Swamp’s Doing Fine:

The Lies on Tal Afar Washington Will Now Tell

Rasa - This just in: Iraqi Army, backed by Hashed al-Shaabi forces and Iranian military advisors, have begun an operation to liberate Tal Afar from the ISIL terrorists who have been in control of the city since 2014.

News ID: 431878

Date: 22 August 2017 - 23:32

RNA - The offensive against the last major bastion of ISIL follows their success in liberating Mosul in July. Tal Afar, about 45 miles west of Mosul, is a much smaller city but is one of the last pockets of territory in Iraq held by the foreign-backed terrorists - who also face assaults on their last remaining positions in neighboring Syria.

No doubt capturing Tal Afar would be another major blow to ISIL's self-declared "caliphate" that once controlled large areas straddling Syria and Iraq. So far, the forces have retaken several villages on the western front, and they are only a few hundred meters from Al-Kifah, the nearest western neighborhood of the city. Hashed says its fighters have also advanced to the edges of Tal Afar's western suburbs.

Per usual, the news is not going well among warmongers and their media lackeys:

1- Fakestream media outlets in the West claim the battle for Tal Afar has sparked fears for thousands of civilians trapped inside. This is while UN humanitarian coordinator Lise Grande says thousands of families have safely walked for hours in extreme heat to escape Tal Afar, which was running out of food and water. The UN says up to 40,000 people have already fled the area of fighting, without reporting any civilian casualties.

2- Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the offensive in a pre-dawn televised speech Sunday, warning ISIL terrorists that they had "no choice other than to leave or be killed." He also said "we have won all our battles, and Daesh have always lost.” Obviously, this is not a battle against the people of Tal Afar; it’s a battle against those who terrorized its people for over three years.

3- The US-led coalition has welcomed the start of the assault and pledged its support for Iraqi forces battling the terrorists. Let’s keep it that way. Last thing the allied forces want is the US-led coalition bombing everything and everyone indiscriminately, leaving behind the ruin that is now Mosul and blaming it all on the Iraqi government forces and their allies. The operation to liberate Tal Afar is another important fight that must be won; but the government also ensures its citizens are safe. This is what the allied forces and their commanders have had in mind since Sunday when the ground battle began.

4- No one knows how many civilians are still left in the area where there is fighting, but the government and aid agencies are preparing for thousands more to flee in the coming days and weeks. There might be a flood of refugees from the Tal Afar region, but the “fakestream” media in the West doesn’t need to raise the alarms. As always, the government has what it takes to protect civilians in the battle zone. It has already dropped leaflets over the city, advising remaining residents of the impending maneuvers. Also, there were several hundred Yazidi captives held in Tal Afar, most of them women and children, who were liberated on Sunday.

5- US politicians, pundits and generals will speak about "progress" made by the coalition forces put into Tal Afar, however the hard and awful true reality is that their airstrikes will only result in civilian casualties, never liberating or protecting. On the same token, whatever President Trump announces about the battle for Tal Afar, in particular its liberation, we can be assured the lies about America’s deadly contribution in Iraq will continue. Similarly, any progress in defeating ISIL in Syria has been found to be near non-existent despite the unnecessary escalation in places like Raqqa.

Once the allied forces liberate Tal Afar, the world public will hear again the great lie about the liberation the American military made after the indiscriminate bombing, just as we often hear the lie about how the American military has "won" in Syria. In Syria, it was the allied forces of Iran, Syria, Russia and Hezbollah that brought about so many victories in a few short months along with the collapse of the moderate terrorist groups’ political balance that led to their downfall in many areas. In Syria there has never even been an American attempt at a political solution, and all the Syrian people have seen every year, has been a worsening of the humanitarian crisis.

The world will also hear how the US military has done great things for the Tal Afar people. You would be hard pressed to find many Iraqis approve that. Whatever the US announces about the ongoing battle in the coming days and weeks, we can be assured the lies about US progress in Iraq will continue, the lies about America's commitment to human rights and democratic values will continue, the profits of the military companies will also continue, and of course the suffering of the Iraqi people will surely continue.

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