ISSA: Iraqis should fight for their country. There's no question at all. They've been trained and they should do it.

The fact is the Kurds are willing to do it. I have no doubt whatsoever that the Kurds will fight. And all they need is our air support and our technical know how and they will do it.

When it comes to the Sunni-Shia divide that the Maliki government created, it makes it very, very hard to put together the kind of military units that they should have. That remains to be seen of whether or not the substantial portion of that 800,000 people we trained are willing to fight.

The fact is by the time they started fleeing, we were down to a quarter of a million. And when I met with the government they said, well, we have about 8,000 who will fight. I think they have to do better.

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/week-transcript-rep-darrell-issa-sen-elect-cory/story?id=26778694

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said his decision to double the number of U.S. military advisers in Iraq marked a new phase in the campaign against Islamic State and was not an indication his strategy in the region had failed.

Obama, in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" broadcast on Sunday, said the first phase was getting an Iraqi government in place that was inclusive and credible.

He said sending in 1,500 additional American troops also signified a shift from a defensive strategy to an offensive one. The decision was announced on Friday.

"The air strikes have been very effective in degrading ISIL's capabilities and slowing the advance that they were making," Obama said, according to a CBS transcript. "Now what we need is ground troops, Iraqi ground troops, that can start pushing them back."

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-calls-u-troop-boost-iraq-phase-cbs-153507197.html

WASHINGTON — President Obama has authorized the deployment of an additional 1,500 American troops to Iraq in the coming months, the Defense Department said on Friday, a move that will double the number of those sent to advise and assist Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the battle against the Islamic State.

........

In addition, the White House Budget Office said it would ask Congress for $5.6 billion for overseas contingency operations, including $1.6 billion to train and equip Iraqi troops.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/08/world/middleeast/us-to-send-1500-more-troops-to-iraq.html?_r=2

By Reissa Su | November 6, 2014 7:06 PM EST

The birthplace of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has been identified as Camp Bucca, a detention centre run by the United States during the Iraq war. In a report by the Washington Post, March 2009 may have been the beginning of ISIS when it released hundreds of detainees who were some of most radical fighters in the Iraq War. The sprawling detention centre in the southern town of Garma has released its prisoners of war. Many families had rejoiced as their sons, brothers and fathers were finally coming home to them after many years.

............

Mahmoud's fears about the prisoners of Camp Bucca may have come true. Reports said the camp represents the "opening chapter" in the historic rise of ISIS. Many of its leaders, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, were imprisoned in the camp and possibly met one another there. Based on the accounts of former prison commanders, soldiers and analysts, Camp Bucca may have provided the environment for the radicalisation and collaboration of prisoners that has helped shape the development of ISIS.

Soufan Group, a terrorist research organisation, said all the nine members of ISIS' top command had been imprisoned in Camp Bucca. Aside from Baghdadi, who reportedly spent five years in the camp, his number two man, Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, and senior leader, Haji Bakr, now dead, also came from Camp Bucca.

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/571953/20141106/isis-islamic-state-camp-bucca.htm

And in the five states where a minimum wage increase was on the ballot last night, voters went five for five to increase it. That will give about 325,000 Americans a raise in states where Republican candidates prevailed. So that should give us new reason to get it done for everybody with a national increase in the minimum wage.

The GOP’s big Election Day victory may have a lot to do with who didn’t show up at the polls—and one of the groups that stayed home at a record rate were young people. According to an NBC News exit poll, the percentage of voters aged 60 or older accounted for almost 40 percent of the vote, while voters under 30 accounted for a measly 12 percent. Young people’s share of the vote is typically smaller in midterm elections, but the valley between age groups in 2014 is the largest the US has seen in at least a decade.

And that valley made a huge difference for Democrats, because younger voters have been trending blue. Some 55 percent of young people who did turn up voted for Dems compared to 45 percent of those over 60.

An interactive predictor on the Fusion, the news site targeted at millennials, indicated how Democrats could have gained if young people had shown in greater numbers. Using 2010 vote totals and 2014 polling data, the tool lets users calculate the effect of greater turnout among voters under 30 in several key states.

On Tuesday, according to preliminary exit polls, young voters in Iowa favored Democrats by a slight margin—51 percent—but they made up only 12 percent of the total vote, leaving conservative Republican Joni Ernst the winner. In Georgia, 58 percent of young voters went for Democrat Michelle Nunn, but they made up 10 percent of the total who showed up to cast their ballots. In Colorado, where a sophisticated political machine delivered Democratic wins in 2010, the calculator shows that a full 71 percent of young people voted for Dems in 2010; exit polls indicate that young voters made up 14 percent of the final tally, leaving Mark Udall out in the cold.