Barack Obama signals long Iraq mission. - Stefanie Balogh and Brendan Nicholson, The Australian, 11/8/14. Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will hold top-level security briefings with US and British officials this week as Barack Obama attempts to marshal international co-operation for what he warns will be a long campaign against Islamic State terrorists. With the US President welcoming strong support from Britain and France for the decision to intervene to prevent potential genocide and a human-itarian catastrophe, Australia is in lock-step with the US in confronting the threat posed by violent extremists laying siege to large swathes of northern Iraq. A third round of air strikes has destroyed arms and equipment used by the jihadists, and transport aircraft are continuing to drop food and water to thousands from the Yazidi religious minority, stranded on a mountain ridge near the Syrian border. The Prime Minister, who will travel from Holland to London for talks with security and intelligence officials, said it was important “to join with our international partners in doing what we can to render humanitarian assistance’’. Mr Abbott has warned that the Islamic State is “not a terrorist group but a terrorist army’’ engaging in “medieval barbarism, assisted by modern technology’’. Australian and US officials are discussing a role for Australia in the humanitarian mission in Iraq, and two C-130 Hercules aircraft based in the United Arab Emirates are on standby. Heightened concerns about terrorism will be on the agenda when US Secretary of State, John Kerry, and US Defence Secretary, Chuck Hagel, meet Ms Bishop and Defence Minister David Johnston in Sydney this week for the Australia-US Ministerial Consultations, known as AUSMIN. Increased co-operation on missile defence by Australia and the US will also be discussed when the delegations meet in Sydney today and tomorrow. Mr Abbott, who flew to Holland overnight, will today visit The Hague to thank more than 500 Australian police, military and consular staff involved in “Operation Bring Them Home’’, the mission to repatriate victims from the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. He will also meet the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte. Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Tony Negus, and Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, are accompanying the Prime Minister. Mr Abbott then travels to London for talks with security and intelligence officials and senior members of the British government about “counter-terrorism operations, and about the deteriorating strategic situation in Iraq and elsewhere’’. The Prime Minister has offered Mr Obama strong backing for his actions in Iraq, and Australia will maintain its support even if America needs to step up its intervention in the war-ravaged region. Former army chief, Peter Leahy, warned in The Weekend Australian that the fight against Islamic terrorism was likely to continue for the rest of the century. Justifying the US military’s return to fighting in Iraq after the last troops pulled out about three years ago, Mr Obama said the US had to act now to prevent genocide, protects its diplomats and provide desperately needed humanitarian aid. ***(Too late, you fool, but better late than not at all!)*** He warned that the situation in Iraq would not be solved in weeks. “This is going to be a long-term project.’’ He said the US would “continue to provide military assistance and advice to the Iraqi government and Kurdish forces as they battle these terrorists, so that the terrorists cannot establish a permanent safe haven’’. We will continue to work with the international community to deal with the growing humanitarian crisis in Iraq,” Mr Obama said. “Even as our attention is focused on preventing an act of genocide and helping the men, women and children on the mountain, countless Iraqis have been driven or fled from their homes, including many Christians.” Mr Obama said he had spoken to British Prime Minister, David Cameron, and French President, Francois Hollande, and they had “expressed their strong support for our actions and have agreed to join us in providing humanitarian assistance to Iraqi civilians who are suffering so much”. “Once again, America is proud to act alongside our closest friends and allies,’’ he said. He again ruled out putting US combat boots back on the ground in Iraq, saying “we should have learned a lesson from our long and immensely costly incursion in Iraq’’. US fighter jets and drones launched four air strikes on Islamic State forces as they fired indiscriminately on the Yazidi civilians taking shelter in the Sinjar mountains. The strikes, which were spread out during the day, destroyed armoured carriers and a truck, the third round of airstrikes against Islamic state forces by the US military since they were authorised by Mr Obama. US Central Command released a statement saying that US forces had successfully conducted four airstrikes to defend Yazidi civilians. In the first strike “a mix of US fighters and remotely piloted aircraft struck one of two (Islamic State) armoured personnel carriers firing on Yazidi civilians near Sinjar”, it said. US and Iraqi aircraft have also sent planes to deliver food and water to the thousands of people, many of them Yazidi civilians, stranded on the mountain. The third US air-drop sent thousands of litres of water and more than 16,000 packaged meals. “The United States can’t just look away. That’s not who we are. We’re Americans. We act. We lead. And that’s what we’re going to do on that mountain,” Mr Obama said. ***(Hollow words from a hollow president!)***
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 08:42:39 +0000