11 years ago America and the Coalition began Operation Iraqi Freedom, an attempt to stop Saddam Hussein and bring peace to a country that had, and still has a history of being plagued by war. During this war 4,486 Americans died before the coalition withdrew in 2011. When Americans left the country the government insured us that war was won and the Iraqi people were safe. Just like the idea that started the war, this was a lie. The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (aka the ISIS) a spinoff of Al Qaeda, has begun a civil war in Iraq. Also known as the ISIS, Taking over two cities in two days, the ISIL is a real threat to Iraqis.
–“The Iraqi city of Tikrit has been seized by fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,
security sources have said, the second city to fall to the group in two days. Sources told Al Jazeera
on Wednesday that gunmen had set up checkpoints around Tikrit, which lies between the capital
Baghdad and Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city which was captured by ISIL on Tuesday.
“All of Tikrit is in the hands of the militants,” a police colonel told the AFP news agency. A police
brigadier general told AFP that fighters attacked from the north, west and south of the city, and that
they were from ISIL.
A police major told the agency that ISIL fighters had freed about 300 inmates from a prison in the
city, which is the capital of Salaheddin province. Iraqi state television reported that Special Forces
soldiers were fighting to regain control of city. Sources claimed the Iraqi soldiers had cleared the city
of ISIL, but these reports remain unverified. Meanwhile, sources said the nearby city of Kirkuk, home
to Iraq’s biggest oil refinery, was also being attacked by ISIL. Fighters had guaranteed the safety of
Iraqi soldiers if they gave up their weapons.
In Samarra, south of Tikrit, witnesses told AFP that fighters had arrived in trucks mounted with
machineguns, while a policeman said his unit was involved in fighting at the northwest entrance the
city. The fighting comes after half a milion people are reported to have fled Mosul since the city was
taken over by ISIL on Tuesday. The Geneva-based International Organization for Migration said the
Mosul takeover had “displaced over 500,000 people in and around the city”, a quarter of the city’s
population.”– Via Aljazeera
The fall of Mosul and Tikrit brings up an old question a lot of people ask when the war in Iraq was
declared over: “Were the American soldiers deaths in Iraq worth it?!”
– Brandon
Product Of Society 