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As Silly Season winds to a close, there were a smattering of 'Obama's on vacation -- how dare he!?!' stories, as usual. Obama has taken less than a third of the days off that President Bush did, but that certainly doesn't stop pundits from complaining every time Obama picks up a golf club.

Until and unless the U.S. has leadership that is as determined, disciplined and focused as is found in the newly established caliphate, we may find the 21st century being overwhelmed and subjugated by the 7th century.

It's time we take our blinders off and started openly talking about the connection between ISIS's brutality and Quranic literalism.

With more than 1,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq, surveillance flights over Syria, and over 100 airstrikes launched in Iraq, it is time to start asking the hard questions about the latest U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, I learned five powerful lessons over those three days that continue to serve me as an entrepreneur all these years later.

Jacob Wood

Author of "Take Command" & CEO of Team Rubicon

In short, the War on Terror at home has not changed at all, but the war abroad has, and it is this factor that presents the U.S. with a rare opportunity.

During the past few weeks on Mt. Sinjar, we have seen both the worst and the best of what humanity can do.

CNN was interviewing someone named Mike Baker who was identified as "a former CIA covert operations officer." The interview was about the United States beginning to fly surveillance missions over Syria.

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Iraq: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News - The Huffington Post

WARNING: The political situation in much of Iraq remains extremely unstable even though the war was officially declared as over in December 2011. Except for Kurdistan, travel here remains extremely dangerous and strongly discouraged. All foreigners are still in danger of kidnapping, murder, and general armed violence. Except for Kurdistan, tourism visas for Iraq are not granted at the moment. Sporadic violence can occur anywhere in Iraq although Iraqi Kurdistan is relatively safe.

Also note that as of 2014 the militant group known as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) has taken control of several major Iraqi cities and is continuing to wage a military campaign against the Iraqi government and its security forces. This has made the security state in Iraq even more unstable. Some of this fighting has spilled over to Iraqi Kurdistan. The fighting is currently in Kirkuk and several Kurdish border towns in Iraqi Kurdistan where ISIS and the Kurdish Pershmerga (Kurdish security forces) are vying for control. For this reason travel to Kirkuk and the Iraq-facing border of Iraqi Kurdistan is currently not advised.

Although the north east provinces which comprise Iraqi Kurdistan can be considered safe for foreigners, the margins for error are small. While no foreign deaths have occurred in this province since the 2003 Iraq invasion, many foreign deaths have occurred elsewhere in Iraq.

If it is necessary to visit, then remain cautious at all times, and consult your embassy before you leave. For further information, see war zone safety.

The bottom line: do your research and be careful.

Iraq (Arabic: Al-Irq) is a country in the Middle East. It lies at the north end of the Persian Gulf and has a small (58km) coastline in the south east of the country. It is surrounded by Iran to the east, Kuwait to the south, Saudi Arabia to the southwest, Jordan to the west, Syria to the north west, and Turkey to the north.

Iraq is the birthplace of many of the Earth's oldest civilizations, including the Babylonians and the Assyrians. A part of the Ottoman Empire from 1534, the Treaty of Svres brought the area under British control in 1918. Iraq gained independence in 1932. On 14 July 1958, the long-time Hashemite monarchy was overthrown in a coup led by Abd al-Karim Qasim that paved way to radical political reforms, including the legalisation of political parties such as the Ba'ath and the Communist Party, both key players in the coup (also called the 14 July Revolution). Following this Revolution, the Soviet Union gradually became its main arms and commercial supplier.

In February 1963, Qasim was overthrown and killed in a second coup that brought the Ba'ath Party into power. Internal divisions would follow for the next five years, until another coup on 17 July 1968 led by Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr (with Communist support) stabilised the party. Relations between the Communists and the Ba'athists ranged from mutual cooperation to violent mistrust, culminating in the purge of Communists from the army and the government by 1978, causing a temporary rift with the Soviet Union. On 16 July 1979, Bakr resigned and was succeeded by right-hand man Saddam Hussein, who carefully killed his enemies and became a dictator almost overnight.

The next twenty-five years took a grinding toll on the country. A long war with neighbouring Iran in the 1980s cost hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of dollars. The invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and subsequent Gulf War caused further casualties, followed by civil war inside the country and a decade of international sanctions.

Iraq was invaded in 2003 by a mainly US/UK-led coalition of forces, who removed Saddam Hussein from power. As of 2012, no foreign troops remain in Iraq.

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Iraq travel guide - Wikitravel - Wikitravel - The Free ...

WASHINGTON US military operations inIraq, including airstrikes and surveillance flights, have cost about $560millionsince mid-June, the Pentagon said Friday.

Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the average daily cost has been $7.5million. He said it began at a much lower rate in June and escalated after the airstrikes in northernIraqbegan this month.

After he spoke, the US Central Command announced four additional airstrikes, bringing the total since they began on Aug. 8 to 110. Central Command said Friday's missions by US fighter and attack aircraft destroyed four armed vehicles and three support vehicles in the vicinity of the Mosul Dam. One armed vehicle was damaged, it said without providing more details.

Asked why US warplanes are still pounding the Mosul Dam area, long after US officials said local Kurdish and Iraqi forces had regained control from the Islamic State forces, Kirby said, "Because ISIL keeps wanting to take it back," using an acronym for the group.

"They keep threatening the dam and the facility. And as long as they pose a threat to that facility, we are going to continue to help Iraqi security forces preserve their ownership of it," he added.

The Pentagon also has security forces in Baghdad and Irbil to protect American personnel and facilities, and teams of US troops are in those two cities to coordinate with Iraqi and Kurdish forces and to assess the strengths and tactics of Islamic State forces.

Kirby said the costs are being paid from the Pentagon's 2014 overseas contingency fund. Top Pentagon officials have said they have adequate funds for the operation through September but that requests to Congress for the next budget year might have to be reconsidered if theIraqoperations intensify further.

The White House also is considering whether to extend the military campaign to include Islamic State targets inside Syria, but President Barack Obama said Thursday there was no immediate strategy to do that and played down expectations that it would happen immediately.

In a show of support forIraq'sfledgling government, Vice President Joe Biden calledIraq'spremier-designate, Haider al-Abadi, on Friday and told him that political progress inIraqhas played a key role in rallying global support forIraq'sfight against the Islamic State militants. The White House said the two leaders discussed security cooperation between the US andIraqas well as the need to quickly form a government inclusive ofIraq'svarious sectarian groups.

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Iraq operations cost $7.5 million per day, says Pentagon (+video)

WASHINGTON US military operations inIraq, including airstrikes and surveillance flights, have cost about $560millionsince mid-June, the Pentagon said Friday.

Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the average daily cost has been $7.5million. He said it began at a much lower rate in June and escalated after the airstrikes in northernIraqbegan this month.

After he spoke, the US Central Command announced four additional airstrikes, bringing the total since they began on Aug. 8 to 110. Central Command said Friday's missions by US fighter and attack aircraft destroyed four armed vehicles and three support vehicles in the vicinity of the Mosul Dam. One armed vehicle was damaged, it said without providing more details.

Asked why US warplanes are still pounding the Mosul Dam area, long after US officials said local Kurdish and Iraqi forces had regained control from the Islamic State forces, Kirby said, "Because ISIL keeps wanting to take it back," using an acronym for the group.

"They keep threatening the dam and the facility. And as long as they pose a threat to that facility, we are going to continue to help Iraqi security forces preserve their ownership of it," he added.

The Pentagon also has security forces in Baghdad and Irbil to protect American personnel and facilities, and teams of US troops are in those two cities to coordinate with Iraqi and Kurdish forces and to assess the strengths and tactics of Islamic State forces.

Kirby said the costs are being paid from the Pentagon's 2014 overseas contingency fund. Top Pentagon officials have said they have adequate funds for the operation through September but that requests to Congress for the next budget year might have to be reconsidered if theIraqoperations intensify further.

The White House also is considering whether to extend the military campaign to include Islamic State targets inside Syria, but President Barack Obama said Thursday there was no immediate strategy to do that and played down expectations that it would happen immediately.

In a show of support forIraq'sfledgling government, Vice President Joe Biden calledIraq'spremier-designate, Haider al-Abadi, on Friday and told him that political progress inIraqhas played a key role in rallying global support forIraq'sfight against the Islamic State militants. The White House said the two leaders discussed security cooperation between the US andIraqas well as the need to quickly form a government inclusive ofIraq'svarious sectarian groups.

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Iraq operations cost $7.5 million per day, says Pentagon

AFP West drops aid to Iraq town under jihadist siege

Kirkuk (Iraq) (AFP) - Western warplanes dropped desperately needed aid on Sunday to an Iraqi Shiite town under blockade by jihadists for well over two months as preparations to break the siege dragged on.

The aid drops were accompanied by US air strikes and were the furthest south that US forces have intervened in Iraq, barring reconnaissance flights, since their withdrawal in December 2011.

The mainly Turkmen residents of the Salaheddin province town of Amerli, where the United Nations has warned of the risk of sectarian massacre by the besieging Sunni Arab extremists, have been running desperately short of food and medicines.

Thousands of Shiite militiamen and Kurdish fighters have been massing for days for an operation to break the siege, alongside the Iraqi army, which was left in disarray by the lightning offensive the jihadists launched in second city Mosul in early June.

Washington launched air strikes in support of Kurdish forces in northern Iraq on August 8.

But it has so far been reluctant to expand its operations amid Pentagon warnings that military intervention alongside Baghdad government forces risks further alienating Sunni Arabs without more strenuous efforts by the Shiite-led administration to engage the disenchanted minority community.

Shiite militia and Kurdish forces closed on the besieged enclave on Sunday, reaching within five kilometres (three miles) of the forces inside it, militia commander Mohammed Mahdi al-Bayati said.

A roadside bomb south of the town killed four militiamen, officers said.

Australian, British, French and US aircraft dropped relief supplies to the thousands of civilians trapped in the enclave.

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Iraq launches drive to break jihadist siege of Amerli