US agrees to withdraw from Iraq or to continue to stay?

 

The US has agreed to withdraw its remaining combat forces from Iraq, at a date to be determined in talks with Baghdad, and remain in the country solely in an advisory and support role against terrorists.

“US forces are in Iraq at the invitation of Iraqi Government to support the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) in their fight against ISIS,” said a joint statement following the “strategic dialogue” between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein on Wednesday.

“Based on the increasing capacity of the ISF, the parties confirmed that the mission of U.S. and Coalition forces has now transitioned to one focused on training and advisory tasks, thereby allowing for the redeployment of any remaining combat forces from Iraq, with the timing to be established in upcoming technical talks,” the statement added.

Joint statement on the U.S.-Iraq strategic dialogue. security section 3rd pic pic.twitter.com/4i0pGFD0XQ

— Laura Rozen (@lron)

The above is quoted from RT. Superficially the US said they agree to withdraw from Iraq after intense pressure from the Iraqi govt, a democratically elected govt, telling them they are not needed and to get out of Iraq.  The excuse of staying in Iraq, after lying about WMD and invaded Iraq, murdered its President Saddam Hussein, was that they were invited by the Iraqi govt to fight ISIS. 

The Iraqi govt has said it plain and clear, get out, they don't need the Americans. What did the agreement above said?

The Americans agreed to get out, when not decided, how many to get out not decided. What is cleared is that the Americans would continue to be in Iraq on an advisory and training role. So, how many Americans would still be in Iraq? 10,000, 50,000?

Are the Iraqis capable of fighting the ISIS? Why must they need the Americans to stay to fight the ISIS? Was this requested by the Iraqis, decided by the Iraqis, or by the Americans?

Poor Iraqis, the Americans once 'invited' themselves into the country would not go without a fight, without being chased out. They are treating Iraq as an American protectorate, a semi colony, and Iraq has to pay them for staying in Iraq.

When would the Arab and Muslim countries be freed from the oppression and control of the Americans? The agreement is as good as no agreement.  The Americans would do a show with a few announcements and pulling out a few soldiers but the bulk of the American soldiers would stay, forever if they could.  What can the Iraqi govt do about it? Nothing, just like Japan and South Korea, semi colonies have no say and have to pay for the American bases and soldiers, 'to protect them'.

What a joke. Another white lie.

Singapore's next PM...all planned and carefully thought out

 With Heng Swee Kiat calling it a day, not wanting to be the face of the country, not wanting to take the pressure that is building up in all corners, he must have seen them coming, I would agree that he made the right choice not to be in the way when the roof comes tumbling down.

4 names are now in the front page of the local media as the possible contenders to be PM. Chan Chun Sing, Ong Ye Kung, Lawrence Wong and Desmond Lee are the ones put up by the PAP to prepare the people to get use to them.

What would be the reactions of the people? The real feelings of the people on the choice put forward could not be missed. The heads are all shaking in disbelief but not a word would be spoken. The little noises in the social media were just meaningless noise that at best be forgotten. Without seeing anything, hearing anything, I could still feel the unhappiness, the grudging frustration from some quarters that this could not be, but withholding the words that wanted to throw out from their stomach...but had to swallow them back in silence. Better not to say anything.

The situation is so uncomfortable in the politically conscious quarters struggling to accept what is happening. The reality presented to them is just unbelieveable, more like fiction, more like a badly written script that is best not written.

This is looking like the calm before the storm. It is too peaceful and quiet to believe that all is well. No one will go against the plan, everything will be smooth flowing according to the script and the script writer. The sheep will be sheep, black sheep, white sheep, all will be sheep and will behave exactly like sheep, headless, leaderless, and the sheep dog would have his day.

Is that going to be the order of the day? Dunno about what others feel, I can feel the tension under this fake calm of inactivity.

Covid19 - Americans bragging about helping others but still helping themselves first...and still not helping anyone

 Tue, 6 April 2021

The United States will soon be able to ramp up vaccine assistance abroad and will not seek "favors in return," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday, putting a veteran aid administrator in charge.

Blinken said the top US priority was to fight Covid-19 at home but that the goal would be achieved soon, pointing to President Joe Biden's promise that 90 percent of Americans will be near a vaccination site by April 19.

"We are exploring options to share more with other countries going forward. We believe that we'll be in a position to do much more on this front," Blinken said. Yahoo News

The Americans have yet to help any country other than helping themselves by hogging all the vaccines produced in their American first policy. But this does not stop them or shame them from bragging about helping others. They are using a megaphone and with the help of western media, literary blowing their horns about how they are going to help other selected countries, and with conditions, unlike the Chinese and Russians sharing their vaccines without conditions. And as usual, being accused of setting conditions that they did not but the hypocrites are the ones that are setting conditions, be our puppets, be our cronies, and we will help you.

This is how low the Americans have gone down, politicising even the use of vaccines that are meant to save lives but not before saving themselves first. Only after they have vaccinated all Americans would they think of sharing some with others. In the meantime, for almost a year, China and Russia have been sharing their vaccines with many countries around the world, especially those that could not afford to give an arm or a leg for western vaccines, ...and without conditions. Even some enemy countries of China were given the vaccines when they asked for it.

How many still believe in the American lies about Americans helping others? It is always Americans first and if they helped, it is all about leftovers and with conditions.

Has any country been helped by the Americans in this pandemic? The only things we heard of were Americans hijacking and stealing PPEs, masks, gloves etc meant for other countries and also for hoarding all the production of western vaccines for themselves first and still hoarding because they have yet to complete vaccinating Americans. They would only help others after they helped themselves.

In the mean time China has sent vaccines to more than 80 countries and could be more if the Americans have not coerced other countries from using Chinese vaccines.  Can you believe that, the Americans are not sharing the vaccines with other countries and forbidding them from using vaccines from China and Russia? This is how the Americans are helping themselves, preparing to sell their overpriced and questionable vaccines to the unwary and coerced countries.

Wildlife will attack when hungry

 

Pic from Yahoo News showing a hornbill eating a pet song bird from a cage. The owner, typical unthinking Singaporeans, think everything is safe in Singapore. Wildlife also very safe, very nice.

'Others were more sympathetic, asking the public not to blame the hornbill as it was just looking for food to survive. (Wait till the wildlife break into your homes and look for food when they are hungry)

One Facebook user urged Singaporeans to stop criticising the videographer, saying it was the bird owner’s responsibility to keep their pets safe.

“It is important that people understand hornbills can do this,” wrote the user.

“That’s the law of nature, in the estate I lived in, hornbills typically pick young chicks off their nest, if one were to intervene, the hornbill may go hungry and die of starvation,” a second comment read.

“We basically destroyed their house the place where they can find food. Now they seem to be desperate. Still say they have plenty of food? Think again,” another said.

In densely populated Singapore, hornbills live wild and free and have made headlines in recent years, according to the National Parks Board.'

 

The above is quoted from an article in Yahoo News. Wildlife were welcome into this dense little habitat called home by many Singaporeans. They fed them, love them, talked affectionately about them, want to hug them, want to bring them home. Even cut down trees to build more homes for them.  But they never thought about the consequences when there are too many of them and when they are hungry. People living near wildlife please don't take your safety for granted, your possession would be taken from you by the wildlife when they are hungry.

The imbeciles still want to bring in more wildlife, unlimited wildlife to be neighbours of little caged birds that are used to the safety of four walls. They think the walls are strong and wildlife are unable to break in. When they are not around, especially away working, their homes and possessions are at the mercy of wildlife that are lurking around the corners or living next door.

Stupidity has no cure and will never be cured. You die your business.

PS.

Resident Veron Tan told CNA she saw the otters at about 4pm, adding that they ate about "80 to 90 per cent" of the fish living in a pond. They also swam in the condominium's pool, she said.

"Twelve otters terrorised my condo today. They ate up pretty much most of the fish we had. Depressing. We feed the fish every weekend," said Ms Tan. CNA

Leong Sze Hian crowdfunded $133,000 to pay Lee Hsien Loong

 The court ordered Leong Sze Hian to pay $133,000 plus cost to Lee Hsien Loong for defamation. Leong crowdfunded and the people, the public, duly sent him $133,000 to pay for it. The fund is still growing as there will be more to pay.  Davinder Singh, counsel for Lee Hsien Loong, has yet to send in his bill which is not going to be small, likely to be more than $133,000.

Lim Tean said the amount if excessive would be challenged and the court would have to decide what is fair. Of course what is fair is highly subjective and controversial. To some, $10,000 is big money. To some $1m is small change.

And there is still an option to appeal against the sentence which means the crowdfunding of $133,000 would definitely not be enough. How much eventually the people would have to cough out to help Leong Sze Hian to pay for reposting a facebook message without adding any comments that led to this defamation lawsuit is yet to be seen. 

Let's see how much is Davinder's legal fees.

All of you are kindly reminded not to anyhow forward messages in facebook, whatsapp etc etc. It can be a very costly and scary affair.  Leong Sze Hian had sleepless nights and stress for 2 and a half years just for reposting a facebook message originated from Malaysia...unless you have very deep pockets.