Iraq, Iran deploy troops to Syria
I don’t know how much more confusing this war against ISIS can get. Hezbollah (which has been supporting al Qaeda in the Golan Heights) has sent fighters to Ira to fight ISIS. Iran (which has been supporting Yemeni rebels in that country) is fighting against ISIS in Iraq. Both support the Syrian government, while the US wants to restore the democratically-elected Yemeni government but remove the Syrian government all while fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria. I had to diagram that with Crayolas before I wrote it. Now, the AFP reports that both Iraq and Iran are sending troops to Syria to protect the Syrian government which is hanging on by their fingernails in some areas of Syria;
“Around 7,000 Iranian and Iraqi fighters have arrived in Syria over the past few weeks and their first priority is the defence of the capital. The larger contingent is Iraqi,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
“The goal is to reach 10,000 men to support the Syrian army and pro-government militias, firstly in Damascus, and then to retake Jisr al-Shughur because it is key to the Mediterranean coast and the Hama region” in central Syria, he added.
Of course, the Iraqi deployment is quixotic in that Iraq troops recently abandoned their weapons and equipment in order to un-ass Ramadi in the face of an ISIS assault. I guess the only way to look at this whole mess is to define it as a pan-Arab sectarian war – Sunni vs. Shi’ite. Since most US troops are neither, they probably shouldn’t be there. Continued US involvement is only going to turn out bad for us, since more than likely, whatever we do at this point will be the wrong thing.
It would have been made simpler if this administration had done something, anything at the beginning of the Syrian Civil War to settle that before the rise of ISIS.
But, hey, the president tells us the good news is that we are “more respected” than we were when he assumed office. I liked it better when we were feared.
Category: Politics
“I guess the only way to look at this whole mess is to define it as a pan-Arab sectarian war – Sunni vs. Shi’ite.” Yep. That’s my hope, that the two groups have at it until one decides to pray the same number of times per day as the other. When that happens, millions of deaths later, it would be nice if the winners were then eradicated by the rest of the world. Done.
As succinct as you are Jonn, reading that made my head hurt.
If you run out of colors, I’ll send you a 96-color set posthaste.
And Bush is more popular than Obama now. What a world! Is bodaprez melting yet? Is there a way to measure just how disconnected he is from reality?
I had to diagram that with Crayolas before I wrote it.
Well, that’s more than the administration has done-make sure to save some nice bright colors for the Saudis and the other gulf states when the war inevitably spreads there.
Even IF they send the fighters they say they are, I wonder just how many of them will yell “BLELEHLEHLEHLEHLEHLEHLEHLEH!” and change sides repeatedly as soon as they’re on the ground?
Remember when Kirby said something about ‘numbers of ISIS dead are irrelevant’, or something like that?
Well, if they’ve lost a third of their total force (10,000++ out of 31,000++) in the past 9 months, how is that irrelevant?
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-official-airstrikes-killed-10000-islamic-state-fighters/ar-BBkDogm
After reading that, I begin to believe that the idea of dumping nukes there, as some people have suggested, is ridiculous. It would do nothing but contaminate the area, so what would be the point?
These so-called ‘fighters’ are a lot like cockroaches: they scatter when the light goes on or things get tough, but if you really want to kill the roaches, you have to poison the nests, and how is anybody going to do that? A nuke is a waste of money and time.
Unless there is some sort of disaster that literally sweeps them away, this will go on as it has for millenia, until they have killed each other off. In that case, they should be contained, and permanently barred from leaving.
Ex-Ph2, am I to take it that you and I wonder what the hell we ever went over there for? Thousands of years they have been fighting now, and ALWAYS will. Our involvement sullied the fighting as a way of life. But by sticking our nose in it, of course they all end up with free weapons which eventually could be used against us.
Simple solution would be to return and take back all OUR weapons; then let them duke it out amongst themselves. Throw in some mud rasslin with Burkas and there you have a new economy.
‘…am I to take it that you and I wonder what the hell we ever went over there for?’
Jarhead, I think you hit the nail on the head. There were all sorts of ‘if this, if that’ possibilities that were never explored which could have ended it sooner with less loss of life, damage to troops, and loss of resources. It’s as if there was never any intent to win, and no clear direction to any of it.
What a fucking mess.
Duck, duck, goose.
I dunno about it being all bad that we didn’t jump in there earlier… the best point raised at the time was ‘just who in the hell do we support who isn’t acting against us somewhere else?’ – and no one knew then or knows now. The en tire Mideast is nest described as an unused testing ground for neutron mombs.