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| NATO in IRAQ |
13 January 2019: This new reality has been referenced as soon-to-occur on Eschatology Today in more SITREP's than we have fingers to count them on. For reference material, if one were to go into the blog archive from 2014 to the present and seek out SITREP's D6-14, E3-15, C2-16, C3-16 D11-16 and E1-16, this half dozen plus D7-18 and A2-19 would suffice for the referencing purpose.
The big picture is that the US withdrawal from Syria was never a unilateral decision by President Trump; it did not occur in a vacuum, nor was it ever envisioned to create one in Syria. Since taking office the POTUS has been on NATO's case to increase its funding of the military needs of the alliance, to become more involved in war zone operations. Even the Iraqi government requested a more robust NATO presence in the country. Now it is a reality.
Eschatology Today has discussed how the Syrian war was morphing into a global war (see also: SITREP D7-18 MidEast Wars Magnified). One global media report has coined a new phrase to name this morphing war as the "Syraq War." With U.S. forces in northern Syria withdrawing to Iraq, and the forces at al-Tanf staying put for the foreseeable future, the big link up and base of warfighting operations in the coming months will be from Iraq.
This past December a significant conference occurred in Baghdad at the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. The conference was largely unheralded in major media, just a blurb here and there, yet the net result was the establishment of NATO Mission Iraq (NMI). The parent military command for NATO Mission Iraq is the NATO southern command in Naples, Italy. Formerly known as AFSOUTH, this long-time NATO base is presently known as NATO Allied Joint Force Command. The primary military entities that will fold their operations into the new NATO Mission Iraq will be the U.S.-led CJTF-OIR, the E.U.-led Mission in Iraq, the U.N. Assistance Mission Iraq, the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq and several other diplomatic missions.
The NATO Mission Iraq presents problems for the Russian Federation, and Turkey, but most especially for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran will no longer be able to use Iraq as a high speed highway to transit its military supplies into Syria. Hence the near daily air-bridge flights of 747 cargo aircraft between Tehran's and Damascus' international airports. And given a little time for that air lifted material to accumulate in Damascus, Israel then strikes and destroys the hastily constructed warehouses that are filled with it. Checkmate.
This new reality was largely brought about by Israel. PM Netanyahu presented it to Donald Trump, and after a couple of phone calls in December our President demonstrated his acceptance and enthusiastic support for this new paradigm by making the surprise announcement that 2,000 U.S. troops would be exiting from Syria. But it's not really a withdrawal from Syria as it is actually a redeployment to Iraq. In fact, there are numerous OSINT reports of a U.S. military build up occurring in Iraq. More bad news for Iran.
The NATO Mission Iraq is also, in effect, the joining of Iraq into a military partnership with NATO. This is a muscle-up of the longstanding NATO-Iraq relationship which began after Operation Iraqi Freedom concluded which was so grossly ineffective during the rise of the Islamic State in western Iraq following the unilateral and ill-advised Obama withdrawal of U.S. boots on Iraqi soil. The NMI is not only a problem for Iran, but it guarantees there will be no Islamic State resurgence in the country.
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Also going to note in this SITREP the leaked information of yesterday. This past December President Trump's National Security Adviser, John Bolton, requested the Pentagon to advise him of contingency plans for a U.S. military strike on Iran. This strike would have been in retaliation for the recent "acts of war" committed on behalf of Iran by their Iraqi Shi'a proxy militias in mortar attacks against the U.S. consulte in Basra and and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
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As of this morning, Tuesday, 15 January 2019, Lt.Gen. Aviv Kochavi is the IDF Chief of Staff (CoS). Eschatolgy Today has a high regard for anyone who began their military career by making combat jumps (700ft/213m) out of perfectly good airplanes. The military operations against Iran and Hezbollah in Syria now rests upon his very capable shoulders. Will he be the IDF CoS who will see through the fulfillment of Isaiah 17? Time will tell.
Hezbollah's chief, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has been conspicuously MIA for some time now. Since 21 December his second in command, Naim Qassem, has been making the important speeches Nasrallah would normally make after events such as the IDF destruction of multiple Hezbollah tunnels or IAF strikes on Hezbollah positions. The rumor is that Nasrallah suffered a coronary stroke in late November or early December; he's not be seen or heard from since then. A speech braodcast yesterday is from the Hezbollah archives of 2015 when he was also hospitalized during his fight with cancer.
Iran's launch of of a Shahab-6/Simorgh, Iran's long desired nuclear-capable ICBM, failed this morning, the third stage (the "bow") did not ignite properly. No word on where the payload (i.e. simulated nuclear warhead), named "Message," returned to earth. Iran has acknowledged the failure of this launch. An attempt to launch a second Shahab-6/Simorgh with payload is scheduled shortly. If it fails, will we begin to see the fulfillment of Jeremiah 49:35? “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the foremost of their might." The Shahab-6/Simorgh is the foremost of the Iranian nuclear weapons delivery systems.
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As of this morning, Tuesday, 15 January 2019, Lt.Gen. Aviv Kochavi is the IDF Chief of Staff (CoS). Eschatolgy Today has a high regard for anyone who began their military career by making combat jumps (700ft/213m) out of perfectly good airplanes. The military operations against Iran and Hezbollah in Syria now rests upon his very capable shoulders. Will he be the IDF CoS who will see through the fulfillment of Isaiah 17? Time will tell.
Hezbollah's chief, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has been conspicuously MIA for some time now. Since 21 December his second in command, Naim Qassem, has been making the important speeches Nasrallah would normally make after events such as the IDF destruction of multiple Hezbollah tunnels or IAF strikes on Hezbollah positions. The rumor is that Nasrallah suffered a coronary stroke in late November or early December; he's not be seen or heard from since then. A speech braodcast yesterday is from the Hezbollah archives of 2015 when he was also hospitalized during his fight with cancer.
Iran's launch of of a Shahab-6/Simorgh, Iran's long desired nuclear-capable ICBM, failed this morning, the third stage (the "bow") did not ignite properly. No word on where the payload (i.e. simulated nuclear warhead), named "Message," returned to earth. Iran has acknowledged the failure of this launch. An attempt to launch a second Shahab-6/Simorgh with payload is scheduled shortly. If it fails, will we begin to see the fulfillment of Jeremiah 49:35? “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the foremost of their might." The Shahab-6/Simorgh is the foremost of the Iranian nuclear weapons delivery systems.
