Iraq conflict: All options open to fight insurgents - Obama

Precisely. It always reminds me of the not too dissimilar situation with Pakistan being called an ally when they have been known to support the Taliban in Afghanistan, through their intelligence services of Pakistan's military.

 

Well it's about time!

 

They must think we are playing...

'A message from ISIS to the US': Islamist militants tweet gruesome images of dead American soldiers and vow to blow up embassies as terrorist convoy is wiped out in SECOND round of airstrikes











Another warned that ISIS is 'ready to cut your heads Dear Americans O sons of bitches. Come quickly.'

That tweet also carried a second hashtag: #WarOnWhites.

Others featured taunting captions to pictures of soldiers previously wounded or killed in Iraq, reminding Us commanders what happened last time there was a full scale invasion.

The latest Twitter blitz in an extension of ISIS's propaganda push on social media that the terror group has used throughout their campaign to spread fear and intimidate the world.

Over the last few months the medium has been used to post graphic pictures of beheadings, mass killings and boastful messages from fighters who have come from Western countries.

 

^^^^^^

There is some scary stuff coming out about ISIS.

They need to be stopped. They're on par with Hitler, as far as I'm concerned.

My brother today said something to the effect of "why should we care about what's happening over there? Let them worry about it." Normally, I would agree, but this case is different. ISIS is a whole other animal and that animal needs to be stopped before they gain more power.

Thanks for sharing, Bliss, though sometimes I really don't want to know this type of stuff. LOL. It's scary to think about.

 

Hardly.

It took the world's major powers years to defeat the Axis powers. It's been less than a week of bombing and ISIS is toast wherever we decide rain fire down upon their heads. Kurds are already reclaiming towns in northern Iraq. Islamic militants are generally not very good from tactical standpoint, just persistent.

 

I did not mean in the literal sense. I meant more of a "we can't sit idly by and watch ISIS do this" kind of sense. That's why I compared them to Hitler.

Saddam Hussein did bad things, but we sat around and watched it happen, because they weren't THAT bad, in the government's opinion. But, ISIS IS that bad, so they must be stopped.

That's all I meant by the comparison.

 

I would agree, ISIS is as bold as Hitler. I wish though the U.S took (had taken) a similar stance in the Sudan with the Janjaweed. The genocide is appalling and no one seems to have given a genuine fuck.

Tell your brother we should care because we are not an island on this planet anymore. What affects them eventually effects us. 9/11, Boston, and of course, Islamic terrorists crossing the Mexican/US border in record numbers.

 

I hadn't read that about the Kurds....I had actually read about the kidnappings of women, and the killings of the refugees in that territory... will try to find the story...

 

The bombing sends them packing, but only temporarily. To hold the ground obtained via bombing, they're going to have to keep an organized force on the ground, but it seems like ISIS' savagery has people fleeing rather than facing them. They seem to be so fanatical that they're almost not even fighting to achieve strategic objectives, just a nihilist cult of sorts, reveling in killing.

 

We need to support the Kurds with arms and U.S. drone backup. They're sensible, by local standards, and would help stop the spread of radicals into the North.

Iraq is not really a country, more a collection of ethnic factions and religious sects with no core identity and Maliki is incapable of creating a unity government.

Another issue is the Mosul Dam. It needs a constant supply of grout poured into it to keep it from breaking and flooding northern Iraq. ISIS supposedly has control of it now, which is a very dangerous proposition.

 

An angrier form of Al-Qaeda.

The positive is that ISIL is weak financially and depends more on theft than arms purchases to supply their forces.

50,000 U.S. combat troops could probably wipe them out in a couple weeks.

But no one wants to do that.:smt030

 

ISIL has about a billion dollars they say and has developed black market conduits for its oil sales that they have overtaken. They are going to have to be :smt021 and all :smt070 just to get rid of them and then they will just re-group back over in Syria

I wish that Obama had the foresight to mobilize a mass airlift of the religious refuges last week before he left for Martha's Vineyard. Get the C-130's service checked, fueled up and save as many civilians as you can ASAP . . . people are dying at dramatic rates due to dehydration and heat stroke up in those mountains . . . this is too little too late for many of them

 

Oil sales?? ISIL isn't selling oil anywhere. Unless they're being funded by the Saudis, ISIL doesn't have $1 billion in assets either.

Most of their heavy armaments have been stolen from Iraqi army deserters.

ISIL is probably its most vulnerable to defeat right now in Iraq.

It would be nice if Congress would draft a resolution authorizing use of military forces in Iraq by the POTUS.

 

Let 'em kill each other. They don't want peace or democracy. We come back in 5 years and deal with the winning faction. Keep a token force to protect the oil wells. Problem solved

We have roads and bridges and train tracks rotting away right here in America and we keep shoveling trillions of taxpayer dollars and American lives into that hellhole we'll never get back, while China has the fastest bullet trains in the world, socialized medicine and a rover on the moon

I will not pretend to be an armchair geopolitical expert, not worth my time

Enough already

 

Very good, the next of many issues is ISIS' control of the Mosul Dam.

http://www.newsweek.com/embattled-iraqi-prime-minister-nouri-al-maliki-steps-down-supports-replacement-264743