Fallujah has fallen: City once held by U.S. Marines now controlled by al Qaeda

BAGHDAD — The head of police in Iraq’s Anbar province says the city center of Fallujah has fallen completely into the hands of fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and Levant.

Hadi Razeij, head of the Anbar police force, said police had left the city center entirely and had positioned themselves on the edge of town.

He said on Arabic language broadcaster al-Arabiya: “The walls of the city are in the hands of the police force, but the people of Fallujah are the prisoners of ISIL.”

Fallujah, along with nearby provincial capital Ramadi, were strongholds of Sunni insurgents during the U.S.-led war. Al Qaeda militants largely took them over earlier this week.


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/4/fallujah-has-fallen-iraqi-city-once-held-us-marine/#ixzz2pTzciDSq
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That makes you so happy doesn't it.   

It would have made me happier if I had not read the story.

"General Motors is alive, and Bin Laden is Dead"

(I read that somewhere).

  


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Fallujah has fallen?

U.S. Marine families are grieving a second time, suffering again under a President who once wrote,

"I will stand with the Muslims".

  

News Hawk wrote:Fallujah has fallen?

U.S. Marine families are grieving a second time, suffering again under a President who once wrote,

"I will stand with the Muslims".

  

They died for nothing!

A resurgence of violence and advances by al Qaeda fighters in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon is providing new evidence undermining White House claims that the terrorist group is on the run and prompting fresh scrutiny of President Obama's decision not to leave a residual level of troops in Iraq.

Faced with news that al Qaeda fighters had taken control of the city of Fallujah in Iraq's Anbar province and were fighting against Syrian rebels they had previously joined, U.S. officials Monday pledged support to the Iraqi government while committing very few American resources to the task.

Top White House and State Department officials on Monday put much of the onus for sorting out the sectarian violence and divisions on the Iraqis, even as they pledged limited military support — additional weapons but no troops — to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

“This is something for the Iraqis to take the lead on and handle themselves,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said, quickly adding, “That doesn't mean we cannot assist them.”

Carney was echoing Secretary of State John Kerry's statements over the weekend that Iraq's growing al Qaeda problem is “their fight.”

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Monday the U.S. is “standing with” the Iraqi government in this fight and is planning to accelerate its supply of Hellfire missiles as “early as this spring,” adding to the 75 it already provided in December. In the coming weeks, the U.S. also will hand over 10 surveillance drones and 48 more by the end of the year, she said.

But Harf made it clear that the administration viewed the spiraling violence in Iraq and Syria as mainly an Iraqi problem to solve.

“When we left Iraq at the end of 2011, Iraq had an opportunity and they still have an opportunity to move away from violence, to choose their future,” she said.


Washington Examiner

To The grieving Marine families—and to Iraqis—Obama has become Pontius Pilate!

  


While we become...
Detroit...

fshnski wrote:A resurgence of violence and advances by al Qaeda fighters in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon is providing new evidence undermining White House claims that the terrorist group is on the run and prompting fresh scrutiny of President Obama's decision not to leave a residual level of troops in Iraq.

Faced with news that al Qaeda fighters had taken control of the city of Fallujah in Iraq's Anbar province and were fighting against Syrian rebels they had previously joined, U.S. officials Monday pledged support to the Iraqi government while committing very few American resources to the task.

Top White House and State Department officials on Monday put much of the onus for sorting out the sectarian violence and divisions on the Iraqis, even as they pledged limited military support — additional weapons but no troops — to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

“This is something for the Iraqis to take the lead on and handle themselves,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said, quickly adding, “That doesn't mean we cannot assist them.”

Carney was echoing Secretary of State John Kerry's statements over the weekend that Iraq's growing al Qaeda problem is “their fight.”

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Monday the U.S. is “standing with” the Iraqi government in this fight and is planning to accelerate its supply of Hellfire missiles as “early as this spring,” adding to the 75 it already provided in December. In the coming weeks, the U.S. also will hand over 10 surveillance drones and 48 more by the end of the year, she said.

But Harf made it clear that the administration viewed the spiraling violence in Iraq and Syria as mainly an Iraqi problem to solve.

“When we left Iraq at the end of 2011, Iraq had an opportunity and they still have an opportunity to move away from violence, to choose their future,” she said.


Washington Examiner

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Bush left Obama with a post-surge Iraq where AQ had been decimated and kicked out of Anbar Province.

Obama messed it up.

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Weakness invites aggression.
-—Donald Rumsfeld






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The US is increasing "boots on the ground" to over 1000!

This lesson in history appeared at Twitter:



The combat mission in Iraq is over?




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