So how is it a non-state paramilitary just pops out of nowhere, well-funded and trained, and is on the verge of taking over at least two countries, while no one in the West has a clue what to do. Really? And where was NSA and the rest of military “intelligence”? None of them saw this coming. Thus, the hundreds of billions they spend each year to supposedly defend and protect us is almost completely wasted. As with the financial crisis of 2007, it was bloggers and other fringees who saw the crisis coming, and who were then ignored or ridiculed until the crisis hit. Then mainstream media and government had to admit all those crazy conspiracists were right.
The same thing is happening with IS. Big media are not asking or digging to determine who funds IS, where their support comes from, as specifically which Middle East governments tacitly or otherwise are backing them. Instead we get Wolf Blitzer blithering about minutiae (“Who is Jihadi John?”) “and ignoring the big issues.
Who benefits from this madness? The war machine, of course. There’s lots of money to be made, even as what passes for strategy from the White House and Pentagon has failed yet again. Oh well, that just means more opportunity for war.
Iraq is now a sectarian civil war. Shi’ite militias and Iran are attacking Tikrit, which is overwhelmingly Sunni. It doesn’t matter which side “wins”, the result will be slaughter and reprisals.
IS blows up oil fields near Tikrit to slow Iraqi forces.
IS has taken over Libya oilfields, as the situation there deteriorates too.