IS isn’t impressed by airstrikes
Washington and its Arab allies killed scores of Islamic State fighters in the opening 24 hours of air strikes, the first direct U.S. foray into Syria two weeks after Obama pledged to hit the group on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.
However, the intensifying advance on the northern town of Kobani showed the difficulty Washington faces in defeating Islamist fighters in Syria, where it lacks strong military allies on the ground.
“Those air strikes are not important. We need soldiers on the ground,” said Hamed, a refugee who fled into Turkey from the Islamic State advance.
Yeah, well, call some of those allies of ours who have been buying fighting vehicles, planes and tanks from us from decades and haven’t had the chance to use them until now. We’re busy else where and you had your chance using US troops.
Category: Terror War
Couple Green Berets, a few SEALs. That will solve the problem.
Hell…call Monkress and the gang. they should be itching to get back to the fight.
One Texas Ranger.
I remember reading something about some little Texas town that was in the midst of a riot. They called the Texas Rangers for help. The next day, a solitary Ranger showed up. The sherrif asked why only one Texas Ranger. The Ranger replied that there was only one riot.
That’s the problem with precision ordnance it gets the job done but it doesn’t leave behind that massive infrastructure loss….
Nothing like tons of jellied gasoline ignited by magnesium to leave behind a smoldering, burnt flesh smelling, ash pile to leave an impression of overwhelming and unrelenting death. Carpet bombing with flammables is a far more impressionable methodology.
Additionally capturing the families of some of the insurgents and leaving their dead bodies in the desert leaves a reasonable impression. When ISIS realizes our goal is to kill them, kill their families, and kill anyone they know and love a stronger message can be sent.
Our problem is the total lack of hardened resolve to slaughter our enemy and their women and children. We’ve lost the resolve of the greatest generation to annihilate those who stand against us, the result is what you see here, an enemy unimpressed with our war making ability.
VOV…Thank you, well said and Here-Here!
VOV. You’re certainly not one for euphemisms and sugar coating bitter pills. I agree that this pussy-footing around delays the inevitable and is altogether ineffective. Is there anyone who believes that these bastards and their supporters have a timeline for the cessation of killing, that they have a reasonable goal which the non-Muslim world can abide? In other words, they ain’t going away and have no plans to stop the terror. As sad as this makes me to say, it may be Russia, not the US, that actually rises to do what is necessary. The prerequisite for that, however, is large-scale action by IS/ISIS/ISIL in that land.
b-bu-but air power alone is sufficient and no boots on the ground are needed – I heard it straight from the President!
The bastards are called IS by some, ISIS by most, and ISIL by the Golfer in Mom Jeans. Here’s something of an explanation if, like me, you need one:
http://www.ibtimes.com/isil-isis-islamic-state-daesh-whats-difference-1693495
As long as we kill them all their unique identifiers don’t much matter to me, lost of dead muslims don’t solve all the world’s problems but it does resolve some of them.
I haven’t seen much (any actually) in the way of coverage on tactical strikes in direct support of ground operations yet so maybe that will change shortly. I do think the decision to go after the refineries and hit their critical and financial infrastructure is a good one but that takes time and doesn’t do much for the Peshmerga in the short term.
As for the terms ISIS/IS/ISIL I have a different take on it. ISIL is what they themselves started out as because their aims are to take over all of what historically been known as the Levant. Calling them ISIS to me implies they just want a caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Perhaps we should be refering to them in Arabic terms as Da’esh or al Dawlah.
As for IS/ISIS/ISIL, I’m sure I’m not the first to think of this but I’ll say it: Perhaps this is what BJ Clinton (hey, they ARE his intials, sorta) meant when he uttered the immortal line, “It depends upon what the meaning of the word IS is.”
Good one! I have always given him a pass on his fooling around though….being married to Hillary and all!
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
http://rare.us/story/megyn-kelly-finds-chilling-similarities-between-obamas-and-bushs-un-speeches/
ISIS likes their knives. Well… send in a brigade or two of Gurkhas. I believe they will teach ISIS a thing or two about knife fights.
Just sayin’
It’s kind of hard to impress your enemy with shock and awe when you give him two weeks notice that you are going to bomb him. I did not come as a shock and you can hardly awe him if he has unassed the AO and is in a hidey hole somewhere.
Two weeks ago the area was target rich environment,and a week ago the main mass of fighters disappeared. So far we have bombed only at night so the enemy has the days to move and do his mischief. It would seem that we are doing this operation in a very half assed manner. And I hear that one of the carrier gropes is being pulled back. I fear that this has been little more than a plot for the Prez to regain some of his poll mojo before the mid-terms. If so it is the most cynical move I have ever seen. But then that’s all this guy has left.
Oh, well – there were more air strikes, on the oil overnight our time.
http://news.msn.com/world/us-led-strikes-hit-is-group-oil-sites-for-2nd-day
I don’t know how much good it’s doing, but if it disrupts their income somewhat, so much the better.