Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on August 3, 2014
Islamic State captures Iraqi oil field, defeating Kurds
Islamic State Sunni insurgents have captured the northern Iraqi town of Zumar and a nearby oil field in their first major defeat of Kurdish fighters, witnesses said on Sunday.
The al-Qaeda offshoot, which swept through northern Iraq in June almost unopposed by the U.S.-trained army, poses the biggest challenge to the stability of Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
After thousands of Iraqi soldiers fled the Islamic State offensive, Shi’ite militias and Kurdish fighters emerged as a key line of defence against the militants, who have threatened to march on Baghdad.
Kurdish forces had poured in reinforcements, including special forces, to Zumar, where they battled Islamic State fighters who had arrived from three directions on pickup trucks mounted with weapons, residents said.
Militants hoisted the Islamic State’s black flag on buildings, a ritual that has in the past been followed by the mass execution of captured opponents and the violent imposition of an ideology that even al-Qaeda finds excessive.
Islamic State has stalled in its drive to reach Baghdad, halting just north of the town of Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of the capital.
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) changed its name earlier this year and declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria. The group has already seized four oil fields, which help fund its operations.
It has been trying to consolidate its gains, setting its sights on strategic towns near oil fields, as well as border crossings with Syria so that it can move easily back and forth and transport supplies.
The group has capitalized on sectarian tensions and disenchantment with Iraq’s Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Critics describe Maliki as an authoritarian leader who has put allies from the Shi’ite majority in key military and government positions at the expense of Sunnis, driving a growing number of the minority to support the Islamic State and other insurgents. He is also at odds with the Kurds.
INDEPENDENT STATE
The Kurds have long dreamed of their own independent state, an aspiration that angers Maliki, who has frequently clashed with the non-Arabs over budgets, land and oil.
After the Islamic State arrived, Kurdish forces seized two oil fields in northern Iraq and took over operations from a state-run oil company.
In July, the Kurdish political bloc ended participation in Iraq’s national government in protest over Maliki’s accusation that Kurds were allowing “terrorists” to stay in Arbil, capital of their semi-autonomous region known as Kurdistan.
In another move certain to infuriate the government, the Kurdish region is pressing Washington for sophisticated weapons it says Kurdish fighters need to push back Islamist militants, Kurdish and U.S. officials said.
But Maliki needs the Kurds to defend his government against Sunni insurgents.
Maliki is currently ruling in a caretaker capacity, having won a parliamentary election in April but failing to win enough support from the Kurdish and Arab Sunni minorities as well as fellow Shi’ites to form a new government.
He has rejected calls by Sunnis, Kurds and Shi’ites to step aside so a less polarising figure can form a power-sharing government capable of easing sectarian tension and countering the insurgency.
An official in the Northern Oil Company said Islamic State fighters had taken control of the Ain Zalah oil field and two other undeveloped fields – Batma and Sufaiya.
In a statement on its website, Islamic State said its fighters killed scores of Kurdish fighters in a 24-hour battle and then took over Zumar and 12 villages.
“Hundreds fled leaving vehicles and a huge number of weapons and munitions and the brothers control many areas,” Islamic State said. “The fighters arrived in the border triangle between Iraq, Syria and Turkey,” it said.
Islamic State’s ambitions have alarmed other Arab states who fear their success could embolden militants in their countries.
Eight Lebanese soldiers were killed in clashes with Islamist militants that began on Saturday in and around the town of Arsal near the Syrian border and continued overnight, the army said. Earlier Lebanese security officials said at least 11 militants and three civilians had been killed in the fighting there and that around 16 members of the security forces had been taken hostage. The militants included fighters from al Qaeda’s Syrian branch and from Islamic State.
On Friday, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah called on regional leaders and religious scholars to prevent Islam from being hijacked by militants.
35 Comments on "Islamic State captures Iraqi oil field, defeating Kurds"
Arthur on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 7:00 am
Turkey secretly loves this development and watches amused from the sideline, while ISIS bulldozers away all the old frontiers in the ME. And when ISIS is finished, Turkey will step in with it’s mighty army and will bulldozer ISIS away and implement a somewhat milder version of the Caliphate. Next the Caliphate will solve the Palestinian problem, at the cost of Israel. Go Turkey. Running a Caliphate has much more grandeur than being a distrusted second rate EU member.
http://tinyurl.com/nxeu6bm
(Neocon Daniel Pipes has his wellfounded suspiscions regarding the true intentions of Turkey)
JuanP on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 9:28 am
Art, I hope you are not counting on Erdogan to lead the way, that guy is a fool fast becoming a cartoon petty dictator.
I disagree with your assesment of Turkey’s army as mighty, they can’t even deal with their Kurds at home, forget ISIS.
Turkey is a mess and fast becoming a dictatorship. Turkey is already in collapse and well past its prime. I personally believe most of the world will go tribal with some places getting there faster than others.
The MENA area never stopped being tribal, even during its apogee with the Egyptian pharaos.
Jenneva on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 11:07 am
It’s only a setback..
regroup.
You are doing this all by yourself…
with the world watching and hoping..
You need some help and some arms and it’s time you got them.
I don’t understand why , as the area’s best and brightest hope, that you haven’t received them yet.
There are many in every corner of the world who support you and want you to succeed.
Mr. Barzani- I wonder if an internet donation site could be set up for donations, to be first used for legal representation to get those tankers off Texas’ shores, docked and unloaded. With that funding, you could purchase arms. The site could provide a format for people to state their interest, possibly in the form of a petition to support your statehood -and have it recognized by other governments. There is one online now but it is fake, a cover for using the information for ad solicitation purposes. I want something I can sign and send to the White House that is authenticated as being from you and from KURDISTAN. Keep calling it by the name it is.
You will succeed. It is only a matter of time. Get a young person with experience to enable the social media, within hours it can fuel a positive storm of alliance.
We join you in your dreams. Jenneva
bobinget on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 11:28 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant
An ‘Islamic State’ victory even if temporary, is absolutely shocking (Headline) news.
This is the first time ISIS faced a genuine military
opposition and prevailed. Fueled by these additional oil revenues there is no stopping ISIS from dominating
the entire region.
The only defense against this ‘Islamic State’ would be recalculating Mideast alliances. Could new coalitions
be formed at this stage? Russia and Iran for political and religious reasons can be counted on to oppose
‘The Islamic State’ the problem for the West would be if Iran and Russia prevailed, Russia and Iran would be the all powerful in the region. OTOH what would be the alternative?
ISIS funding could be cut by destroying or disabling captured oil fields. This of course would cause oil prices to rise beyond affordability.
Israel the next ISIS target, must have seen this coming.
Post Gaza, Israel won’t be voted ‘Miss Popularity’ anywhere in the world. What nation will come to Israel’s side? When supersonic missiles begin Hard Rain on Israel. How, or more to the point, where will she retaliate?…
By destroying Gaza, Israel has painted itself into a corner with only nuclear weapons as ‘defense’.
And YET Israel needs desperately to realign it’s relations with Iran of all nations, if it expects to survived.
Yesterday, I posited Israel (and the US) might arm Syria as a proxy fighting force against ISIS. Today, because of ISIS victories in Syria and Iraq that idea is off the table if it ever was on.
Fighting in Gaza and now Lebanon signals the beginnings of a far wider war.
Last week oil prices plummeted because no supply was interrupted.
Plantagenet on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 11:40 am
The sheer incompetence of Obama and the failure of his foreign policy has now resulted in the formation of an al Qaida type Islamist state in the Middle East. It was idiotic of Obama to focus all his attention on Afghanistan—an insignificant country—while turning his back on Iraq and the oil-rich Middle East, the most strategic bits of real estate in the world.
Arthur on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 11:50 am
Far more important than these oil fields is the fact that ISIS also captured the largest hydropower station of Iraq, situated north of Mosul. Now they can competely flood that huge city, if not wash it away in a deluge of biblical proportions. Never a dull day with these chaps.
Juan, maybe you want to reconsider the strength of the Turkish army:
http://www.sportrichlist.com/top10/countries-with-largest-armies-in-the-world/
Wiki has similar figures.
Erdogan is not a fool, dictators seldom are, otherwise they would not have gotten their resp tax farms under control. The Turks were always able to deal with the Kurds. An independent Kurdistan was never a realistic threat. Turkey is absolutely not in a state of collapse, but growing rapidly. Turkey has controlled the ME for centurues (until the Europeans came along) and could do do again.
Arthur on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 11:57 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosul_Dam
Water content:11 km3
If I remember well, Mount Hellens was 2 km3
To paraphrase the great leader Saddam, if Shi’ite infidel would recapture Mosul, these ISIS clowns could organize ***The Mother of all Water Ballets ***
Arthur on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 12:04 pm
The dam is already risking immanent collapse:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7069109.stm
1.7 million people would be drowned in a wave of 20 m.
Arthur on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 12:08 pm
The dam is build of water-soluble gypsum. And now it gets interesting: the tsunami would even hit Bagdad, the capital of the enemies of ISIS.
Arthur on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 12:29 pm
Plant, you still have not understood that the US was more or less kicked out of Iraq. During the last phase of the occupation the GIs hardly dared to leave the Green Zone to go on patrol, as they constantedly had to be afraid to be IED-ed. And even in the Green Zone they were not safe, because of explosives lobbed into it. It was hopeless, a waste of time. Read the interview with uber-neocohn Edward – give war a chance – Luttwak, titled: ‘did the US occupy Iraq? (Answer: no).
Northwest Resident on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 1:13 pm
Plant — It is one thing to criticize something when you have better ideas or potentially better ideas that ought to be considered. But just sitting there criticizing constantly without having any alternative ideas or solutions to propose just makes you look like a cranky old fool.
So Plant, given the fact that Obama’s decisions are the result of consensus formed between national security (intelligence/military) experts, financial and industrial energy top-level representatives, regular consultations with allies and other sources of credible information that neither you or I have access — given all that, Plant, oh wise one, please tell us where Obama went wrong in his foreign policy decisions, and explain in detail what YOU would have done differently.
Don’t look like a cranky old fool, Plant. Let’s hear your brilliant strategies for correcting Obama’s “incompetent” mistakes.
synapsid on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 3:27 pm
Arthur,
If considering flooding as a weapon then keep an eye on Turkey. Turkey controls the headwaters of the Euphrates and Tigris both, upstream from the dams IS has captured.
JuanP on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 5:00 pm
Art, the Americans couldn’t control Iraq or Afghanistan with the mightiest armed forces on the planet, so I can’t believe the Turks can conquer the ME and recreate some kind of Ottoman Empire.
I don’t believe Turkey will benefit from what is happening with ISIS. The whole world is headed towards smaller, less complex systems, I don’t see any new big empires during the contraction years. Things will become more local.
Turkey’s economy is growing faster than many developed economies, but Turkey is not a fully developed economy and that growth has come down in the last couple of years, to 2.2% in 2012 and 3.8% in 2013. When adjusted for real inflation and population growth and taking into consideration economic inequality, that probably means that things have been getting worse for more than 90% of Turks for at least two years, similar to the USA.
And I don’t think Erdogan is a smart person.
Arthur on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 5:38 pm
Juan, the difference is that the Americans were seen in Afghanistan and Iraq as an infidel enemy, where Turkey would be considered as ‘their own kind’ (birds of a feather, flock together). The Ottoman empire existed for centuries before the fossil fuel age, so why not after that age?
Davy on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 5:39 pm
Juan, wouldn’t it be fun if you and I could fly over to see Art (if he would have us) and have a nice Dutch beer and listen to Art paint a picture of the world. Art could paint a picture of history past, present, and future while we sit around his garden and drink and laugh. Painting pictures not unlike his cousin Vincent. I am not commenting true or false on Art’s historical works, what I am saying is they are full of life and action much like his cousin Vincent’s The Starry Night, Irises, Wheat fields with crows, and Café Terrace at night.
JuanP on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 5:45 pm
Art, even before the fossil age, the civilized world was experiencing growth at a slower rate, with accompanying increasing abundance, population, and complexity. I see completely different dynamics at work in a post peak world.
Your point about the Turks being Muslims and, therefore, perceived very differently is very good, but I still think decreasing complexity rules the present and future, making these times very different from all previous global human experience. Collapseefore was always local, this time it’s global, and we are all going under, including Turkey, IMO.
JuanP on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 5:51 pm
Davy, we could try some of those potatoes he brags so much about. I agree Art’s perspective is very unique and adds a lot to the conversation. I think it is in considering as many possibilities as possible that lies the way to a better understanding of our differences and life in general. Cheers!
bobinget on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 6:43 pm
Market watchers who follow ‘defense’ companies are as excited as two 16 year olds in a back seat on ‘Lover’s Lane’.
Just Google ‘bullish defense companies’ stocks.
Example: each anti missile-missile used by Israel to shoot down incoming cost one million dollars.
Iron dome should be called golden dome.
It came to me, one reason Israel is pulling out of Gaza may simple be IDF is running low on anti missiles.
Davy on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 7:04 pm
Bob, I would mention maybe Gaza is no longer a “target rich” environment but it appears to me the earth scorching is adequate per the cost benefit calculations the IDF would consider when weighing sq. /km leveled verses global public opinion. You know at some point people might consider it genocide or something. If that happened how would the Jews remain special? They would have to admit the Palestinians to their exclusive club.
Davy on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 7:08 pm
In a perfect world the two peoples would somehow cancel each other out and turn into a completely different people much like two elements do on the periodic table. If there is one part of the world that resembles an asshole that is it. You can’t make stink smell good no matter how hard you try.
Makati1 on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 10:37 pm
And in other news:
“ISIS Captures Iraq’s Biggest Dam: Baghdad Water Supply In Jeopardy”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-03/isis-captures-iraqs-biggest-dam-baghdad-water-supply-jeopardy
And the beat goes on…
Northwest Resident on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 11:24 pm
Makati1 — Interesting link. Interesting comments too, such as:
“But, but… ISIS just “came out of nowhere” and “caught us by surprise”, well armed and driving brand new — and matching — white Toyotas. This is the Plan, to fracture Iraq and Syria into sectarian pieces. Mossad, CIA with House of Saud, that’s my bet.”
And another: “Fracturing any and all resource rich countries into sectarian pieces is what Ms. VICTORIA NULAND and our demented, fascist, ‘foreign policy’ is all about.”
Looks like chaos. But maybe there is a plan behind all that chaos.
Arthur on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 2:21 am
The initial idea was to turn Iraq into a nice democratic country and meek member of the US global empire. An insane idea: democracy only has a meaning within a European/American industrialized Enlightenment context, where the rest of the world is essentially tribal (‘racist’).
Many predicted that Iraq would fall apart. But what the Clean Break architects behind the Iraq invasion failed to anticipate was the rise of archaic Sunni fundamentalist Islam.
Fundamentalism is going to be the future everywhere. There is going to an American ISIS as well, with Alex Jones types on white pickup trucks roaming the American country side on the lookout for ‘globalists’ like noobtube, bobinget and Preston Sturgis.lol
http://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/images/Pi/esq-alex-jones-gun.jpg
Arthur on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 3:53 am
Davy: “much like his cousin Vincent’s The Starry Night, Irises, Wheat fields with crows, and Café Terrace at night”
Juan: “Davy, we could try some of those potatoes he brags so much about”
Van Gogh painted “the potato eaters” in 1885
http://jakemarsh7.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/van_gogh_potato_eaters.jpg
The painting depicts the poor De Groot family in Nuenen, less than three miles from where I live.
L’histoire se repete, it seems, back to the potatoes.
“Juan, wouldn’t it be fun if you and I could fly over to see Art (if he would have us) and have a nice Dutch beer ”
Mwoa, I think I would take you bothwith me to do my favorite bicycle tour of 20 km through the forest (Leenderbos) to the Achelse Kluis monastery, located at the Dutch-Belgian border and drink their home brewn Trappist beer, not the ‘globalist’ Heineken p***. Although the way back on the bicycle could be a little shaky, since this is heavy stuff.lol
bierenzo. nl/brouwerij/achelse-kluis
Davy on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 4:50 am
I drank some good monastery beer when working in Fulda, West Germany 1985 so I know the “heavy stuff! Art great minds eye of what would be a wonderful trip, thanks for the minds eye visit.
solarity on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 7:18 am
Arthur’s ideas about Turkey and the ME are probably about right. The rest of you need to read (reread?) Machiavelli. This advice applies to the hocus POTUS BO and his cronies as well. A prince must never retreat from an area leaving a void,
doing so invites chaos, and provides fertile ground for ones enemies.
Davy on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 7:28 am
S, I tend to side with Juan, you can not look to past history with the new normal of globalism. Not only globalism but hyper globalism. It is anyone’s guess what will shake out with the collapse of this hyper globalism but I doubt a new Ottoman empire.
JuanP on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 7:48 am
Art & Davy, that would be a great trip. My imagination is at work! What great fun and ideas.
Arthur on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 7:56 am
Davy, consequence #1 of peak-oil is that ‘new normal globalism’ has been put in the reverse gear. Even the archaic Arabs were half-secular Baath progressives, in anticipation of economic prosperity during the 2nd half of the previous century. But the idea of progress is evaporating everywhere, even in Progress Central, USA. The future is to local warlords, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Lybia, Syria, Sudan, Nigeria, in Donbass, even in Scotland.lol
JuanP on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 8:00 am
Solar, Great reading recommendation! I know I’ve read Machiavelli many, many times, very probably more than you, in Italian. I probably understand it better than you do, too. Io parlo Italiano molto bene. I attended La Scuola Italiana for a couple of years and Spanish and Italian are very similar. AIt has been one of my bedside table books for most of my life together with Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, and a few other gems.
I hate to brag, but you were condescending.
I failed to understand your comment. What prince is retreating creating a void? Is Erdogan the prince here? Where is he retreating from?
I understand what Art wrote and respect his point of view and yours, but nobody here knows the truth, we are all just making more or less educated guesses for the fun of it, that’s all.
Anyone who brings Machiavelli into the conversation is wellcomed, though.
Davy on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 8:15 am
Juan, we are in agreement as usual.
side note: Juan, my daughter went to the La Scuola Italiana in Madrid and my girlfriend is from the mountains north of Venice. I am proud of the fact my daughter speaks fluent French, Italian, Spanish, and English. We were just on vacation in northern Michigan together. I love to hear the girls gossip in Italian thinking I can’t understand but I know enough Spanish and Italian to get the jest. LOL.
JuanP on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 9:12 am
Davy, I am fluent in those same languages, and Portuguese, a language your daughter would easily pick up just by spending a few weeks in Brazil, like I did in my younger years.
I was very lucky to receive the best education that money could buy as I was growing up thanks to my maternal grandfather footing the bills for all his grandkids’ education. I foolishly dropped out of college because I was trying to make it on my own and ran out of money, and never went back. I am the person in my family that speaks the least languages and the only one who didn’t graduate from college.
JuanP on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 9:25 am
Art, I like your reverse gear and warlords vision, I can relate to that. I like to refer to all that phenomena as going tribal. I have developed a predilection for the idea of tribes as part of the way forward. Nuclear families won’t make it on their own, but an association of a few clans, or extended families, as equal members of a tribe protecting a specific area stand a better chance in a fight.
Davy on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 10:02 am
Juan/Art, I too look to the tribal to enhance survival of the nuclear family. I am just not sure at least initially how tribes and small communities will mesh or how tribes, communities, local and regional power will mesh. Might we look towards the confederations the Native Americans had? Some of the Native Americans had sophisticated and successful arrangements. They were somewhat inflexible but eventually became flexible when the Europeans arrived. One thing is sure population overshoot will play havoc on stability when descent becomes swift and deep. There will have to be new arrangements to deal with the instability. It is my thinking the new arrangements will be the old time tested arrangements of tribes of Native America and peasant cooperatives of Medieval Europe.
JuanP on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 10:36 am
Davy, Yes, I have considered the Native Americans as one of my sources for my tribal ideas.
The Cree nations of Canada and Montana are a clear example. They are the native nation with the largest territories in the world today and very successful by native standards anywhere.
The Cree societies were traditionally based on lodges consisting of two related families sharing the same residence. These lodges associated in bands of aprox 30-150 individuals that lived and moved together, different bands belonged to a common tribe and these tribes associated as nations, mostly for war against other native nations.
For a family or lodge to be exiled from their band, would likely have meant death, but sometimes other tribes of the same nation would give them a second chance.
Different tribes would only meet on a national level every once in a while, for special occasions, to resolve disputes between tribes or decide to go to war against another tribe or nation.
Everyday life was at the lodge and band level.