Posted by Tina
This may turn out to be one of the few bright lights in the news today:
BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers elected a veteran Kurdish politician as the nation’s new president on Thursday, hours after an attack on a prison convoy killed dozens of people, brutally underscoring the challenges faced by the country’s leaders as they struggle to form a new government.
The 76-year-old Fouad Massoum, one of the founders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party led by Iraq’s previous President Jalal Talabani, accepted the mostly ceremonial position after winning two-thirds of the votes in parliament, noting the “huge security, political and economic tasks” facing the next government.
Massoum’s election comes as Iraq is facing its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops amid the blitz offensive last month by al Qaeda breakaway Islamic State group that captured large swaths of land in the country’s west and north, including Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul. The militants have also seized a huge chunk of territory straddling the Iraq-Syria border, and have declared a self-styled caliphate in the territory they control.
Source: CTV News
Without direct military and weapons assistance from the US and EU Iraq is lost.
Which indicates how sad it is that this could be the one bright spot in the news.
Dang it jack, just look at these landings.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7P9OAng32F0
And what the heck are these areoplanes smoking?
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zW4PmUE151c
Pie, we are in complete agreement. It’s nice that they elected more reasonable leader, but his influence is so compromised now, it just doesn’t matter.
Next, Bob thanks for the videos. I bet the passengers were saying a lot of hail Mary’s.
Re #3 bob :
I was impressed with how the aircraft and pilots handled the crosswind situations.