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Missing in any debate about whether it is wise for the United States to reduce our troop numbers in both Afghanistan and Iraq, as the Trump administration has ordered, down to 2,500 Americans in each country (a number, let it be noted, that is too few to fight and too many to die), is the question members of Congress and policymakers invariably choose to duck: How did we get into the longest war in U.S. history in Afghanistan and the second-longest in Iraq?

Of course, we know, it was in response to Sept. 11, 2001, when al-Qaida operatives hijacked four commercial U.S. airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000. None of the 19 hijackers was an Afghani their leader was Egyptian and 15 were from Saudi Arabia but Afghanistan had been the attackers base. Congress overwhelmingly voted to give President George W. Bush, through the authorization of the use of military force, the green light to use force against those responsible for the attacks of 9/11.

By August of 2002, at a national convention of the Veterans of Foreign War, Bushs vice president, Dick Cheney, after stating his conviction that Saddam Hussein will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon, made the case for war: Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us. Hussein did not have then, and never would have, any weapons of mass destruction, nor was he ever anywhere remotely close to obtaining nuclear weapons. But the U.S., just seven months later, under false pretenses and disinformation, would send 130,000 Americans into harms way to invade Iraq.

Ignored was the doctrine stating that the U.S. should commit men and women to combat only as a last resort and only after all policy options have been exhausted and then only 1) when a vital security interest of the nation is at stake; 2) when the U.S. force employed is overwhelming and disproportionate to the force of the enemy; 3) when the mission and the military action are both understood and supported by the American people, and the mission has international support; and 4) when there is a clear and plausible exit strategy for the U.S. troops sent risking their lives.

War, as the conservative historian Michael Barone has written, demands equality of sacrifice. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars were the only wars longer than three months since the Mexican-American War in 1846 that the U.S. has fought without a military draft and without a tax increase. There would be no homefront shortages nor civilian sacrifice requested, only Republican administrations enacting massive tax cuts, tilted to the most advantaged, while the costs of the two wars reached an estimated $5 trillion.

In his landmark book on the American infantryman, George Wilson quoted Col. Steve Siegfried, a combat veteran: Armies dont fight wars. Countries fight wars. I hope to hell we learned that in Vietnam a country fights a war. If it doesnt, then we shouldnt send an army.

But lets be brutally frank: We at home who did not have a loved one in uniform have borne no burden. We have paid no price. These are wars when all the sacrifice and all the suffering which have been considerable have been borne by our fellow Americans who volunteered and the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. And 20 years later, there still is no clear and plausible exit strategy for the U.S. troops sent to risk their lives. Shame on us.

Mark Shields is a nationally syndicated columnist.

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Afghanistan and Iraq: When will we ever learn? - Marshalltown Times Republican

FILE: President Abdelfattah Al-Sisi

CAIRO - 26 November 2020: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi asserted Egypt's keenness on cooperating with Iraq in the various spheres, especially the military field as part of Egypt's unwavering policy in support of Iraqi security and stability to help it achieve cherished progress and prosperity.

Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi said, President Sisi discussed, during a meeting Thursday with Iraqi Defense Minister Juma Anad Saadoun, bilateral military cooperation including joint drills and programs to enhance capabilities, exchanging expertise, as well as an array of Arab and regional issues of mutual concern.

Defense Minister Mohamed Zaki took part in the meeting.

President Sisi sent his greetings to Iraqi President Barham Salih and Prime Minister Mustafa al Kadhimi.

On his part, Saadoun said Iraq is looking forward to boosting cooperation with Egypt, especially under President Sisi's leadership.

The Iraqi minister extended to President Sisi's the Iraqi president's and the Iraqi prime minister's greetings, asserting the Iraqi people's appreciation of Egypt's continued support to Iraq on the various levels.

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Sisi asserts Egypt's keenness on cooperation with Iraq in various domains - Egypttoday

Baghdad, Iraq, 24 November 2020: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health in Iraq has launched a new phase of the COVID-19 awareness-raising campaign in heavily populated and high-risk areas of Mosul, Ninewa governorate. The campaign aims at reminding the public of the importance of wearing face masks, physical distancing and maintaining good hand hygiene.

The campaign like the previous ones, is themed "Your Health is Important". More than one million people are being targeted in this round of the campaign, including refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) in 10 locations of the governorate. The campaign will use one hundred fifty local volunteers who will move door to door sensitizing communities on ways to stay safe from COVID-19 as well as disseminating community awareness materials. Through its implementing partner; namely, United Iraq Medical Society (UIMS), videos and audio messages will be broadcasted on booths, mobile screens and mobile clinics. The volunteers will also distribute face masks and hand sanitizers

According to Dr Adham Ismail, the WHO Representative in Iraq, the number of COVID-19 cases are likely to increase during the winter season, especially in the areas experiencing extreme cold temperatures such as Mosul and the neighboring governorates. Stressing the importance of the community responsibility and capability in containing the spread of the virus, Dr Adham said, Controlling the level of infection in towns and cities to protect families and friends is essential. Citizens' awareness will ease the burden on health of high number of COVID-19 cases among health practitioners and authorities working day and night to confront the pandemic. Dr Adham added We witnessed an increase of 36% in COVID_19 cases in the governorate in the past week alone. Thus we call to expand the surveillances conducted by the Iraqi health departments.

Like many parts of Iraq, Mosul has recorded high COVID-19 infection rates which is a burden to the already fragile health system that was heavily damaged during the internal conflict which ended more than 3 years ago. The outbreak is an additional burden on available resources and has greatly affected the national capacities needed to accommodate the high numbers of COVID-19 cases in the province. Added Dr Adham.

Since July 2020, WHO is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Health in Kurdistan region, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the Ministry of Interior (represented by the Community Police) to conduct COVID-19 community awareness-raising campaigns in heavily populated areas and affected districts of several governorates in Iraq; namely, Baghdad, Sulymania, Basra, Wasit, Thi Qar, Misan, Hilla, Karbala, Erbil and Dohuk. So far, the campaign has reached millions of Iraqis with awareness and preventive materials. WHO will continue reaching out to communities thanks to our valuable donors (The European Union, as well as Governments of Germany, Kuwait, United Kingdom and France) who have helped the organization to reach out to the vulnerable and underserved communities in Iraq.

For more information, please contact:

Ms Baraa ShabaWHO Communications Officer+96478000100244shabab@who.int

Ms Pauline AjelloWHO Communications Officer+964 7729 877 288ajellopa@who.int

Ms Ajyal SultanyWHO Communications Officer+964 7740 892 878sultanya@who.int

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WHO Iraq conducts its community awareness-raising campaign to halt the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Mosul [EN/AR] - Iraq - ReliefWeb

BAGHDAD -Iraqs elite Counter-Terrorism Service said on Monday it had arrested ISISs administrative chief after he arrived at Baghdad airport.

The man, known as Abu Naba, was detained in October as he was getting into a taxi, just after landing in Baghdad, CTS spokesman Sabah al-Noaman said.

Describing him as a major target, Noaman said Abu Naba had been steering financial support to ISIS, organising meetings and relaying messages between jihadist members.

He began his jihadist path in 2003 with Al-Qaeda, before joining various groups that eventually led to ISIS, he said.

But Noaman declined to reveal Abu Nabas real name, where he had been flying in from and how he managed to cross through airport security before he was apprehended.

In 2014, the terrorist group seized a third of Iraqi territory, which local troops backed by the US-led coalition only recaptured in late 2017.

More than a year later, in 2019, ISIS lost its last foothold in neighbouring Syria.

Jihadist sleeper cells have continued to wage hit-and-run attacks, including one north of Baghdad late Saturday that killed six security forces and four civilians.

They have also continued to transfer funds and personnel across Iraqi territory, Iraqi and Western officials say.

Abu Naba had been in contact with remaining members of ISIS in Iraq, and we were monitoring their conversations for a long time, said Noaman.

Since his arrest, Abu Naba has remained in Iraqi custody and is being interrogated.

Noaman said he would be tried under Iraqs counter-terror law, which carries the death penalty for membership in a terrorist organisation.

Iraq ranks fifth among countries that carry out death sentences, according to Amnesty International, which documented 100 executions in the country in 2019.

Since declaring ISIS defeated in 2017, Iraq has sentenced to death hundreds of Iraqi defendants for membership in the jihadist faction but only a small proportion have been carried out.

On November 16, 21 men convicted of terrorism charges were hanged at the notorious Nasiriyah prison in southern Iraq, which the United Nations warned was deeply troubling.

Resurgence

Saturdays lethal attack by ISIS has sparked acute criticism of the authorities.

Late Saturday, a roadside bomb hit a civilian car on an open road near Mt. Makhoul, about 200 kilometres north of Baghdad, police and a local official said.

When security forces arrived at the scene, jihadists opened fire on them, police said.

The attack killed at least six Iraqi security personnel and four civilians.

There was no claim by ISIS, but both the local mayor and police blamed the group, which Iraqs government said in late 2017 it had defeated.

That victory came after three years of brutal fighting to wrench back the one-third of Iraqi territory that had been captured by ISIS.

Although the jihadists no longer hold territory, sleeper cells wage hit-and-run attacks on state infrastructure, particularly in desert areas north of the capital.

Two weeks ago, 11 people were killed in an ISIS attack on a lookout post at Al-Radwaniyah on Baghdads outskirts, areas which are predominantly Sunni Muslim.

According to a study published this month by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in the Hague, the jihadist group has claimed more attacks in Iraq than in any other country where it is active over the period December 2018 to May this year.

The study said that ISIS activity in Iraq accelerated precipitously from February 2020 onwards, reaching levels that are worryingly close to those preceding its sweep across a third of Iraq in 2014.

ISIS in Iraq generally appears to be moving from a (re) building phase into one that is characterised by brazen guerrilla-style attacks, the study noted.

Losing credibility

The attacks have coincided with a new campaign by Iraqs security forces to arrest jihadists hiding out in rugged terrain in the countrys north and west.

In fact, just a day before the attack, the head of Iraqs federal police Jaafar al-Batat told state media that the area around Mt. Makhoul had been cleared.

The incidents carried out by ISIS in some remote areas are isolated cases and now under control, he said.

As ISIS struck, the contradiction between official assurances and reality on the ground outraged many Iraqis, especially in the province of Salahuddin.

Iraqi security forces just assured us this area had been cleaned, wrote Mashaan al-Jaboury, a Sunni lawmaker representing Salahaddin, on Twitter after the violence late Saturday.

For Jamal al-Dhari, another Sunni figure writing on Twitter, the latest ambush sheds light on the repeated failures in the fight against terrorism.

The government of (Prime Minister) Mustafa al-Kadhimi must seriously put in place a national strategy and stop being satisfied with investigative committees,' said Dhari.

Iraqis regularly mock their government for establishing investigative bodies that do not produce results.

The tensions come as the US-led coalition, which helped Iraq fight ISIS starting in 2014, is drawing down its troops.

This year, the US has already shrunk its contribution to the coalition from 5,200 to some 3,000 troops, as other countries have reduced their numbers as well.

The US announced last week it would withdraw another 500 troops by mid-January, which Iraqi officials say is the fourth and final phase of the coalitions draw-down.

Violent pressure

The top US commander for the Middle East, General Kenneth McKenzie, said the progress made by Iraqi security forces in recent years had allowed the US to draw down.

Troops remaining in Iraq would focus on training local forces, carrying out air strikes in support of their operations and running drone surveillance over the country.

The US military presence remains a source of controversy.

Iraqs parliament voted in January to seek the departure of all foreign troops, following a US drone strike on Baghdad that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and a leading Iraqi paramilitary commander.

Kadhimi, whose government is seen as US-leaning, has slow-walked the implementation.

Pro-Iran factions have organised a series of rallies in recent months and are thought to have launched several missile strikes on Baghdads Green Zone to pressure Kadhimi to implement the decision.

If you dont leave on your own, our rockets will force you out! one sign at a recent protest read.

It was in reference to dozens of rocket attacks on Western diplomatic and military installations since October 2019.

The US has threatened to close its embassy in Baghdad unless rocket attacks stop.

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Iraq arrests ISIS figure but its credibility is sorely tested | | AW - The Arab Weekly

The nuclear problem of Iran is once again becoming the focus of global media attention, and there are several reasons for this.

First, US President-elect Joe Biden (although no official results of the November 3 vote have been announced yet), who generally rejects the foreign policy of the current President Donald Trump, said that he will make Americas return to the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, one of his administrations main priorities. The announcement was certainly not lost on political scientists, analysts and journalists, who started actively discussing the new situation around the Iranian nuclear problem.

Second, this renewed interest in the future of the 2015 accord is also explained by the persistence of the Trump administration, which, 60 days now left before it will be moving out of the White House, is ramping up its traditional maximum pressure on Iran by introducing a new set of sanctions

Third, this is the internal political struggle in Iran, now that President Hassan Rouhani one of the main authors of the JCPOA is due to step down when his second term in office expires in 2021.

Rouhanis upcoming departure has been a boost to the conservative radicals predominant in the government, who are all set to step up their fight against the JCPOA. Indeed, their discontent was directed not so much at Washington, as at President Rouhani, who in their opinion, which has been gaining popularity at home, made a mistake by joining President Barack Obama in creating the JCPOA. This means that Rouhanis successor may be less open to communication with the West, and, to a certain extent, unwilling to abide by the terms of the agreement.

Throughout Donald Trumps four years in the White House, President Rouhani has been trying hard to keep the JCPOA alive and give diplomacy a chance even though Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has increasingly warned against contacts with Washington, especially since President Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear accord in 2018.

However, mindful of the Trump administrations aggressive policy towards the Islamic Republic, exactly a year after the US pullout from the JCPOA, the Iranian leadership began to gradually scale backits commitments underthenuclear deal.

Meanwhile, the nuclear situation in Iran now looks rather alarming and even dangerous.

In a confidential report circulated to member states on November 10, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that, as of November 2, Irans stockpile of low-enriched uranium had reached 2,442.9 kilograms, which is 12 times the amount allowed under the JCPOA. Under the agreement, Iran is only allowed to produce up to 300kg of enriched uranium in a particular compound form (UF6), which is the equivalent of 202.8kg of uranium.

The IAEA added that Iran was continuing to enrich uranium to a purity of up to 4.5% in violation of the 3.67% threshold agreed under the 2015 deal.

According to the UN nuclear watchdogs latest quarterly report, Iran has completed the deployment of the first set of advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges at an underground facility in Natanz. Tehran had earlier informed the IAEA of its intention to transfer three cascades of advanced centrifuges to Natanz. The first cascade of IR-2m centrifuges, has already been installed and connected, but is not yet operational, since gaseous uranium hexafluoride, the feedstock for the production of enriched uranium, is not yet supplied to the system. The Iranians are also installing a second cascade of more efficient IR-4 centrifuges. A third cascade of IR-6 centrifuges is now in the pipeline.

Moving underground equipment previously located on the surface, and using more advanced centrifuges than the first generation IR-1 units is a violation of Tehrans obligations under the JCPOA.

The Natanz nuclear facility, located about 200 kilometers south of Tehran, is an advanced complex, consisting of two main facilities the Experimental Plant, commissioned in 2003, and the Industrial Plant, commissioned in 2007. The latter consists of two underground reinforced concrete buildings, each divided into eight workshops. The plant is well protected against air strikes with an almost eight-meter-thick high-strength concrete roof, covered with a 22-meter layer of earth.

In late October, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi confirmed that Iran is also building an underground facility in Natanz to assemble centrifuges of a new generation, more productive and efficient. This is equally at variance with the terms of the JCPOA accord, which has suffered erosion and destabilization since the US withdrawal.

Just as Academician Alexey Arbatov very aptly noted in his article Iranian Nuclear Perspective: There is no reason for such underground structures and, accordingly, for colossal additional costs if, as Tehran says, they are for peaceful nuclear energy generation. References to the threat of an Israeli air strike are equally unconvincing, since what we are talking about is peaceful atom. Indeed, all other elements of the nuclear industry are not protected from an airstrike and can be destroyed if the enemy seeks to prevent the development of peaceful, rather than military, nuclear energy in Iran. History knows only two examples of similar underground nuclear power projects: an underground nuclear power plant (Atomgrad) built by the Soviet Union near Krasnoyarsk to produce weapons-grade plutonium, and a uranium enrichment complex, apparently being built in the mountains of North Korea. Both of a military nature, of course, meant to produce weapons-grade nuclear materials even during the war, despite air strikes.

Judging by the latest IAEA report, the agency is also unsatisfied with Tehrans explanations about the presence of nuclear materials at an undeclared facility in the village of Turkuzabad (about 20 km south of Tehran), where man-made uranium particles were found last year, and continues to consider the Iranian response technically unreliable.

In his November 13, 2020 report about the agencys work to the UN General Assembly, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that the IAEA continues to verify the non-proliferation of nuclear materials pledged by Iran in keeping with the terms of its Safeguards Agreement. In August, Grossi visited Tehran and met with President Rouhani and other senior Iranian officials. During the visit, the sides agreed to settle certain issues pertaining to the implementation of safeguards, including IAEA inspectors access to two facilities in Iran. Inspections have since been carried out at both locations and environmental samples taken by inspectors are being analyzed.

I welcome the agreement between the agency and Iran, which I hope will reinforce cooperation and enhance mutual trust, Rafael Grossi summed up.

Even though Iran is formally de jure involved in the nuclear deal, the hardline conservative majority in the countrys political elite opposed to the JCPOA has taken a new step towards Irans withdrawal from the NPT.

In a statement issued on November 11, 2020, Khojat-ol-eslam Mojtaba Zonnour, chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Mejlis (Iranian parliament), said that the MPs had approved (but not yet passed as law) a Strategic Plan for Countering Anti-Iranian Sanctions.

According to the Plan, upon its approval in parliament, the government shall suspend within the next two months any access by IAEA inspectors outside the provisions of the Additional Protocol. And also, if Irans banking relations with Europe and Iranian oil sales do not return to normal within three months after the adoption of the law, the government is to stop voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol.

The Iranians insist that the level of cooperation that has in recent years been going on between Tehran and the IAEA in monitoring the countrys nuclear program was even higher than what is envisaged by the Additional Protocol, including their introduction of a special checkup regime for IAEA inspectors. Moreover, Tehran never misses a chance to remind that before the JCPOA, Europe was buying between 700,000 and one million barrels of Iranian oil a day, and that economic and banking relations were normal.

Mojtaba Zonnour emphasized that the United States walked out of the JCPOA in order to impose new sanctions on the Islamic Republic, adding that the Europeans had failed to meet their obligations under the JCPOA and had been cheating Iran for several years. He also noted that in keeping with the Strategic Plan for Countering Anti-Iranian Sanctions the IAEA will only be allowed to monitor the implementation of the Safeguards Agreement and the NPT requirements.

Upon its approval by the Mejlis, the Plan envisions a radical refusal by Iran to comply with a number of key obligations under the JCPOA.

Thus, the Fordow nuclear fuel enrichment plant, redesigned in line with the JCPOA requirements into a research center, will again become a plant for the production of enriched uranium. The number of new IR-6 centrifuges there will be increased to 1,000 by the end of the Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021) to turn out up to 120 kg of uranium enriched to 20% a year.

The Iranians are also going to expand their enrichment capacities and bring the production of uranium enriched to 5% up to at least 500 kg per month, compared to just 300 kg allowed by the JCPOA.

Within four months from the date of the Strategic Plans entry into force, Tehran intends to restore the 40 megawatt heavy water reactor in Arak to the level it operated at prior to the conclusion of the JCPOA accord, which had it redesigned so that it would not be able to produce weapons-grade plutonium. In January 2016, the reactor core was dismantled.

As Mojtaba Zonnour quite frankly explained in his statement, In the above-mentioned Plan, we determined the extent to which our nuclear activities would intensify and stated that we had abandoned the measures taken in accordance with the requirements of the JCPOA. For example, we decided to increase the level of uranium enrichment, increase the amount of uranium accumulation, bring the 40 megawatt heavy-water reactor in Arak to its pre-JCPOA state, install modern centrifuges, and the like. <> The Plan singles out two very important points: one is that if, after we enact the law on the Strategic Plan for Countering Anti-Iranian Sanctions, the Europeans change their behavior and resume their commitments under the JCPOA, of if the US wants to return to the JCPOA, the Iranian government will no longer have the authority to unilaterally suspend the implementation of this law. It will need permission from parliament it is the Majlis that makes the final decision.

It is worth mentioning here that in its draft law the Mejlis provides for criminal responsibility for non-compliance by individuals and legal entities with the provisions of the law on the Strategic Plan with violators facing punishment of up to 20 years behind bars.

Enactment of the law on the Strategic Plan for Countering Anti-Iranian Sanctions and its implementation by the government is tantamount to Irans withdrawal from the JCPOA. Moreover, Mojtaba Zonnour said that the government could fast-track the adoption of the law on the Plan, as there is an administrative and legal opportunity for it to be formally considered by the parliamentary Commission on National Security and Foreign Policy within 10 days, and subsequently adopted by an open session of the Majlis.

This means that by the time US President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20, 2021, the Plan may have already been adopted. The Iranian authorities obviously had this date very much in mind when unveiling the Plan to the general public.

On the one hand, the draft law on the Strategic Plan for Countering Anti-Iranian Sanctions can be seen as an attempt by Tehran to blackmail the new US administration, as well as Britain and the European Union, in order to achieve the main goal of lifting the sanctions even by restoring in some form the JCPOA accord (or drawing up JCPO-2), but on Iranian terms. On the other to get a bargaining chip for a future dialogue, possibly with the very same P5+1 group of world powers (Russia, US, Britain, France, China and Germany), but now a dialogue from a position of strength.

No wonder the already familiar Khojat-ol-eslam Zonnour said: In fact, the nature of [US] arrogance is such that when they see you weak, they put more pressure on you, and if our position against the system of domination and arrogance is weak, this does not serve our interests. Consequently, the Iranian people have the right to respond to questions from a position of dignity and strength.

As for Khojat-al-eslam Zonnour, he is a radical politician and the fiercest opponent of the JCPOA and a rapprochement with the West in parliament. The following statement tells it all: Unfortunately, today some of our statesmen use expressions that are contrary to the dignity of the Iranian people, our authority and self-respect. The fact that in their tweets and comments our president and first vice president say that God willing, the new US administration will return to the law and fulfill its obligations these are not correct or noble things to say. Such words encourage the enemy to defy its commitments, and when it doesnt see our resolve and thinks we are passive and asking for a favor, it raises the bar and tries to score more points.

Mojtaba Zonnours activity can certainly be viewed as an example of a tough internal political struggle, but this way or another his views resonate with the overwhelming majority of members of the current parliament. And the issues of the JCPOA and general opposition to the United States and Europe were not invented by Zonnour alone.

Thus, we can state that the future of the JCPOA is now hanging in the balance as there are powerful forces in both Iran and the US opposed to nuclear deals between the Islamic Republic and the rest of the world. There is still hope, however, that the economic crisis and the threat of social protests will eventually force Tehran to resume contacts with the United States and the other signatories to the JCPOA accord in order to work out conditions for lifting the sanctions.

In turn, as is evident from statements coming from US President-elect Joe Biden, his administration will be ready for a dialogue with Iran on the nuclear issue, and here the positions of Russia, China, the European Union and the UK are no less important for resolving the newly emerged Iranian nuclear problem.

Just how this negotiation process will be carried out and on what conditions is hard to say now, but there is absolutely no doubt that it is going to be extremely difficult, dramatic, contradictory and protracted. The stakes are too high, it is too important for Iran, its neighbors, the entire Near and Middle East, as well as for preserving the nuclear nonproliferation regime.

From our partner International Affairs

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