't need to travel far to find families facing fear and uncertainty. Over two million children are now living in poverty in the UK. I have admiration for those church members and Christian charities that provide support and hope to those in need."

Noting that over the Easter weekend millions of Christians will attend Easter services and events up and down the country, he acknowledges that through such gatherings, the church shares the story of the resurrection, and spreads the good news of Easter.

"In the months to come I hope that we will all stand up for justice, serve the most vulnerable and work to positively transform our communities together."
 
Read more: Ed Miliband's Easter message highlights persecuted Christians in Syria and Iraq | Christian News on Christian Today

Middle East : Iraq - Islamic State thugs destroy Iraq's ancient city of Hatra

The Islamic State group has destroyed the ancient Iraqi fortress city of Hatra, Kurdish and Iraqi officials said Saturday, just two days after "bulldozing" the ruins of Nimrud and weeks after smashing artefacts in the Mosul museum.

Speaking from Mosul, Kurdistan Democratic Party official Said Mamuzini told the Kurdish news site Rudaw that militants from the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, had begun looting and destroying the site with shovels
.
"The city of Hatra is very big and many artefacts of that era were protected inside the site,” he said. “ISIS has already taken away all the ancient currencies from the city that are in gold and silver."
Iraqi officials from the tourism and antiquities ministry confirmed the reports.

Read more: Middle East - Islamic State militants destroy Iraq's ancient city of Hatra - France 24

Terrorism:"Jihadi John’ Whose Real Name is Mohammed Emwazi Wanted Dead or Alive

Wanted Mohammed Emwazi alias Jihadi John dead or alive

The world knows him as “Jihadi John,” the masked man with a British accent who has beheaded several hostages held by the Islamic State and who taunts audiences in videos circulated widely online.

But his real name, according to friends and others familiar with his case, is Mohammed Emwazi, a Briton from a well-to-do family who grew up in West London and graduated from college with a degree in computer programming.
 dead or alive.

He is believed to have traveled to Syria around 2012 and to have later joined the Islamic State, the group whose barbarity he has come to symbolize.

 The families of hostages killed by ISIL have been reacting to the naming of a British militant who fronted some of the beheading videos.

Will Mohammed Emwazi be killed, captured by the people chasing him or has his discovery become a liability for ISIS who will execute him themselves - or is this all a hoax - lets not hope so.

Some are calling for Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, to be caught alive to face justice.

The Kuwaiti-born man first appeared in a video in 2013 showing the murder of US journalist James Foley.

The victim’s mother, Diane Foley, told reporters: “He (Emwazi) did have the benefits of a comfortable upbringing and yet he’s using gifts and talents for such hatred and brutality.”

EU-Digest