Special Forces advisors have set up an operations center in northern Iraq as part of the expanding U.S. political and military effort to keep Iraq from splintering against attacks by Islamic extremists, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday...Since Kurdistan controls valuable energy reserves, the region remains a prize in the eyes of US interests. However, one has to wonder how the "Irbil Mission" will play out at all, considering the Kurdish Regional Government is nearing secession from Iraq, despite strong opposition from the Obama administration. Only last week, John Kerry visited Irbil in a failed attempt to convince the Kurds not to secede, pushing them instead to work with Baghdad to combat ISIS/TIS. The Kurdish leaders did not take the bait, and Massoud Barzani told BBC News he intends to hold a referendum on Kurdish independence within months.
...The Irbil mission will complement the JOC already in operation in Baghdad in assessing the capability and will of the Iraqi national security forces to combat militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant who have swept across large swaths of western and northern Iraq against little opposition..."
The installation of Special Forces in Irbil also contradicts what US officials insist is the main focus of their “advisory” mission, supposedly to assess the Iraqi military. The Pentagon claims US troops in Baghdad are doing that, but Irbil is quite a distance from any Iraqi military personnel.
Despite hollow assurances to the contrary, all indications are the US “advisers” are preparing for direct combat operations in both Iraq and Kurdistan, as the Pentagon continues to ship Apache attack helicopters to Baghdad to protect US Interests™ in the capital, along with plenty of combat troops to fly them.
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