…or is that nonsense ?
I had to look for an opposition manifesto, but I found one from the Islamic Front. It’s all in Arabic though.
http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=54233&reloadFlag=1
But the Carnegie people have made some translation
Yes-who knows what will emerge if Assad falls-maybe another version of Iran? We should have learned our lesson from iraq. Instead, we just keep going back for more’ Wait till Germany balks at taking in another 4 million “refugees”.
Why doesn’t US just give up?
I mean, seriously, you know Vlad is just going to bitchslap Barry into oblivion.
I know.
You know it
Vlad knows it.
Barry knows it.
Vlad knows that Barry knows it.
Barry knows that Vlad knows that Barry knows it.
Why doesn’t US just give up and leave the whole ME region to Russia?
Sounds like US victory for me. I’m all for it. Sucks for Russia, but if he’s stupid enough to get mired in the region then that’s his loss.
One word, three letters, first letter ‘o’
How about they both leave the Middle East to the Middle Easterners? This whole “areas of control” thing is bullshit.
Could be…
I like oil, personally. It’s great for all sorts of things I need, and even for things I don’t. But its becoming a bit of a problem.
Not just regarding supply, which has more or less, peaked, but other probs like climate change and water supply.
I liked Pravda better when it was just a newspaper.
Now theres an idea.
What? That’s crazy talk. How will people save themselves if we don’t come in and do it for them? I mean, in the entire history of civilization, has there ever been a country where people were freer and more prosperous than Americans? (Naturally, this question is rhetorical: the answer is “no” and there certainly are no other measures of success for a nation.)
It’s just that non-American people are stubborn. It takes them a long time to admit that their own culture is inferior, and of course their moral failings are why military interventions keep going wrong. But give us a little more time! Once we convince them of our superiority, they’ll get with the program. We’ll see peace (and Starbucks, and Taco Bell) in the Middle East in our lifetime, you’ll see. Or Armageddon and the Second Coming of Jesus, which is also a good outcome.
Yours Sincerely,
A Nation of Dangerous Ignorance
Almost started a new thread, but this one isn’t that old so…
… And we now have “boots on the ground” in Syria. Link.
Barack, baby, you’ve really gone too far now. What are you thinking!?!?
and now we’re saying we have boots on the ground in Syria.
We knew they were there briefly in May during a raid. While one of the core competencies of Army Special Operations is advising foreign forces most of that task fell to conventional forces during OIF/OEF. Given the training only nature of our advise and assist mission it didn’t take more than conventional forces. Yet there’s been a robust special operations presence inside Iraq in open source information. They haven’t been there to work on their tans and play cards. Likely we’ve been in fights on a regular basis for months in both Iraq and Syria. The recent death of MSG Joshua Wheelerwhile advising Kurdish forces on a raid inside Iraq highlights just how far the SOCOM troops have been going while “staying out of combat.” They didn’t just help with training; he went along on the raid.
Oh and the conventional forces mission where they aren’t seeing combat suffered their first casualty from hostile fire in March. That was Iraq but it’s still a clear demonstration of the reality of “no boots on the ground” in the fight against ISIS prior to this. The base he was guarding when shot in the nose, received indirect fire on a regular basis too. (Dear mom, We’re not in combat but sometimes it rains steel and high explosives. The weather here is crazy. 
) We also shoved a couple hundred advise and assist troops in to al-Taqaddum airbase after Ramadi fell. That base is located between Ramadi and Falliujah which are both controlled by ISIS. American troops have been inside a salient sticking in to ISIS lines for 4 months. I haven’t seen any “weather” reports from there though.
He’s said the mission is to defeat ISIS all along. He even included ground troops used in this way in his request for a new AUMF. His thinking about the objective and even possible methods isn’t new. They tried other methods. If the methods aren’t working you look for methods that do. This isn’t even all that big of a ratchet up if you consider all the hints about what’s been happening in the media. They are just putting the fiction of not being exposed to hostile fire to bed.
Got nothing to do with ISIS. Token bullshit so his/US policy doesn’t look as clueless as it currently is, and also to take some of the narrative spotlight away from Putin.
Yeah, sending in 50 special ops guys is going to do the trick to defeat Da-esh. The next 6 months will be crucial. I sense we are about to turn the corner any minute now.
What if it turns out that ISIS destroyed the Russian airliner over Sinai? then things will get really interesting.
Some one ought to make a sitcom out of the ISIS Catastrophe Claim Office.
That mission is being sold as an adviser mission. That’s advisers for several battalions worth of Kurdish fighters along with the right radios and trained observers to talk to NATO air assets in the coalition. That’s not insignificant. Call it around a Brigade that is about to see an improvement in capabilities.
IT’s definitely a force multiplier. Witness how small numbers of special forces calling in airstrikes and working with the Northern Alliance routed the Taliban. Bombing alone has never been an effective military tactic. But small numbers of ground forces with good air support can take the enemy apart.
Good call, Mr. President. And if it’s working, send more. Take away all of ISIS’ territory, overthrow Assad, and give Putin a bloody nose rather than him doing it to us for a change.
Here’s a clue; the Kurds are still there, fighting, holding ground, winning when armed properly. The Americans went home, both cutey weekend warrior national guardy types and regulars.
Who the fuck do you think would be advising who.
Except it’s not even that: Bit of bullshit shop window dressing is all, for the gullible at home.