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9.03am EDT 09:03

45 min Australia kick off and Juric just runs straight at the Iraq defence ala Mark Lee in the final scene of Gallipoli. It was the same, result, metaphorically.

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8.58am EDT 08:58

For the uninitiated. An explainer on WC qualification. Hi Sam, Toby from Rozelle writes. Can you please explain to us lowly viewers how the qualification works? Top 2 from each group go through? And third place from each group play off with the winner playing v concacafafcf?

You nailed it, Toby - minus the spelling of CONCACAF (theres something cathartic about writing it in CAPS, too. But I digress). Asia receives 4.5 spots in the World Cup, with the fifth placed team vying desperately for qualification against a South American giant. Its scary, very scary, but then again can give way to one of the greatest sporting moments a nation can experience.

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8.54am EDT 08:54

It was fairly streaky for the most part, but Australia gradually took control. On a very damp, bumpy surface, both sides conjured opportunities to score as the ball bypassed both midfields with worrying ease. Postecoglous grim expression under a soaked jacket said it all, before eventually his side started to exert some dominance. Each of Mooy, Irvine and Leckie have looked threatening when on the ball, even if the former was a fraction loose early on. It was his fierce corner after a sustained period of attack that found the rising Leckie to give Australia the advantage, and they went in search of a second soon after.

For Iraq, Abdulraheem looks equally dangerous when close to goal, though he does appear their primary outlet. Theyre taking any opportunity they have to play diagonal balls over the top from the left, and it appears a fair tactic thus far, as their talisman has managed to get on the end of a few.

The first fifteen minutes will reveal Postecoglous outlook on the remainder of the game. One senses hell need more than one goal to emerge with the three points, given how open the first half was. Iraq will rightly feel that they remain a huge chance of taking something from this in order to keep their exceptionally slim World Cup hopes alive.

As ever, welcoming your thoughts during the break and beyond, as Australia look to take another step towards Russia.

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8.46am EDT 08:46

44 min Beautiful interchange of passing between Australias front six - of the one-touch, swivel, no-look caper, and it falls to Juric. He shoots high and wide but it was the best sequence Australias produced thus far. They look likely.

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8.44am EDT 08:44

42 min Free kick to Australia after nice work from Irvine. Its in a great position. Mooys about 28 yards out, directly in front, but he hammers it straight into the wall. It emerges scrappily and falls to Milligan who sprays in wide. Huge pressure on Iraq here heading into the break.

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8.43am EDT 08:43

40 min Juric feeds a sumptuous ball through to Kruse who looks to beat Iraqs last man, but he cant. Nearly two-nil there.

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8.42am EDT 08:42

And there it is! Another Australian corner is curled in by Mooy, this time a little flatter than his previous efforts. Leckie, who has a relatively poor games-to-goals ratio, leaps unmarked and heads powerfully past Hameed. That will settle Australia.

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8.40am EDT 08:40

37 min Sustained attack from Australia here, successive corners parried away for yet more corners. Something feels imminent here.

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8.37am EDT 08:37

35 min Juric is brought down on the edge of the area but play is waved on. Its been fairly open slather until now so its in keeping with the games pattern. Australia earn a corner anyway but Hameed, again, intercepts and collects.

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8.35am EDT 08:35

31 min Leckie finds a one-on-one on Iraqs left and deftly beats his man with a couple of stepovers. He feeds Mooy who powerfully strikes a daisy cutter towards the far post. Hameed as able to get across and make the save. Still unnervingly open here, feels as though neither side has settled. A very jolty rhythm to the match so far.

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8.31am EDT 08:31

29 min We breathe as theres at least three minutes without bewildering space and a shot on goal. Fair to say neither manager would be too happy with their screen at the moment. Its all a bit streaky. As I type this Kruse crosses in with three men waiting, but it flies over them all. The traffic jam outside continues, though.

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8.28am EDT 08:28

26 min Its Irvine with a snatch shot from the edge of the area now and its tipped over by Hameed. Mooys ensuing corner is deep and much more easily collected by the Iraqi keeper.

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8.27am EDT 08:27

24 min Back in Iraqs area now and did Leckie have a shout at a penalty there? It always seems strange when the ball is being played away from goal, but he seemed to be collected late there. He stays down while the match plays on.

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8.26am EDT 08:26

23 min Australia under siege now. Another ball comes in from the left and Kalaf is alone with only Langerak to beat. Langerak rushes to cover the angle and Kalaf clumsily dinks it over the bar. Best chance of the match.

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8.24am EDT 08:24

21 min Its Iraqs turn now. An awkward ball into the Australian area almost sees Abdulraheem on the end of it, but Milligan intervenes in the nick of time. Corner to Iraq - Langerak punches clear.

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8.22am EDT 08:22

20 min Nice feet from Leckie affords Mooy some room on Iraqs left but the Championship Team of the Year midfielders ball is easily read at the back, and it comes to nothing. Some wasteful moments from Mooy, but hes finding opportunities.

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See the article here:
Iraq v Australia: World Cup 2018 qualifying live! - The Guardian

MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi forces helped by U.S. airpower have clawed back much of this broken city from the Islamic State. But as you approach East Mosul, the military checkpoints on the rutted road are manned by members of Iranian-backed Shiite militias that now control the entrance to this Sunni Arab city. Rather than fly the red, white, and black Iraqi banner, the militiamen display a religious flag adorned with the face of the holiest Shiite icon, the prophets grandson Imam Hussain.

Washington should regard the black flags as a warning signal. Even before the Islamic State is fully defeated, Shiite Iran is laying the groundwork to expand its deep penetration of Iraq. Tehran wants to control the Baghdad government through its Shiite political and militia proxies, marginalizing Sunnis, including in Mosul.

But judging by history, repression in Sunni areas of Iraq will provide fertile ground for the next jihadi movement to take root.

So the Shiite flags at Mosuls gateway signal that a military defeat of the Islamic State is insufficient. There must also be a political plan (although none is yet evident in Baghdad or Washington) to assure Sunnis of a role in a post-Islamic State Iraq.

That plan is needed sooner rather than later. So far, the Shiite militias are not entering the city proper, Mosul residents tell me. Right now they are not pushing people out, says an elementary school teacher who lives in East Mosul. He says, however, that sectarian Shiite political parties linked to the militias are already opening offices in the city.

In other contested parts of Iraq, hardline Shiite militias are ethnically cleansing Sunnis from towns and villages to create a Sunni-free corridor from Iran across Iraq to the Syrian border. These militias receive extensive Iranian support and Iraqi government funds.

Maslawis (as Mosul natives are called) view the Iraqi military far more positively than they do the militias, even though Iraqi forces are composed heavily of Shiites (who make up a majority of the population). Thats because Iraqi forces are loyal to the state, not to Shiite political parties or Tehran.

I heard nothing but praise for the behavior of the Iraqi military units that entered the city, especially the U.S.-trained Counter Terrorism Service, or CTS. The only force people like is the CTS and (its) Golden Division, the prominent Sunni Sheikh Abdullah al-Yawar told me. It did not force people to leave their homes.

Although the militias are technically under military control, no one knows their future after the Islamic State is defeated. Sunnis fear they will act as armed wings of competing Shiite parties or an Iraqi version of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard corps, which took over Irans army from within.

And Sunnis rightly fear Irans long-term intentions. They know Tehran still remembers Saddam Husseins 1980 invasion of Iran, when Sunnis ran Iraq, and the decade-long war that followed. Iran wants to see Iraqs Sunnis weak and divided, one Sunni politician told me, so the 1980s can never happen again.

Iraqs Shiite prime minister, Haidar al-Abadi, who will visit Washington this week, says all the right things about reconciliation with Sunnis. We are proud of our diversity, he said this month at a forum sponsored by the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. Victory will be done when we are united.

Yet Sunnis in Mosul have yet to see any of the $500 million set aside by the Iraqi finance ministry for reconstruction. Nor is it clear when hundreds of thousands of Mosul residents who fled the fighting will be permitted to return home.

Moreover, Maslawis worry about who is going to protect them from terrorism, or displacement, after the Islamic State is defeated. The 8,000 Sunni tribesmen trained by U.S. forces as a hold force to secure Mosul after the Islamic State have been deployed but have yet to make an impact.

Once U.S. air power is no longer needed to target the Islamic State, Maslawis believe Iran will press the Baghdad government to kick U.S. forces out of the country. Having once been hostile to the American presence, Sunnis now want those forces to stay.

The Iranians are buying off weak Sunni politicians, helping to keep a divided community even more so. Money is also flowing to small minority groups like the Shiite Shabaks, who are manning the checkpoints at the entry to Mosul. Shabaks are a tiny Iraqi ethno-religious sect that, Im told, had never taken up arms before.

All this raises the question of what options Washington has in Iraq to offset Iran and prevent the Islamic State 2.0. Heres what savvy Iraqi Arabs and Kurds told me they hope a Trump administration will do:

First, stay engaged with Iraq and retain a military presence to help Iraqi forces prevent an Islamic State resurgence.

Second, bolster Abadi against Iranian efforts to back a hardline Shiite opponent. For starters, encourage Americas Gulf Arab allies to help finance Sunni reconstruction.

Third, press Baghdad to adopt a federal system, which the countrys constitution provides for, so Sunnis can establish their own provinces within the country. Iran and Shiite parties will oppose this formula, but its the only way to convince Iraqs Sunnis that they have a future.

All this requires serious, long-term U.S. engagement, which may not appeal to a Trump administration. But, as the Shiite flags outside Mosul make clear, shorter-term thinking will be costly.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Published March 22, 2017, midnight in: Iran, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Shittes, Sunnis

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Trudy Rubin: Iran deepens presence in Iraq - The Spokesman-Review

Christianity is all but dead in war-torn Iraq, according to the so-called British Vicar of Baghdad.

Canon Andrew White, who was vicar of the only Anglican church in the country before being pulled out in 2014, said the time has come where Christianity is over in Iraq.

Mr White, from Kent, was speaking in a Fox News interview as the Iraqi military continues its offensive to drive Isis out of its major Iraqi stronghold Mosul, and after Donald Trump attempted to enforce a travel ban against six Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and north Africa.

The time has come where it is over, no Christians will be left, Mr White said.

Some say Christians should stay to maintain the historical presence, but it has become very difficult. The future for the community is very limited.

The Christians coming out of Iraq and Isis areas in the Middle East all say the same thing, there is no way they are ever going back. They have had enough.

Women and children treated for chemical weapon exposure in Mosul

There were approximately 1.5 million Christians (six per cent of population) in Iraq in 2003, but, according to charity Open Doors, there are only 250,000 left.

Father Emanuel Youkhana, of the Syrian Church of the East, has also said he does not see a future for Christians in Mosul.

There were approximately 35,000 Christians in Mosul a decade ago but there are thought to only be about 20 now.

Mr White, who is president and founder of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East but was suspended in June for inaccurate statements, continues to travel to Baghdad despite the security threat.

He still tries to mediate disputes between Shia and Sunni leaders and also undergoes stem cell treatment for multiple sclerosis in the city. A leading cleric has warneddefeat for Isis in Mosul could speak a sectarian "genocide".

And he defended Mr Trump's measures to restrict travel from the Middle East to the US, praising the new President for wanting to help "persecuted Christians" in the region. Many have this feeling that America is against them, and they need to show that America is not against Islam, America is against terrorism, he said.

It is important to find ways to engage with them, to look into their philosophies.

I tried to invite some of the Isis jihadists to dinner once. They told me they would come, but that they would chop my head off afterwards. I didnt think it would be a nice way to end a dinner party.

Excerpt from:
Christianity is 'over' in Iraq and will not return, says former vicar of Baghdad - The Independent

Its considered one of the worlds oldest Christian populationsnow its poised to become the most recent driven to extinction. So says Canon Andrew White, a prominent churchman known as the vicar of Baghdad, about Iraqi Christians.

Reverend White led St. Georges Church in Baghdad, the only Anglican church in Iraq, until the Archbishop of Canterbury ordered him to leave in November 2014 as the Islamic State threat grew. He thus became part of an exodus during which the countrys Christian population has dwindled from approximately 1.4 million three decades ago, to about one million after Saddam Husseins ouster, to a mere 250,000 today.

Noting where this trajectory leads, White told Fox News this week, The time has come where it is over, no Christians will be left. Some stay Christians should stay to maintain the historical presence, but it has become very difficult. The future for the community is very limited.

The reverend continued, The Christians coming out of Iraq and ISIS areas in the Middle East all say the same thing, there is no way they are ever going back. They have had enough.

Why is no mystery. As Catholic Online reported in 2014, The Islamic State has warned Christians, possibly for the last time, saying there is nothing to give them but the sword. Across Northern Iraq, Christians are huddled in refugee camps, trapped in the desert, or trapped in their homes, waiting for death.

Yet even this doesnt capture the barbarity, as the Islamic State will stop at nothing to purge the lands it holds of those it considers infidels. There was a 2015 report of its jihadis beating a young boy and cutting off his fingers to compel him, his father and two others to renounce Christianity; all four were later crucified.

Then there are the women publicly raped and beheaded for refusing to leave the faith, children and adults burned alive, people drowned in cages, and a shocking 2016 report of Islamic State sadists roasting victims in a bakery oven and feeding 250 children into an industrial dough kneader.

No one is more aware of the Islamic States true nature than Rev. White. Following Jesus example of breaking bread with sinners, he once invitedISIS to dinner only to be told, Yes, well come, but well chop off your head. After relating the story last year, he quipped, Rather kind of them to warn me.

Though once kidnapped in Baghdad, now uprooted, and suffering from multiple sclerosis, the UK-born White has maintained not only his sense of humor but also his will to fight. He tends to his displaced flock in Jordan and aids those fleeing IS persecution via two organizations he founded, the Canon Andrew White Reconciliation Ministries in Amman, Jordan and Jerusalem Merit in Israel. He also has adopted six children and has given away all his money, according to the Telegraph.

Of course, white isnt alone in sounding the alarm about the threat to Mideast Christianity. In 2015, Italian Bishops Conference head Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco noted that the cull of Christians continues in the Middle East and Africa where it seems somebody has decided to uproot them to cleanse the territory, reported ANSA news.

Patriarch of theSyriac Catholic Church of Antioch, Ignatius Joseph III Younan, was a bit more specific in laying the blame. He warned last year that the totalitarianism based on Islamic creed is the worst among all systems of government and that the very survival of Christians in the cradle of Christianity is quite in danger.

Yet this may just be the last chapter in whats a very old story. Unbeknownst to many, Christianity was the dominant religion in the Mideast and North Africa (which at the time had more Christians than Europe) by the 400s A.D. After Islams birth in 622, however, Muslim armies quickly conquered the old Christian lands.

In fact, these Muslim forces moved into Europe in 711 and by 732 were within 125 miles of Paris, where they were finally halted at the Battle of Poitier. Later in history, they would threaten Europe from the East, which inspired the misunderstood, defensive wars known as the Crusades.

Despite the history and, more significantly, the current events, critics note that the West has largely ignored Mideast Christians plight. Ignatius Joseph III Younan accused Western leaders of being nave and complicit in the Christians destruction. Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III lamented, I do not understand why the world does not raise its voice against such acts of brutality. And Jean-Clment Jeanbart, the Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo,stated that the European media have not ceased to suppress the daily news of those who are suffering in Syria.

Archbishop Jeanbart observed that the problem is political correctness. This involves the usual prejudices, well exemplified by Barack Obamas policies. While at the United Nations last year he likened a refusal to accept Muslims migrants to the turning away [of] Jews fleeing Nazi Germany and said it would be a stain on our conscience, he himself has turned away persecuted Christians.

In fact, Christians are (were?) 10 percent of Syrias population, yet only one half of one percent of Obamas Syrian migrants were Christianthis translated into just 56 out of 10,801 refugees.

So it appears that, today, stained consciences just may be in style.

Selwyn Duke (@SelwynDuke)has written for The Hill, The American Conservative, WorldNetDaily and American Thinker. He has also contributed to college textbooks published by Gale Cengage Learning, has appeared on television and is a frequent guest on radio.

See the original post:
Christianity Doomed in Iraq, Says 'Vicar of Baghdad' - Observer

Retired Marine Lt. Col. Matthew W. Morgan of Traverse City is challenging Rep. Jack Bergman for his seat in Congress. Morgan served a total 18 months in Iraq, where this photo was taken.(Photo: Courtesy of Matthew W. Morgan)

Michigan Democrats have tapped a Iraq veteran with a long career in the Marines to challenge freshman Republican Rep. Jack Bergman also retired Marine officer for his seat representing northern Michigan in 2018.

Retired Marine Lt. Col. Matthew W. Morgan, a Democrat, said Wednesday he filed the paperwork to run against Bergman. It will be his first bid for public office, inspired in part by the growing number of Iraq veterans in Congress.

Bergman defeated Democrat Lon Johnson last fall to succeed Rep. Dan Benishek of Crystal Falls, who retired. Bergman, 70, is a retired Marine lieutenant colonel, who worked as a commercial airline pilot for Northwest Airlines for many years while serving in the Reserves.

Morgan, 45, an Iraq veteran, retired from the Marine Corps in 2013 after 24 years, starting as an infantry officer but spending his last four years in the service as the director of public affairs for the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command out of Norfolk, Virginia.

Prior to that, Morgan spent time as a strategic communications officer in the office of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at the Pentagon during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He spent a total 18 months on the ground in Iraq, in addition to time he spent supporting counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa, he said.

After the (fall) election, I was left searching, and in early January when Congress took to the floor and started running this anti-EPA agenda, I got really concerned, Morgan said in an interview.

Then discussions turned to repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. I got into several conversations with some local folks who had been searching for a viable candidate. When I was offered the opportunity to consider it, it struck me as an opportunity to get back into public service.

In addition to health care, issues that concern Morgan include protecting funding for cleaning up the Great Lakes and comprehensive immigration reform, noting the population of migrant workers that farmers in the district rely on.

Morgan, a 1993 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is now an independent writer and film consultant, working on movies including American Sniper and Arrival.

After his retirement from the Marines, he and his wife, Angie, decided to return to her native Michigan to raise their young sons, he said. He has lived in Traverse City for four years.

Morgan said while he and Bergman are both retired Marine officers, they are from different generations, with Bergmans service including the Cold War era.

I firmly believe that getting more particularly post-9/11 veterans into Congress is going to help bring some degree of civility and business/workman-like attitude to Congress, Morgan said.

Asked about his new challenger, Bergman spokeswoman Farahn Morgan said his priority is working with constituents and colleagues to get things done for the 1st District.

That's a promise he made during his campaign, and it's a promise he's keeping as he serves the First District in the House of Representatives, she said by email.

As a member of Congress and a general in the Marine Corps, his commitment has always been to people and to public service. That's where he's focusing his energy.

mburke@detroitnews.com

(202) 662-8736

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Iraq veteran plans to challenge freshman Rep. Bergman - The Detroit News