Iraq Unravels

[The Bread Guy]

This from SecDef ...
"Pentagon Rules Out Striking Iranian Cultural Sites, Contradicting Trump -- The defense secretary acknowledged that “the laws of armed conflict” prohibited attacking antiquities and said the military had no plans to do so, even though the president declared them targets ..."

 

[The Bread Guy]

Open letter from the CDS via the CAF info-machine on Twitter ...

The news coming out of the Middle East is alarming for many of you, as such I thought it best to communicate with you directly to provide an update on Canada’s missions in the region, and more importantly, the status and well-being of your family and friends deployed in Iraq and Kuwait and elsewhere in the Region.

First and foremost, let me assure you that all necessary force protection measures that can be taken have been taken. The safety and security of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel is my priority, as it is the priority of my senior leadership. Force protection measures continue to be considered, reassessed, and modified as required on a daily basis.

In response to the events of late, the CAF, working in collaboration with our international partners, has temporarily paused our efforts in Iraq that fall under Operation IMPACT, and the NATO Mission Iraq (NMI).  The situation in Iraq is complex and it is best to pause our work there in order to fully concentrate our attention and efforts towards the safety and security of our personnel while the situation develops.

We have approximately 800 military members in the region, about 500 in Iraq, some of them are deployed on Operation IMPACT, and some with NMI - two separate missions.  Over the coming days, and as a result of Coalition and NATO planning, some of our people will be moved temporarily from Iraq to Kuwait. Simply put, we are doing this to ensure their safety and security. This also holds true of NMI.‎ While this adjustment of our posture is underway, planned HLTA (leave) and rotation of people in and out of their tours will be interrupted.

Despite the operational pause in Iraq, our mission in the Middle East carries-on with multiple other operations in the region. Naturally, the work we are doing on these missions, and the future of operations in Iraq, remain conditional on maintaining a sufficiently secure and productive ‎operational environment.
Over the coming days and weeks we, the leadership of the Canadian Armed Forces, will communicate with you again, and as often as necessary, to ensure that you are well informed about the status of your CAF loved-ones. Thank you for your continued support to those deployed in the service of Canada.

Yours Sincerely,
J.H Vance
General
Chief of the Defence Staff

... with some initial MSM coverage ...

The Canadian military is temporarily relocating some soldiers from Iraq to Kuwait due to security concerns, chief of the defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance said Tuesday.

The move, which Vance announced in an open letter to the families of Canadian soldiers in Iraq that was posted to Twitter, follows the lead of Germany and several other allies who have withdrawn some of their troops.

"Over the coming days, and as a result of Coalition and NATO planning, some of our people will be moved temporarily from Iraq to Kuwait," Vance wrote. "Simply put, we are doing this to ensure their safety and security."

Canada has about 500 soldiers in Iraq, most of whom are there to help train local forces to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, including about 200 with a NATO mission in the south of the country and upwards of 200 special-forces soldiers in the north.

Vance did not specify how many Canadian troops were being pulled out of Iraq.

"Naturally, the work we are doing on these missions, and the future of operations in Iraq, remain conditional on maintaining a sufficiently secure and productive operational environment," he said.

Western troops in Iraq have been on high alert since the killing of an Iranian general by a U.S. drone at the Baghdad airport on Friday night ...

More @ link & attached letter.

- op edit to add text of CDS letter in post -

 

[Halifax Tar]

We (HMCS Fredericton) are set to deploy on a 7 month NATO very soon (week(s) away).  It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on our mission.

 

[Rifleman62]

CDS announcement: Does this interrupt the timeline for the service medal?

 

[Eye In The Sky]

The General Service Medal isn't awarded to CAF members serving in Iraq. 

But, I'd be more concerned with the reason folks are being moved to Kuwait and FP effectiveness until they get where I suspect they're going in Kuwait. 

Stick on the ice, troops.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Are we putting our training mission on hold because we're worried about our "Iraq allies" turning on us? If that's the case maybe we shouldn't be teaching them how to be better fighters.

If we're worried about outsider attacks from Iran loyalists how is it different from fighting in Afghanistan? We didn't put our mission on hold when the Taliban threatened us.

As for getting moved from Iraq to. Kuwait, ouch!

 

[Sub_Guy]

Are we putting our training mission on hold because we're worried about our "Iraq allies" turning on us? If that's the case maybe we shouldn't be teaching them how to be better fighters.

As for getting moved from Iraq to. Kuwait, ouch!

It’s the smart thing to do.

Being moved to Kuwait will be an upgrade.

 

[Jarnhamar]

It’s the smart thing to do.

Being moved to Kuwait will be an upgrade.

Those members are going to be packed into crappy transient quarters in Kuwait which are not intended to handle such a large influx or amount of people. Even going to meals will probably be a logistical problem. It's going to be super horrible for whoever's stuck there IMO.

 

[Remius]

Rocket attack on al Assad airbase...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/07/politics/rockets-us-airbase-iraq/index.html

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Those members are going to be packed into crappy transient quarters in Kuwait which are not intended to handle such a large influx or amount of people. Even going to meals will probably be a logistical problem. It's going to be super horrible for whoever's stuck there IMO.

Yup, I get it.  I've been to both the likely locations they're headed to.  I also know what the SF there is like, and it was pretty easy to sleep soundly once you were inside the ring.

Maybe they'll get lucky and it will be Mongolian grill night; always worth the wait, if not there's some choices outside of the DFAC if that's their biggest worry.  I'd take that over a potential shitshow in country.  :2c:

 

[brihard]

Rocket attack on al Assad airbase...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/07/politics/rockets-us-airbase-iraq/index.html

Video on Twitter of outbound missiles from Iran. Looks like the attack is legit. Some talk of other possible missile strikes up near Erbil.

Here we go...

 

[tomahawk6]

Hope everyone is safe. The President if possible should not retaliate this time.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Rocket attack on al Assad airbase...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/07/politics/rockets-us-airbase-iraq/index.html

2 for 1.  Attack on the US *officially*, with the *unofficial* aspect of maybe taking some Sunni's out.

 

[Remius]

Hope everyone is safe. The President if possible should not retaliate this time.

How does he not respond?  I don’t think he has a choice now after dropping the gauntlet.

Looks like these were missiles not rockets....

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I bet those missiles were launched from mobile launchers setup in civilian populated areas, in the hopes that Iranian civilians get targeted. US response should be slow and deliberate to avoid civilians as much as possible.

 

[Remius]

I bet those missiles were launched from mobile launchers setup in civilian populated areas, in the hopes that Iranian civilians get targeted. US response should be slow and deliberate to avoid civilians as much as possible.

Or cultural sites.  Anything to shape the narrative.

 

[gryphonv]

I bet those missiles were launched from mobile launchers setup in civilian populated areas, in the hopes that Iranian civilians get targeted. US response should be slow and deliberate to avoid civilians as much as possible.

Good thing they have a lot of target-able sites outside of civilian areas.

US don't have to kill the exact sites that shot the missles, a bloody nose is still a bloody nose.

 

[The Bread Guy]

How does he not respond?  I don’t think he has a choice now after dropping the gauntlet.

To be fair, POTUS45 doesn't have to respond within the hour - or in ways we'll hear about publicly right away.

Meanwhile ...

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is sharing the following information with the cybersecurity community as a primer for assisting in the protection of our Nation’s critical infrastructure in light of the current tensions between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States and Iran’s historic use of cyber offensive activities to retaliate against perceived harm

(...)

Iran has a history of leveraging asymmetric tactics to pursue national interests beyond its conventional capabilities. More recently, its use of offensive cyber operations is an extension of that doctrine. Iran has exercised its increasingly sophisticated capabilities to suppress both social and political perspectives deemed dangerous to Iran and to harm regional and international opponents.

Iranian cyber threat actors have continuously improved their offensive cyber capabilities. They continue to engage in more “conventional” activities ranging from website defacement, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, and theft of personally identifiable information (PII), but they have also demonstrated a willingness to push the boundaries of their activities, which include destructive wiper malware and, potentially, cyber-enabled kinetic attacks.

The U.S. intelligence community and various private sector threat intelligence organizations have identified the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a driving force behind Iranian state-sponsored cyberattacks–either through contractors in the Iranian private sector or by the IRGC itself ...

More @ link

 

[Jarnhamar]

US could always pull out of Iraq and invade Iran. Two birds with one stone.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

2 for 1.  Attack on the US *officially*, with the *unofficial* aspect of maybe taking some Sunni's out.

I completely disagree with this assessment.  Iran is not trying to kill Sunnis in this particular case, and to suggest so is to misinterpret the context, and revert to mean.