POWs ?

If the civil war has resulted in an opposition force that is depleted, Ukraine has the option to offer them amnesty if they surrender their weapons and end the assault.

Allow them to return to their families and perhaps even a job. They can resume a normal life while pledging their loyalties to a free country.

Russian communists certainly know how to be regimented.

I didn't notice the Ukraine Civl War was over. Sending supplies to an opposition force is supporting them. If the opposition force in the Ukraine civil war needs this much in the way of supplies, they can't be in very good condition at this point. But, according to some reports the trucks have been hijacked within Russia. Scary. 

2000 deaths is not a minor issue. Russia needs to bring their involvement to an end. Supply the opposition forces doesn't seem to be the right path for these people. There should be clear communication between the parties to end this conflict. It isn't going to achieve anything.

Trucks of Russian humanitarian convoy wait at the location outside Voronezh some 400 km outside Moscow Photo: AFP/Getty Images

August 13, 2014
By Roland Oliphant
Moscow

Ukraine (click here) accused Moscow of mounting a cynical attempt to incite a pro-Russian rebellion on Wednesday, as uncertainty surrounded a 262-truck "aid convoy" that appeared to grind to a halt before reaching the border.

The stand-off came as violence worsened in eastern Ukraine, with the United Nations announcing that the death toll in the four-month conflict had doubled in the past two weeks to more than 2,000.

Government forces are seeking to press their advantage against the pro-Russian rebels, which has stoked fears that the aid convoy is part of a Russian plan to fend off the rebels' seemingly inevitable defeat.

"The level of Russian cynicism knows no bounds," said Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Ukrainian prime minister. "First they send tanks, Grad missiles and bandits who fire on Ukrainians – and then they send water and salt."

Arsen Avakov, Ukraine's interior minister, had said the "Putinist" convoy would not pass, calling it a "provocation by a cynical aggressor"....

Typical Mind Speak

The consulates in Erbil and elsewhere need to be evacuated now. In the past when the USA troops conducted humanitarian aid it wasn't in a war zone. They really think we were only born yesterday and naive to all the lies.

Haiti - earthquake

Thailand - earthquake and tsunami

August 12, 2014
By Luis Martinez and and Elisa Widerlite Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (click here) has announced that the United States has sent a new 130 member military assessment team to Erbil in northern Iraq to determine what further assistance the U.S. can provide in easing the humanitarian crisis of thousands of Yazidis trapped at Mount Sinjar.   For now, the United States has provided five airdrops of food and water to the Yazidis and conducted 18 airstrikes targeting ISIS fighters  surrounding the mountain or who were approaching Erbil....

This is NOT a humanitarian effort. It is seeking to protect people from death because there is a civil war.

This is an acceptable definition of Humanitarian Aid: Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster.

The Yazidis need to get to a refugee camp. That is a combat mission and has absolutely nothing to do with humanitarian aid. How do I know this? It has been all over the television. Bullets, helicopters and where the two meet that is a war.

...The new deployment to Erbil will raise to 935 the number of U.S. military personnel now in Iraq, including 100 who were already in Iraq serving at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad....

Sixty days after the first deployment there is additional deployments. Is there absolutely no one able to give an assessment from the Kurds to Turkey? No one? Only a USA military deployment is sufficient enough to determine the need for MORE USA military deployments I suppose.

Specialist Christopher Conner smiles with Specialist Dante Battle (R) as their Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle approaches the Kuwaiti border with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division as part of the last U.S. military convoy to leave Iraq December 18, 2011. The last convoy of U.S. soldiers pulled out of Iraq on Sunday, ending nearly nine years of war that cost almost 4,500 American and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives and left a country still grappling with political uncertainty.

December 18, 2011
By Joseph Logan

The last convoy of U.S. soldiers (click here) pulled out of Iraq on Sunday, ending nearly nine years of war that cost almost 4,500 American and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives, and left a country grappling with political uncertainty.

The war launched in March 2003 with missiles striking Baghdad to oust President Saddam Hussein closes with a fragile democracy still facing insurgents, sectarian tensions and the challenge of defining its place in an Arab region in turmoil.

As U.S. soldiers pulled out, Iraq's delicate power-sharing deal for , Sunni and Kurdish factions was already under pressure. The Shi'ite-led government asked parliament to fire the Sunni deputy prime minister, and security sources said the Sunni vice president faced an arrest warrant....

Let's see, the Former VA Secretary stated in order to carry out an effective invasion it would take 200,000 troops. At the rate Obama is going sending 1000 troops every 60 days it will take about 4 years to redeploy an effective force.

The CLUE in December 2011 was that the USA was leaving. It meant the former Iraq military was suppose to take up the protection of it's sovereignty. Guess what? It didn't happen. No more Iraq. Try and get your minds around that. National building doesn't work. I suppose Obama and Kerry are now the geniuses of all geniuses, right?

We don't belong in Iraq.

We never did.

By Josh Voorhees...
The advisers are Marines and Special Operations Forces, (click here) according to the Defense Department. They were sent to the Kurdish capital of Erbil to assess the situation in the Sinjar area, where thousands of displaced Yazidis have been stranded with little food or water by the Sunni extremists fighting under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. But while Hagel echoed President Obama's weekend promise that there would be no new U.S. combat operations in Iraq, senior officials were quietly suggesting that that might not be exactly the case....

The Marines are the first to be sent in when a war theater is to be opened. Now, we have 1000 troops in a hostile land that are the targets of extremists both in some strange new militant organization and within the ranks of the fragments left over from the once Iraqi military. If a country can't defend it's borders it is no longer sovereign. Perhaps, Baghdad can declare it's own sovereignty while the rest of the land rearranges borders. Baghdad today is the ONLY area that resembles pre-Iraqi surrender. Basically, Baghdad is a dead ender.

Nation building doesn't work and Baghdad is not a nation and is the only fragment left from the former Iraq. There is no Iraqi military. It isn't as though they just need munitions, THEY NEED TROOPS!!!!!!!!!!

It is over in Iraq. The USA military is not going back to TRY AGAIN to build a country out of NOTHING!
August 12, 2014
By Jonathan Topaz

After remaining quiet (click here) about recent U.S military action in Iraq, Sen. Rand Paul, whose foreign policy views have ignited a debate within the Republican Party, says he has “mixed feelings” about the American airstrikes.

The Kentucky Republican, who has come under fire within the GOP for what has been called his isolationist approach, noted that many supporters of strikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants also called for airstrikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime last year.

“I have mixed feelings about it,” the senator said Monday evening of the recent strikes against ISIL targets. “I’m not saying I’m completely opposed to helping with arms or maybe even bombing, but I am concerned that ISIS is big and powerful because we protected them in Syria for a year. Do you know who also hates ISIS and who is bombing them? Assad, the Syrian government.”

Troops out now!

So they are called personnel now, huh?

Military personnel are being sent to northern Iraq to assess the scope of the humanitarian mission for the thousands of Yezidi minority trapped on Mt Sinjar by the ISIL. (Source: AP)

...These military personnel, (click here) comprising of Marines and special operations forces, are being sent to northern Iraq to assess the scope of the humanitarian mission and develop additional humanitarian assistance options beyond the current airdrop effort in support of displaced Iraqi civilians trapped on Sinjar Mountain by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, according to a defense official....

Oh, yeah it's temporary. The temporary PERSONNEL sent 60 days ago are still there.

The thing is this. The USA is running into the very same problem as the community in the Baghdad gated community; they can't and/or won't cross the desert because the militants have USA munitions and tanks.

The only PERSONNEL that can do anything at this point are the PERSONNEL with fighter jet back up. Guess who that is? Guess where they come from?

The leadership in Baghdad isn't going to make a bit of difference. They are behind blast walls and willing to wait it out forever. What is difference about this than any other figure head government the USA has called legitimate? Karzai has been a figure head government since the first days of October 2001. BUT. He and Bush found that government legitimate since the early days forward for 13 flyin' years. Thirteen years of American money and military. Those Photo Ops go along way, don't they?

The Shi'ites in West Iran need to continue to build up their military with sophisticated weapons and training from Iran. The USA set them free and now they better make good use of it and stay free and autonomous.

The Kurds need to continue their military approach to their borders. They should be recruiting all those willing to fight their war for sovereignty, BUT, NO CHILDREN. The children are the next generation of leaders and they should be in school and those old enough should be at the university in a country that will SPONSOR them.

An Albar will take care of itself because it's western borders are that of Saudi Arabia.

The best the USA can do is destroy all the tanks, humvees and stores of munitions currently used by militants using those PERSONNEL with jet fighters. It is called bombs. Kindly remember there are innocent people within those lands, so get rid of them in majority of ability to do so and forget the equipment too entrenched among the people. Once the majority of the military equipment is destroyed it will give Assad relief in Syria.

Who is Kardashin married to? I wasn't invited. I wouldn't know. They had a baby, right? They waited until they got married or not? Is she still on that family gossip show?

That mess doesn't really interest me. My nephew had a baby. Madison. She is so cute. They were having trouble getting pregnant at first, but, after about six months of being married it all happened. Mom had a difficult time delivering though. But, Madison is happy and healthy. They had to induce and then the OB had to use forceps. Apgar scores scared me. 2-5-9. Worried. But, she is a cutey and seems to have all her appropriate reflexes. She is only three weeks old. So, far, so good.