Iraq

During an interview in 2007, retired U.S. General Wesley Clark, explained that the Bush Administration had plans to ‘take out’ 7 countries in 5 years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Iran Scroll down for video Because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in.

Tony Blair is expected to defend the Iraq war by claiming the situation in the Middle East would have been worse if Saddam Hussein had been left in power, but he will not comment publicly until Sir John Chilcot finally publishes his report on 6 July, Reports suggest that the former British prime minister will respond to the Chilcot report on the legality of the 2003 Iraq invasion by arguing the Middle East state was devastated by Iran, Al-Qaeda and a powder keg of tribal animosity unleashed by Saddam’s removal.

As the noose continues to tighten against the Islamic State, now that a military campaign has been launched against its capital Raqqa, ISIS has reportedly taken its gruesome acts to new highs. Following reports that ISIS is now capitalizing on the sex trade by selling sex slaves on FaceBook to refill its rapidly dwindling coffers, the Kurdish ARA News agency reports that ISIS publicly executed 19 Kurdish women of the Yezidi minority, who were burned alive in iron cages.

Submitted by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,

• Sports stadiums and big music events are especially vulnerable: "This is where you put a small town into a small area for a couple of hours." — Neil Basu, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, London.

Last month, several Baghdad bombings attributed to ISIS killed more than a hundred civilians and wounded hundreds more. The attacks are a tragic reminder that Iraq is still a nation in turmoil. But they should also be a reason—more than 13 years after the decision to topple Saddam Hussein and undertake nation-building in Mesopotamia—to reevaluate U.S. policy in Iraq.