China offers military assistance to Iraq in ISIL fight
"China has offered air strikes against ISIL"...says Iraqi FM
[ Editor’s Note: We have a little twist of the knife by China today with this delayed announcement by Iraq’s FM to aid their ISIL counterterrorism efforts with Chinese airstrikes. The first thing I have to ask is why is this being made public now and why has Iraq not taken advantage of the offer earlier?
In September, things were much worse than now. The US was dragging its feet, and the old model Russian Belarus planes required some logistical arrangements to conduct combat missions. Fortunately, Iraq has a good supply of Russian plane trained pilots.
I suspect that domestic politics were a complication. Chinese planes and support units would have to be based in Iraq, and Baghdad had emphatically said no to foreign troops. They are interpreting that as they wish, of course. Special Ops units are always quietly deployed in these situations, and the US has over 3000 “helpers” in country now, but not out of their own bases. That seems to be the red line.
But China is engaging in air combat counterterrorism missions; I can’t wait for the NeoCon crazies to begin claiming that this is just the advance guard to take over the Persian Gulf, then Europe and the world. These nut cases do love to exaggerate threats to crank up more defense spending.
We will have to see if this is a diplomatic feint of some sort, or if China wants to get some combat mission experience for its first line pilots. The US and NATO are certainly testing new weapon systems and munitions.
They even let the Navy clean out its old inventory of cruise missiles so they could get an order in for the new and improved versions — one of the rarely discussed aspects of these “little wars”.
They keep the defense contractors at the public trough with hi-tech weapon resupply, when GPS-guided bombs are much cheaper to use. The Pentagon even gave our B-2 bombers some exercise with their incredible bomb payloads… and yes, all GPS guided.
My bet on Chinese fighter bomber missions in Iraq is less than 50/50. They would have gone in during the bad times, if Iraq had really wanted them. I think it is a card they are playing to maybe trade for something. Color me suspicious… Jim W. Dean ]
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Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari says China has extended an offer to help Baghdad fight the Takfiri ISIL militants by carrying out its own airstrikes against the terrorists.
Jaafari stated that his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi made the offer during a UN anti-terrorism meeting in New York back in September, noting, however, that Beijing will not join the US-led military coalition against ISIL.
“[Mr Wang] said, our policy does not allow us to get involved in the international coalition,” the Iraqi foreign minister said. He added, “I welcomed this initiative. I told him… we are ready to deal with the coalition and also co-operate with countries outside this coalition.”
The top Iraqi diplomat further noted that what his country needs now in the fight against ISIL militants is more munitions. “Our problem is with the supply of arms and weaponry,” Jaafari said.
He emphasized that Baghdad does not want foreign soldiers on Iraqi soil due to concerns that it would lead to sentiments against the foreigners among Iraqi people.
The ISIL terrorists launched an offensive in Iraq in June and took control of the country’s second largest city, Mosul, before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.
The Takfiri militants have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations and crucifixions, against all Syrian and Iraqi communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.
Senior Iraqi officials have repeatedly blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and some other Persian Gulf Arab states for the growing terrorism in their country.
