US launches airstrikes on Iraq. Again.

Iraqis who fled violence in Nineveh Province arrived at Sulaimaniya, in the northern Kurdish territories on Friday. [Reuters]


Iraqis who fled violence in Nineveh Province arrived at Sulaimaniya, in the northern Kurdish territories on Friday. [Reuters]

Déjà vu, guys: "American warplanes struck Sunni militant positions in northern Iraq on Friday, the Pentagon and Kurdish officials said, confirming the first significant American military operation in the country since United States forces withdrew in 2011."

Two F-18 fighters "dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery target near Erbil," the Pentagon announced today.

Late last night in a televised late-night address from the White House, President Obama said U.S. military planes had began the current mission by airdropping aid to tens of thousands of Iraqi religious minorities surrounded by militants. The internally displaced were in grave need of food and water.

"Today America is coming to help," he declared.

And by help, what we really mean is we're going to bomb the fuck out of your country. Again.

The airstrikes began without formal congressional approval. "Lawmakers left town last week for a five-week recess, and there was no sign that Congress was being called back."

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Also: this. From 2003. It was a joke.