BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE
CHELSEA CLINTON, FAMOUS FOR BEING IF NOT FOR HAVING DONE, TOOK SPOILED RICH GIRL TO NEW HEIGHTS AS SHE ATTACKED SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS.
OF COURSE, SHE DID NOT A THING SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT.
IN FACT, AS BLONDE MOMENTS GO, IT'S RIGHT UP THERE WITH JESSICA SIMPSON PONDERING WHETHER STARKIST TUNA WAS CHICKEN OR TUNA.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
"ISIS has gained affiliates faster than al Qaeda ever did," Mike Morell declared today. "From nothing a year ago, there are militant groups in nearly 20 countries that has sworn allegiance to ISIS."
The former CIA deputy director was speaking before the House Armed Services Committee.
The Committee Chair is US House Rep Mac Thornberry and US House Rep Loretta Sanchez was the Acting Ranking Member for the hearing. Along with Morell, also appearing before the Committee was the former Under Secretary of Defense Michael Vickers and former US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford.
The focus of the hearing?
Acting Ranking Member Loretta Sanchez; The influence of ISIL is spreading. I think we have to -- we have to get our heads around that and we also see other extremist groups that are beginning to align or coordinate with ISIL from North Africa and that is a problem. So in general, I would say that the international community, the US, Democrats, Republicans, we're trying to really grapple with how we define, how we handle, what is the best way in which we defeat this evolving situation of ISIL and aligned groups.
Sanchez repeatedly stressed the need for a strategy to confront the Islamic State -- a clearly defined one.
In plain speak: Where's the plan?
Today, the US Defense Dept announced:
Strikes in Iraq
Fighter and bomber aircraft conducted 19 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:
-- Near Baghdadi, one strike cratered three ISIL-used roads.
-- Near Habbaniyah, one strike destroyed an ISIL bridge and denied ISIL access to terrain.
-- Near Mosul, eight strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and an ISIL cash distribution center and destroyed two ISIL command-and-control nodes, an ISIL tactical vehicle, and 20 ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Qayyarah, one strike destroyed an ISIL command-and-control node and destroyed six ISIL staging areas.
-- Near Huwayjah, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Kisik, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL light machine gun, two ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle, and an ISIL assembly area.
-- Near Ramadi, two strikes destroyed an ISIL vehicle bomb, two ISIL front end loaders, and denied ISIL access to terrain.
-- Near Sultan Abdallah, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Tal Afar, one strike destroyed an ISIL-used bridge.
Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.
Since August 2014, US President Barack Obama's answer has been?
To drop bombs on Iraq.
Two months prior, he had insisted publicly that the only answer to Iraq's crises was a political solution.
But he quickly shoved that aside.
His focus has been on bombing and more bombing.
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
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