White House discusses “more aggressive” policy against ISIS

| September 22, 2015

The Washington Post reports that the Obama Administration is discussing among themselves how to take a more aggressive stance against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

The White House’s top national security officials met last week and will convene again in the next few days to discuss ways to capi­tal­ize on recent and unexpected gains made by Syrian irregular forces. The administration is considering providing arms and ammunition to a wider array of rebel groups in Syria and relaxing vetting standards, effectively deepening America’s involvement in the ongoing civil war.

Their plan seems to be to only vet leaders, rather than checking the background of every soldier, and the intent is to get more weapons in the hands of unvetted troops. Yeah, I don’t see anything that could go wrong with that plan, well, except the specter of the spate of green-on-blue attacks that haunted our troops in Afghanistan a few short years ago.

The change is driven partly by frustration with the stalemated fight in Iraq, where an Iraqi army assault on Ramadi has ground to a halt and where a much-anticipated offensive to reclaim Mosul, originally planned for this year, may come only after President Obama leaves office.

The Associated Press reports that the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, claims, correctly, that Iran’s military is the best hope for the region. With Iraq’s troops joining the exodus of refugees to Europe, the Iranians are the only force in the region that will deal with the thugs of ISIS in a way that they will understand the consequences of their terror. I’m guessing that Iranian rules of engagement are somewhat less restrictive than those imposed on US or any other western forces.

Category: Terror War

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A Proud Infidel®™

Yeah right, is that all that B. Hussein 0bama wanted to say befor he rushed off to the golf course? I’m sure the answer is “YES”!

ChipNASA

🙄 “Send them a strongly worded letter”….
😀

A Proud Infidel®™

“And if they still don’t comply they’ll send ANOTHER letter…” 😀

3E9

That does it Assad, one more misstep and you’ll be on double secret probation!

Commissioner Wretched

“A stiff note on cardboard …”

2/17 Air Cav

If the friend of my enemy is my enemy and the enemy of my enemy is my friend and the friend of my friend is my friend and the…okay, that’s enough of that crap. As I see it, the Russians must be doing something right in Syria and Israel is screwed. The rest I don’t much give a damn about anymore. Gas is 195.9 in Virginia. The Voice is still on TV. Life is good, unless you are in the US military right now, in which case you have no idea what those knuckleheads in DC will do to you next on behalf of oBaMa’s legacy, the 2016 election, or to save their phony baloney jobs. What a screwed up world. Need more smiley faces from WalMart.

Rock8

Wringing their hands and twiddling their thumbs as everything burns around them. The movie title for this debacle will be “8 Years an Amateur”.

Martinjmpr

After 8 years I think Obama is qualified to call himself a professional amateur. 😉

A Proud Infidel®™

How ’bout “An 8 Year JV Player”? 😀

MSG Eric

Aggressive? Does that mean Barry will indicate there’s a “Red Line” that they shouldn’t cross? Because that’ll show them.

Iran wanting to get involved and deal with ISIS makes me think of Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders where one Arab leader starts taking over all the other countries around his. “See the flag? It has a lot of room for more stars.”

Ex-PH2

Do you know how much square mileage was covered by the Persian Empire in the days of Xerxes and Cyrus?

Joe Williams

Ex, no I do know the size of the Persian Empire ? Please inform me. Thank You Joe

Ex-PH2

‘Iran’s military is the best hope for the region.’ – Yes, it is and it’s the reason Vlad has begun cozying up to Iran and Syria. He doesn’t want any ‘refugees’ swamping his demesne.

However, all I see is ‘yap, yap, yap, do something, yap, yap, yap’ coming out of WDC, mostly because this mess called an administration ends in January 2017.

A Proud Infidel®™

I hope and pray for January 20, 2017 to be THE END OF AN ERROR!!

Friend

I understand the 20th of January prayer, however, friends are going wacko because the 28th of this month, the moon will turn black and then turn the color of BLOOD..says the bible..the end of the world as we know it.
Since I practice Buddhism, I did ask my monk if they too saw the end? No! BUT, if it does, I hope to be reincarnated as a monk that fights. Why? We don’t believe in violence against anyone, and I’ve stood silent while being yelled at and hit. I’ll be in a group that will fight and protect our Buddha, beliefs and our people, as many have done for thousands of years. I thought for a second and asked “Pray to Buddha that I join your group, I have a bunch of assholes that need a beat down. He replied, but you have in this life. Yeah I did and I want to do it all over again. As he walked away, I heard him say “So very honest with bad words included” I yelled I heard that. I wanted you to. Blessings for a good day…

Ex-PH2

Friend, you can tell your wacko friends that they are seriously misinformed. The moon will not turn black. There will be a lunar eclipse, which is something that happens every damned month. We simply don’t always see it happen. It depends on where the penumbra (earth shadow) lands.

And it routinely happens at sunrise, as it did in October last year. I guess they were asleep, eh? I wasn’t. I was out taking pictures of it.

Lunar eclipses happen when the moon is full, and they happen EVERY MONTH, just as solar eclipses happen EVERY MONTH.

The planet has not ended yet, won’t for another 4.5 billion years.

Casey

I strongly suspect the “discussion” in DC has a lot to do with the Russian jets in Syria, along with the two new bases they’re building.

Maybe they’ll whip out James Taylor again?

B Woodman

HEY!! DC (District of Criminals)! You want a more aggressive policy against ISIS?? Reduce the ROEs to one; “Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!”

That is all. This is kc7jds, out.

Martinjmpr

And once again, as in the 1960’s, a Democrat president has deluded himself into thinking that it’s possible to be “just a little bit” at war.

You can’t win a half-hearted war if your enemy is “all in.”

And as weird as it sounds to my cold-war-trained brain, maybe Russian hegemony over that region wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world? Putin may be a black hearted criminal but at least he’s rational.

A Proud Infidel®™

It’s been said that Putin was once heard saying off-camera that negotiating with B. Hussein 0bama was like playing Chess against a pigeon. His alleged quote was “The bird knocks all of the pieces over, defecates on the board and then struts around like he’s won the game.”. Sounds like B-HO to me!

2/17 Air Cav

Happens every time I hear that name, Putin.

2/17 Air Cav

Know what today is? Yes, it’s that. It’s also that. but what I have in mind is an anniversary. 35 years ago today Iraqi MIGs struck Iran, kicking off an eight-year war. Happy anniversary!

A Proud Infidel®™

I remember hearing it was a GAS for both sides at some times.

2/17 Air Cav

Couldn’t be. Iraq? Hussein? No way. Hey, my take is that the UN screwed up again, brokering a cease fire. Iran was gasping. Iraq was damn near broke. How different the subsequent history ifg they had been left alone to annihilate one another.

Hondo

Yep. A financial dispute stemming from the Iran-Iraq war are believed to have been the primary reason Iraq invaded Kuwait a couple of years after the conflict ended. That “19th province” claim was merely a fig-leaf of convenience.

How dare the Kuwaitis expect Iraq to repay the $14 billion they’d borrowed from Kuwait during that war with Iran!

Perry Gaskill

This sounds like an excellent plan formulated by that famous strategist Wily E. Coyote. The next part is where they strap Acme rockets to those four U.S.-trained guys.

David

“More aggressive” – hell, what we’ve been doing couldn’t be less aggressive, so I guess that is not a stretch.

Hondo

I’m guessing that Iranian rules of engagement are somewhat less restrictive than those imposed on US or any other western forces.

Considering SAVAK’s reputed ROI in dealing with the Shah’s internal enemies, I’m guessing Jonn’s dead on target here.

Ex-PH2

I spent some time this morning eliminating ants from my box of cereal. I guess they thought they’d found nirvana, and it was only because I didn’t put the stuff in a ziploc bag after I opened it. But I found a common note between ants and the mess we may face, and that is that the ants thought they could just move in and take my cereal and I wouldn’t do anything about it.

Wrong.

The way I see it, every bleeding heart democrap will support bringing these ‘refugees’ here. I use that term ‘refugees’ loosely, because a lot of them are not. As we’ve already seen in Europe, it started as a mess, a tsunami of humans leaving the Middle East and northern Africa in overloaded boats and then just simply walking out. They haven’t picked up guns and gone back in to fight for what was theirs. They have, as has been clearly stated, thrown down their guns and run away. As was shown in that documentary video, sometimes they just shoot those AKs to make noise.

Frankly, the ants invading my cereal box have more gumption.

But let’s say sKerry’s forecast of ‘refugees’ arriving here on our shores gets support from the democraps for at least one year, namely 2016 – the election year – and they end up in the larger cities like NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles – whatever.

I see a lot of real serious issues arising out of this, namely costs and crime rates, and other, similar things.

But I cannot think of a better way to piss off people who might otherwise vote democrap than to let this go through.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

These would be the same geniuses who spent 45 million training about 500 guys instead of 5000 guys and the training resulted in a 95% loss rate through casualties and desertions yes?

I’m quite certain the best way these ass clowns could strengthen their efforts was to avoid trying to help at all.

AW1Ed

*sniff*
*sniff*
“What’s that smell?’

“Mission creep, with a touch of panic.”

Martinjmpr

I would almost be tempted to feel sorry for Obama if he wasn’t such a feckless weasel.

It’s pretty clear that what’s happening is that Obama (and the Dems in general) are being hoist by their own petard.

What I mean is this: There has always been an undercurrent of isolationism in American political life. When the Dems were unable to regain control of the government in 2004 they used the setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan as a justification to start stoking the flames of that nascent isolationism, and they had plenty of fuel. It swept them into Congress in 2006 and into the White House in 2008.

But Obama was never really an isolationist, he just cynically used isolationist rhetoric to get himself elected, and now that same isolationist coalition will not let him get involved in the interventions he wants to (Syria) or even the ones he needs to (Iraq.)

His own Dem allies are so filled with 60’s-inspired “peace at any cost” ninnies that they would desert him in a heartbeat if he started a war big enough to actually make a difference, and the Republicans hate him so badly (a hatred he returns 100 fold) that they’re happy to fold their arms and watch him twist in the wind, and let the whole ship sink on his watch.

Ex-PH2

I have a solution, but no one wants to use it. A fully-loaded fleet of these, in relays.

https://youtu.be/i9H50tHiHjs

L. Taylor

Coordinating and cooperating with Iran on ISIS is indeed the best way to deal with ISIS.

This is part of the reason the recent Iran agreement was so damn important and the political opposition to it is by partisan opportunists and morons.

We needed this deal. And any political hack opposing or trying to scuttle it is a piece of shit

A Proud Infidel®™

Larsie-parsie-poo, everyone has the right to be stupid as well, but once again YOU ABUSE THE PRIVILIEGE!!! The mullah leaders of Iran’s theocracy repeatedly hold “Death to America” rallies, they’ve lied and cheated in the past, and yet there are idiots like you that think they’ll keep their promises to us after a group hug, some Kool-Aid and a few verses of “Kum-ba-yah”. If you really did what you said in the Middle East, IT’S NO WONDER that things went to shit the way they did and we had our hands tied in dealing with the enemy over there!

L. Taylor

Again with the idiocy from infidel. How many American leaders call for the end of the Iranian regime? That same “America is our mortal enemy” rhetoric plays just as well with the idiotic conservative ultranationalist fucktards in Iran as “Iran is our mortal enemy” plays here in the US. You have everything in common with the asshats you hate. You likely even share their extreme religious fervor. Iran has to appeal to their ignorant hardline morons in Iran just as our conservative politicians have to play to the ignorant fucksticks in the US. Rhetoric is meaningless. Iran has not been an aggressor against its neighbors. Not directly at least. And Iran and the US have a great deal of parallel concerns and interests. And their nuclear program is overhyped in the US. If they had set a real course to developing nuclear weapons they likely would have achieved it before North Korea and certainly would have by now. Their nuclear program has been used primarily for foreign policy leverage and to address persistent domestic energy needs. They program is more valuable to them than any weapon would have been. They have no more capacity to develop nuclear weapons after the deal than before the deal and we have no less capacity to do anything about it if they set on that purpose. In fact we are much more likely to be able to derail any nuclear ambitions, detect their efforts sooner, have more international political legitimacy and the moral high ground due to the violation of the deal, and we will have far more “touches” to monitor both their nuclear program and their domestic internal politics related to nuclear ambitions. ISIS is a greater threat to the stability of the region than Iran. Iran is overwhelmingly a youthful country, the median age is 29 years old. As people age they become more set in their assumptions and perceptions. Iran’s youthful population can reach their 40s with the perception that the US is an enemy to the Iranian people or they can reach that age of solidified perception with the recognition… Read more »

A Proud Infidel®™

All that education you claim to have, and you don’t even have a tiny smidgen of common sense or logic, o candyassed little Koo-koo puff! YOU claim to have served in the Middle East in a rear echelon capacity, I and many others here were the grunts going outside the wire that self-important fluffpot fobbits like you sneered at while bawling about not getting enough crab on steak night in the chow hall!! Muslims consider it OK to lie to, cheat and steal from non-muslims, they change sides and alliances at the drop of a hat, and care about little more than themselves. HOW MANY times did you ever go outside the wire and see for yourself, creampuff?

Ex-PH2

Lars, I do try to be patient and nice, but if you really believe that a nuke deal with Iran will stop them from getting nuclear weapons, you must be smoking something REALLY good.

ALL those people in the Middle East have a culture built on, among other things, lying like dogs to get what they want, and you think they wouldn’t lie their asses off for the sole purpose of getting/developing nukes?

You really do have rocks in your head.

L. Taylor

No, it is incompatible with the work I do. Though I sure as hell would smoke it if it was not prohibited.

However, I am very well aware of the threat Iran presents and I do not agree with your sweeping generalization of Iran and the “Middle East.”

Iran is nothing like their middle eastern neighbors. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing. But it certainly means that a sweeping generalization of Iran based on generalized perceptions of the Middle East is likely to be way off base.

A Proud Infidel®™

REALLY? THEN WHO overran the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and took American Citizens hostage for 444 days? Was it:

A. The Easter Bunny
B. Santa’s Elves
C. Extraterrestrial Aliens
D. Elvis Impersonators on LSD
E. Iranian Muslim Males

Formally known as JR

I choose every answer but E, what did o score on the test?

L. Taylor

The deal does nothing to increase their capacity to develop nuclear weapons but it does increase our ability to detect indication they are set on that path, gives us more diplomatic leverage to do so, and gives us greater moral authority internationally if they violate this agreement in such a way that requires our dismantling or their efforts or degrading their progress,

A Proud Infidel®™

Your liberal diarrhea of the mouth is a clear sign that you have shit for brains, sugarbritches!

Ex-PH2

This notion that you carry around in your head – that Iran operates on the up-and-up – indicates what a massive case of naivete clouds your understanding.

The entire Middle East, including Iran, the ancient seat of the Persian Empire, has a millenia-long history of operating on lies, threats, deceit and intimidation.

They want honesty out of everyone else for the sole purpose of seeing exactly how much of a sucker you are. Yes, it is perfectly correct to ‘paint’ them all with the same brush, because that is how they have always been through history, and it is how they are now.

You are too dumb to even ‘get’ a metaphor when it’s right in front of you, i.e., ‘what you’re smoking must be pretty damn good’.

Seriously, Lars, you are dumber than thumbtacks on a doorknob. And you are SO STUPID, you will even over-analyze ‘thumbtacks on a doorknob’.

Your thought processes are mired in mud. You can’t see past the end of your nose. This is why people rip apart everything you post.

Hondo

From what I’ve read in the press – the only source of info about the terms of the “deal”, since the current gang of feckless fools and tone-deaf tools running things in DC Administration refused to release the “deal’s” text – the Iran “deal” doesn’t require a trustworthy 3rd party to take data and samples to be analyzed for compliance. Rather, it allows the Iranians themselves to collect all samples and data that will be analyzed by the IAEA to see whether Iran’s abiding by the “deal”.

That’s not a “deal”. That’s buying a pig in a poke, to wit:

“Trust me on this – I’m not going to do anything bad. I’ll collect the samples showing that everything’s ‘on the level’ accurately.

Oh, and just forget I’ve been calling you the ‘Great Satan’ and calling for your death for the past 35 years.”

sj

Does TAH have a policy for giving a platform for folks such as Lars? I welcome thoughtful counter opinions but Lars is so predictable: Obama is GOD. That he is a lib is his right…so go post on lib sites. This ain’t one. I, frankly, don’t give a shot what Lar’s says.

A Proud Infidel®™

I think he comes up with his crap after he has a few Dutch Rudder Gang Cocktails with bong water for a chaser while perusing posts on DU, KoS, and HuffyPoo!

2/17 Air Cav

Yeah, Lars’ is a dyed-in-the-wooler, to coin a long noun. He is a true believer, a fellow traveler, a goose stepper. There is no swaying him on any issue. The party line is his line. His comments are never interesting. They never waiver from what can find at [Fill in w/ name of leftist/progressive blog or org.]

A Proud Infidel®™

Lars has a mind like concrete – permanently set and all mixed up!! 😀

2/17 Air Cav

I should add that Lars’ comments are always devoid of humor, too. Have you noticed that? Contrast that with nearly all others here. Dour every hour.