Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 06/22/2014

DEAR FRIEND.....

• Entity: ISIS insurgents
• Activity: Posing with weapons and flags in a desert landscape.
• Context: Associated with the fall of Mosul and instability in Iraq, as mentioned in the accompanying text.
• Visuals: Black ISIS flags, firearms, vehicles.

As JFK once lamented, "Success has a thousand fathers whilefailure is an orphan," in light of the recent events in Iraq journalist and author Fareed Zakaria wrote an op-ed last week in The Washington Post — Who lost Iraq? The Iraqis did, with an assist from George W. Bush. With the fall of Mosal to ISIS insurgents, Kirkuk to Kurdish forces and a number of Sunni groups threatening to march on Baghdad it is becoming increasingly likely that Iraq has reached a turning point of no return as forces hostile to the government have grown stronger, better equipped and more organized. And having now secured arms, ammunition and hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from their takeover of Mosul — Iraq's second-largest city — they will build on these strengths. Inevitably, in Washington, the question has surfaced: Who lost Iraq?

Key Information:

• Mosul fell to Sunni militants from ISIS and allied Sunni Arab tribesmen.
• ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is an offshoot of al-Qaida.
• The conflict involves groups who are anti-Kurd and anti-Shiite.
• Areas are categorized by ethnic group: Kurd, Sunni, Turkmen, Sunni Arab/Kurd mix, Sunni Arab, Sunni Arab/Shiite Arab mix, Shiite Arab, and sparsely populated areas.
• Population breakdown in Iraq: Shiite Arab (60%), Sunni Arab (20%), Sunni Kurd (17%), Other (3%).
• Major oilfields and oil refineries are highlighted in the map, with many located in areas influenced or controlled by ISIL.

[...truncated for brevity, see full user content for complete text...]

Greg Brown

Gregory Brown
Chairman & CEO
GlobalCast Partners, LLC

US: +1-415-994-7851
Tel: +1-800-406-5892
Fax: +1-310-861-0927
Skype: gbrown1970