So you go to Paris by choice, that shines a whole new light on you and your actual value to society. How much lower can you go when even I won't talk to you.
Isis
- Thread starter Goober
- Start date
Why would right wingers want to move there under those conditions?
I think you went against your advice....
That's good news! Do you think I like our Administration's position on Syria?
The Grind goes on!
The Grind goes on!
ISIS beheads suspected enemy, then the mistaken informant
Postmedia Network
First posted: Friday, February 26, 2016 11:40 PM EST | Updated: Friday, February 26, 2016 11:47 PM EST
ISIS thugs beheaded a man who they believed was a supporter of Bashar Assad's Syrian regime, then they learned he wasn't. So they also beheaded the informant who turned him in.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said both men were executed by sword in front of dozens of people, including children.
The first man was brought up on charges of co-operating with the Syrian government, tried and found guilty, according to the human rights group.
It wasn't until after his execution that new evidence came to light.
That's when they charged the informant with "providing false evidences about a person's co-operating with the regime and causing his execution."
ISIS beheads suspected enemy, then the mistaken informant | World | News | Toron
Postmedia Network
First posted: Friday, February 26, 2016 11:40 PM EST | Updated: Friday, February 26, 2016 11:47 PM EST
ISIS thugs beheaded a man who they believed was a supporter of Bashar Assad's Syrian regime, then they learned he wasn't. So they also beheaded the informant who turned him in.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said both men were executed by sword in front of dozens of people, including children.
The first man was brought up on charges of co-operating with the Syrian government, tried and found guilty, according to the human rights group.
It wasn't until after his execution that new evidence came to light.
That's when they charged the informant with "providing false evidences about a person's co-operating with the regime and causing his execution."
ISIS beheads suspected enemy, then the mistaken informant | World | News | Toron
ISIS has its eyes set on Canada
Postmedia Network
First posted: Monday, February 29, 2016 07:46 PM EST | Updated: Monday, February 29, 2016 07:50 PM EST
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government may be less concerned about the threat posed to Canada by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria than the previous Conservative government, but it’s clear the terrorists haven’t forgotten about us.
Indeed, as Stewart Bell of the National Post reported Monday, Canadian authorities believe ISIS has formed a terrorist cell in Syria devoted to reaching out to potential English-speaking terrorists through social media, with a specific desk officer assigned to Canada.
The advantage to ISIS of recruiting allies among natural born Canadians is obvious.
It’s because spontaneous “lone wolf” attacks by radicalized Canadians are far harder for our security forces to detect and prevent in advance than attacks by foreign fighters trying to sneak into Canada.
All ISIS has to do is troll the Internet for Canadians whose Twitter or Facebook posts suggest, for whatever reason, a profound hatred for Canada, inciting them to act on these feelings and offering to help them do so.
It doesn’t matter that the vast majority of these social media encounters between ISIS and deranged or hate-filled Canadians may come to nothing, or be intercepted by our security forces before an attack is actually carried out.
All ISIS has to do is succeed one time in 100, or for that matter one time in 1,000, for the operation to be deemed a success.
Let’s not forget that one lone wolf Canadian-born terrorist, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, not only murdered Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, who was standing ceremonial guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, but was only confronted and shot to death by security forces after he had entered the very heart of our democracy on Parliament Hill.
In that context, we worry that Trudeau and the Liberals do not seem to be as concerned about these kinds of attacks, and the nature of the terrorist threat Canada faces, as they should be.
We suggest they spend less time worrying about protecting the Canadian citizenship rights of dual citizens who are convicted of terrorism, and more about the threat posed by Canadians enticed into carrying out acts of violence against their own country by ISIS.
After all, the primary duty of any Canadian government is to keep Canadians safe.
ISIS has its eyes set on Canada | EDITORIAL | Editorial | Opinion | Toronto Sun
Postmedia Network
First posted: Monday, February 29, 2016 07:46 PM EST | Updated: Monday, February 29, 2016 07:50 PM EST
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government may be less concerned about the threat posed to Canada by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria than the previous Conservative government, but it’s clear the terrorists haven’t forgotten about us.
Indeed, as Stewart Bell of the National Post reported Monday, Canadian authorities believe ISIS has formed a terrorist cell in Syria devoted to reaching out to potential English-speaking terrorists through social media, with a specific desk officer assigned to Canada.
The advantage to ISIS of recruiting allies among natural born Canadians is obvious.
It’s because spontaneous “lone wolf” attacks by radicalized Canadians are far harder for our security forces to detect and prevent in advance than attacks by foreign fighters trying to sneak into Canada.
All ISIS has to do is troll the Internet for Canadians whose Twitter or Facebook posts suggest, for whatever reason, a profound hatred for Canada, inciting them to act on these feelings and offering to help them do so.
It doesn’t matter that the vast majority of these social media encounters between ISIS and deranged or hate-filled Canadians may come to nothing, or be intercepted by our security forces before an attack is actually carried out.
All ISIS has to do is succeed one time in 100, or for that matter one time in 1,000, for the operation to be deemed a success.
Let’s not forget that one lone wolf Canadian-born terrorist, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, not only murdered Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, who was standing ceremonial guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, but was only confronted and shot to death by security forces after he had entered the very heart of our democracy on Parliament Hill.
In that context, we worry that Trudeau and the Liberals do not seem to be as concerned about these kinds of attacks, and the nature of the terrorist threat Canada faces, as they should be.
We suggest they spend less time worrying about protecting the Canadian citizenship rights of dual citizens who are convicted of terrorism, and more about the threat posed by Canadians enticed into carrying out acts of violence against their own country by ISIS.
After all, the primary duty of any Canadian government is to keep Canadians safe.
ISIS has its eyes set on Canada | EDITORIAL | Editorial | Opinion | Toronto Sun
ISIS making kids play soccer with decapitated heads: Report
Postmedia Network
First posted: Monday, March 07, 2016 01:55 PM EST | Updated: Monday, March 07, 2016 02:11 PM EST
ISIS thugs are forcing children to play soccer with decapitated heads to make them more brutal killers, a new study claims.
The report — backed by Canadian Romeo Deallair’s Child Solders initiative — and issued this week by the British counter-extremism think-tank Quilliam Foundation details horrific evidence of how the terror group radicalizes its young.
In the study, called Children of Islamic State, the authors state that young children are repeatedly exposed to violence to desensitize them for roles as fighters.
That includes having them participate in beheadings — as has been seen in videos proudly issued by the bloodthirsty militants — and encouraging the “children to participate in public brutality, including holding up decapitated heads or playing football with them.”
The 100-page report details accounts of how ISIS’ brainwashing campaign of children, starting at a very young age, leads to the breakdown of their psychological well-being.
“Self-esteem is usually destroyed, and they become convinced that war is the sole option. Thus, as they become adults, they do not consider peacekeeping alternatives and tend to formulate violent solutions to problems.”
It compares ISIS' tactics to those of the Nazis in pre-war Germany.
“Elements from Nazi Germany can be glimpsed in the systematic indoctrination of children through schools and training camps in IS,” the reports says.
It also suggests that young girls — who are often repeatedly raped — have a higher risk of their lives being ruined by ISIS' psychological terror.
ISIS making kids play soccer with decapitated heads: Report | World | News | Tor
Postmedia Network
First posted: Monday, March 07, 2016 01:55 PM EST | Updated: Monday, March 07, 2016 02:11 PM EST
ISIS thugs are forcing children to play soccer with decapitated heads to make them more brutal killers, a new study claims.
The report — backed by Canadian Romeo Deallair’s Child Solders initiative — and issued this week by the British counter-extremism think-tank Quilliam Foundation details horrific evidence of how the terror group radicalizes its young.
In the study, called Children of Islamic State, the authors state that young children are repeatedly exposed to violence to desensitize them for roles as fighters.
That includes having them participate in beheadings — as has been seen in videos proudly issued by the bloodthirsty militants — and encouraging the “children to participate in public brutality, including holding up decapitated heads or playing football with them.”
The 100-page report details accounts of how ISIS’ brainwashing campaign of children, starting at a very young age, leads to the breakdown of their psychological well-being.
“Self-esteem is usually destroyed, and they become convinced that war is the sole option. Thus, as they become adults, they do not consider peacekeeping alternatives and tend to formulate violent solutions to problems.”
It compares ISIS' tactics to those of the Nazis in pre-war Germany.
“Elements from Nazi Germany can be glimpsed in the systematic indoctrination of children through schools and training camps in IS,” the reports says.
It also suggests that young girls — who are often repeatedly raped — have a higher risk of their lives being ruined by ISIS' psychological terror.
ISIS making kids play soccer with decapitated heads: Report | World | News | Tor
'It compares ISIS' tactics to those of the Nazis in pre-war Germany'
Since most of the insane SS members made it to the CIA in the US it would seem that the brutality is being taught by them. You can probably find the same ideals being promoted by the South American Death Squads and ISIS didn't create them, the US did.
Since most of the insane SS members made it to the CIA in the US it would seem that the brutality is being taught by them. You can probably find the same ideals being promoted by the South American Death Squads and ISIS didn't create them, the US did.
You would be so lucky to have that as the reason people think you are as stupid as the day is long.
Do you deny that many SS Troopers ended up in the US as the core of the CIA??
Do you deny that the CIA was the force behind the 'secret police' in areas such as Iran from 1953-1979?
Do you deny that the death squads that roamed Central and South America were trained by the CIA at the School of the Americas?
Do you deny their tactics are the same that ISIS is said to be using to terrorize tyhe citizens of Syria and Iraq?
Do you deny that ISIS is funded by the US through proxies?
Shall I go on with the many other questions that show quite clearly that you are nothing but a troll, and a very poor one at that?
Do you deny that many SS Troopers ended up in the US as the core of the CIA??
Do you deny that the CIA was the force behind the 'secret police' in areas such as Iran from 1953-1979?
Do you deny that the death squads that roamed Central and South America were trained by the CIA at the School of the Americas?
Do you deny their tactics are the same that ISIS is said to be using to terrorize tyhe citizens of Syria and Iraq?
Do you deny that ISIS is funded by the US through proxies?
Shall I go on with the many other questions that show quite clearly that you are nothing but a troll, and a very poor one at that?
Canadians among 22,000 ISIS supporters ID'd in docs
Colin Perkel, THE CANADIAN PRESS
First posted: Thursday, March 10, 2016 11:07 AM EST | Updated: Thursday, March 10, 2016 04:25 PM EST
A trove of documents turned over to European news outlets is reported to list the names of at least half a dozen Canadians among thousands of foreigners who have joined the Islamic State terrorist group.
Britain's Sky News reported Wednesday it had obtained 22,000 Islamic State files that contained the names, addresses, telephone numbers and family contacts of jihadis from at least 51 countries.
"We are not in a position to offer any information on this subject," an RCMP spokesman said from Ottawa.
Public Safety Canada also had little to say about the documents but called the phenomenon of foreign fighters and understanding their radicalization process a "key priority" for the country's national security agencies.
"The government is committed to establishing an office of community outreach on counter-radicalization and a national strategy to address this issue," the ministry said in a statement.
Michel Coulombe, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, recently told a Senate committee recently that Canadian authorities suspect about 100 Canadians are in Iraq and Syria fighting with terrorist organizations.
Some Canadians who have joined Islamic State have gained widespread publicity. One of them, for example, was Damian Clairmont, 22, of Calgary, a convert to Islam who was killed in early 2014. Police have also charged Farah Shirdon, 22, also of Calgary, with several offences, including leaving Canada to participate in the activity of a terrorist group, taking part in the activity of a terrorist group, and threatening the U.S. and Canada.
The documents were first revealed on Monday by the Munich-based Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and German broadcasters WDR and NDR.
The London-based Guardian newspaper said the documents allegedly contain details of six fighters from Canada, as well as recruits from Britain, France, Germany, the U.S., and other countries.
According to Sky News, the files were on a memory stick stolen from the head of Islamic State's internal security police by a disillusioned former Free Syrian Army who calls himself Abu Hamed.
The documents, a 23-question form, are apparently required before recruits are inducted into the terror group that is most active in Syria and Iraq.
German media reported that the questionnaire asked would-be recruits about any previous experience they had in jihad and whether they were prepared to be suicide bombers.
The documents appear to have been collected at the end of 2013, according to various reports, but western intelligence authorities are still keen to get their hands on the files.
A spokesman for Germany's federal police said Thursday they were in possession of files containing personal data on members of the extremist Islamic State and believe them to be authentic.
U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, said the information could help the coalition fight the Islamic State group by aiding in a crack-down on its foreign-fighter networks.
Warren called on media outlets who might have the names and numbers to publish them.
Documents identifying supporters of Islamic State are seen in this still image from video, released by Sky News to Reuters in London on March 10, 2016. (REUTERS/Sky News/Handout via Reuters)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrBJy387mgM
Canadians among 22,000 ISIS supporters ID'd in docs | Canada | News | Toronto Su
Colin Perkel, THE CANADIAN PRESS
First posted: Thursday, March 10, 2016 11:07 AM EST | Updated: Thursday, March 10, 2016 04:25 PM EST
A trove of documents turned over to European news outlets is reported to list the names of at least half a dozen Canadians among thousands of foreigners who have joined the Islamic State terrorist group.
Britain's Sky News reported Wednesday it had obtained 22,000 Islamic State files that contained the names, addresses, telephone numbers and family contacts of jihadis from at least 51 countries.
"We are not in a position to offer any information on this subject," an RCMP spokesman said from Ottawa.
Public Safety Canada also had little to say about the documents but called the phenomenon of foreign fighters and understanding their radicalization process a "key priority" for the country's national security agencies.
"The government is committed to establishing an office of community outreach on counter-radicalization and a national strategy to address this issue," the ministry said in a statement.
Michel Coulombe, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, recently told a Senate committee recently that Canadian authorities suspect about 100 Canadians are in Iraq and Syria fighting with terrorist organizations.
Some Canadians who have joined Islamic State have gained widespread publicity. One of them, for example, was Damian Clairmont, 22, of Calgary, a convert to Islam who was killed in early 2014. Police have also charged Farah Shirdon, 22, also of Calgary, with several offences, including leaving Canada to participate in the activity of a terrorist group, taking part in the activity of a terrorist group, and threatening the U.S. and Canada.
The documents were first revealed on Monday by the Munich-based Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and German broadcasters WDR and NDR.
The London-based Guardian newspaper said the documents allegedly contain details of six fighters from Canada, as well as recruits from Britain, France, Germany, the U.S., and other countries.
According to Sky News, the files were on a memory stick stolen from the head of Islamic State's internal security police by a disillusioned former Free Syrian Army who calls himself Abu Hamed.
The documents, a 23-question form, are apparently required before recruits are inducted into the terror group that is most active in Syria and Iraq.
German media reported that the questionnaire asked would-be recruits about any previous experience they had in jihad and whether they were prepared to be suicide bombers.
The documents appear to have been collected at the end of 2013, according to various reports, but western intelligence authorities are still keen to get their hands on the files.
A spokesman for Germany's federal police said Thursday they were in possession of files containing personal data on members of the extremist Islamic State and believe them to be authentic.
U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, said the information could help the coalition fight the Islamic State group by aiding in a crack-down on its foreign-fighter networks.
Warren called on media outlets who might have the names and numbers to publish them.
Documents identifying supporters of Islamic State are seen in this still image from video, released by Sky News to Reuters in London on March 10, 2016. (REUTERS/Sky News/Handout via Reuters)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrBJy387mgM
Canadians among 22,000 ISIS supporters ID'd in docs | Canada | News | Toronto Su
Islamic State using birth control to keep supply of sex slaves: report
Reuters
First posted: Saturday, March 12, 2016 11:27 PM EST | Updated: Saturday, March 12, 2016 11:33 PM EST
WASHINGTON - The Islamic State is using several forms of contraception to maintain its supply of sex slaves, the New York Times reported on Saturday, citing interviews with more than three dozen Yazidi women who escaped from the militant group.
The New York Times reported that Islamic State used "oral and injectable contraception, and sometimes both" to ensure that the women did not become pregnant and could be passed among the fighters.
"In at least one case, a woman was forced to have an abortion in order to make her available for sex, and others were pressured to do so," the paper said.
Islamic State militants consider the Yazidis to be devil-worshippers. The Yazidi faith has elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Islam. Most of the Yazidi population, numbering around half a million, remains displaced in camps inside the autonomous entity in Iraq's north known as Kurdistan.
Until late last year, some 5,000 Yazidi men and women were captured by the militants in the summer of 2014. Of those, around 2,000 had managed to escape or been smuggled out of Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate, activists said.
The New York Times, citing a gynecologist who carried out the examinations, said that out of the more than 700 Yazidi rape victims who had gone to a United Nations-backed clinic in Iraq, only 5% had become pregnant during their enslavement.
Dr. Nezar Ismet Taib, head of the Ministry of Health Directorate in Dohuk which oversees the clinic, said that number was much lower than expected, according to the newspaper.
The United Nations and human rights groups have accused the Islamic State of the systematic abduction and rape of thousands of women and girls as young as 12. Many have been given to fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves.
Far from trying to conceal the practice, Islamic State has boasted about it and established a department of "war spoils" to manage slavery. Reuters reported on the existence of the department in December.
Islamic State using birth control to keep supply of sex slaves: report | World |
Reuters
First posted: Saturday, March 12, 2016 11:27 PM EST | Updated: Saturday, March 12, 2016 11:33 PM EST
WASHINGTON - The Islamic State is using several forms of contraception to maintain its supply of sex slaves, the New York Times reported on Saturday, citing interviews with more than three dozen Yazidi women who escaped from the militant group.
The New York Times reported that Islamic State used "oral and injectable contraception, and sometimes both" to ensure that the women did not become pregnant and could be passed among the fighters.
"In at least one case, a woman was forced to have an abortion in order to make her available for sex, and others were pressured to do so," the paper said.
Islamic State militants consider the Yazidis to be devil-worshippers. The Yazidi faith has elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Islam. Most of the Yazidi population, numbering around half a million, remains displaced in camps inside the autonomous entity in Iraq's north known as Kurdistan.
Until late last year, some 5,000 Yazidi men and women were captured by the militants in the summer of 2014. Of those, around 2,000 had managed to escape or been smuggled out of Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate, activists said.
The New York Times, citing a gynecologist who carried out the examinations, said that out of the more than 700 Yazidi rape victims who had gone to a United Nations-backed clinic in Iraq, only 5% had become pregnant during their enslavement.
Dr. Nezar Ismet Taib, head of the Ministry of Health Directorate in Dohuk which oversees the clinic, said that number was much lower than expected, according to the newspaper.
The United Nations and human rights groups have accused the Islamic State of the systematic abduction and rape of thousands of women and girls as young as 12. Many have been given to fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves.
Far from trying to conceal the practice, Islamic State has boasted about it and established a department of "war spoils" to manage slavery. Reuters reported on the existence of the department in December.
Islamic State using birth control to keep supply of sex slaves: report | World |
Probably has to do with booze and loose women and child support in that their DNA is in a database.
Syria Rivals Clash ahead of Peace Talks — Naharnet
Assad can ask Russia (as a UN Security member) to be the UN peacekeepers that monitor the place during the reconstruction phase. That would be about 3M jobs in the construction industry and demo work seems to the the first step, grind up what is left and use it as a rubble base so utility lines can be underground and chewing up bedrock is not an option. That duty would take over the Golan Heights as far as economic gains go and who lives there is up to the local residents (farmers) before any oil boom and farmers after the place is piped. Israel should buy it all so they have access to it no matter what the rest of the Mid-East is doing. That is as much security as you can buy today. Israel would be better off developing salt water batteries and export electricity to the area so it is slightly less expensive that what they can produce locally.
Assad can ask Russia (as a UN Security member) to be the UN peacekeepers that monitor the place during the reconstruction phase. That would be about 3M jobs in the construction industry and demo work seems to the the first step, grind up what is left and use it as a rubble base so utility lines can be underground and chewing up bedrock is not an option. That duty would take over the Golan Heights as far as economic gains go and who lives there is up to the local residents (farmers) before any oil boom and farmers after the place is piped. Israel should buy it all so they have access to it no matter what the rest of the Mid-East is doing. That is as much security as you can buy today. Israel would be better off developing salt water batteries and export electricity to the area so it is slightly less expensive that what they can produce locally.
Jason Kenney Verified account @jkenney John Kerry: "It is my judgement that Daesh is responsible for genocide" Min Dion: Kerry needs "additional research"
and our stuttering mumbling spastic:
ISIS reportedly executes 250 women for refusing 'sexual jihad'
Postmedia Network
First posted: Wednesday, April 20, 2016 05:46 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, April 20, 2016 05:52 PM EDT
ISIS has so far executed 250 women in Mosul for refusing to become sex slaves, according to local reports.
The victims were all ordered to submit to "temporary marriage" to a jihadist in the Islamic State-controlled Iraq stronghold and refused.
A Kurdish official told the AhlulBayt News Agency the women were all put to death. In some cases, so were other members of their family.
"At least 250 girls have so far been executed by ISIS for refusing to accept the practice of sexual jihad, and sometimes the families of the girls were also executed for rejecting to submit," Said Mamuzini, a representative from the Kurdistan Democratic Party, told the news agency.
ISIS enforces a strict and suffocating version of Sharia law in its caliphate. Women must be fully covered in public, they can't talk to the opposite sex, and are routinely ordered into forced marriages. Captured Kurdish women are often traded and sold as sex slaves.
ISIS reportedly executes 250 women for refusing 'sexual jihad' | World | News |
Postmedia Network
First posted: Wednesday, April 20, 2016 05:46 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, April 20, 2016 05:52 PM EDT
ISIS has so far executed 250 women in Mosul for refusing to become sex slaves, according to local reports.
The victims were all ordered to submit to "temporary marriage" to a jihadist in the Islamic State-controlled Iraq stronghold and refused.
A Kurdish official told the AhlulBayt News Agency the women were all put to death. In some cases, so were other members of their family.
"At least 250 girls have so far been executed by ISIS for refusing to accept the practice of sexual jihad, and sometimes the families of the girls were also executed for rejecting to submit," Said Mamuzini, a representative from the Kurdistan Democratic Party, told the news agency.
ISIS enforces a strict and suffocating version of Sharia law in its caliphate. Women must be fully covered in public, they can't talk to the opposite sex, and are routinely ordered into forced marriages. Captured Kurdish women are often traded and sold as sex slaves.
ISIS reportedly executes 250 women for refusing 'sexual jihad' | World | News |
Since the USA sent in their 'special' ground troops; the media has been getting nothing. ISIS gets out a few video's here and there, but no real reporting from any news media has been shared as how the mission is going, which is probably a good strategic plan.
A few hundred aren't going to make any difference.......
The great, long-awaited counterattack against ISIS has finally begun. The offensive that spans Syria and western Iraq is targeting the ISIS-held cities of Raqqa and Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.
For a variety of reasons, the much ballyhooed “final offensive” against ISIS is moving with all the speed of a medieval army of drunken foot soldiers and all the audacity of a lady’s garden party.
In fact, the whole business smells to high heaven.
In the west, the Syrian government and Kurdish troops, stiffened by US, British and French special forces, and backed by US close air support, are inching towards ISIS-controlled Raqqa, a dreary, one-camel town that sits on some strategic roads. Syrian troops just retook Palmyra, once the desert capital of the fabled Queen Zenobia.
Washington has been slowly massing Iraqi and US forces for the campaign against Mosul, an important city of 64,000 that is the gateway to Iraq’s northern oilfields. Arabs and Kurds have been battling over Mosul for decades. Iraq’s Kurds, now allied to the US, are set on cementing their hold on Mosul and its oil-producing region…and probably expelling many of its Arab inhabitants.
The Turks, who once ruled this region, are angry as hornets and fearful that an independent Kurdish state may be proclaimed at Mosul.
To get to Mosul, all the US-led forces need do is start their vehicles and drive a few hours up the highway to that city. Iraq has excellent roads thanks to its murdered president, Saddam Hussein. US-led Iraqi government and Kurdish forces are similarly close to Mosul from their bases in western Iraq.
If Germans or Russians were running this mini-war, they would have taken Mosul last year.
What strikes me as so curious is that in reality the dreaded ISIS is little more than a bunch of 20-something kids without any military training or professional command except for some veterans of Saddam’s disbanded army.
ISIS has almost no artillery and only light anti-aircraft guns. Their supplies are scanty; their communications listened into by nearly everyone. US, British, French, warplanes buzz overhead, ready to blast anything that moves in the flat, empty desert terrain.
The notion that a rabble of 20-something ISIS kids can stand up to highly trained heavily armed western troops and their native auxiliaries is absurd. ISIS is what the Ottomans used to call, “bashi-bazooks,” armed street thugs used for looting and attacking civilians.
The small Russian air contingent in Syria has proven far more effective than the US and its allies. The mighty US Air Force has continued pinprick attacks on ISIS positions in what has become a pantomime war. It’s almost as if the western powers are playing make-believe in Syria.
Perhaps they are. The Saudis and Turks, both very close US allies, have been arming and supplying ISIS in order to topple the Damascus-based Shia regime of President Bashar Assad. Washington has gone along with this covert fight while lamenting the terrors of “terrorism.”
Washington’s strategy in Syria has become so comically inept that the Pentagon and CIA are actually backing rival Syrian jihadist groups who are fighting with one another. The Russians are mocking Washington. Who can blame them.
The Obama administration is clearly reluctant to use “force majeure” against ISIS. So it continues to tip-toe and lilly-dip in Syria and Iraq, likely assuring that the US will eventually get stuck in another big Mideast conflict.
THE PHONY WAR IN SYRIA « Eric Margolis
The ISIS flag is a exact replica of Mohammed their "prophet" war hero's flag he sported when he led his army on his genocidal rape and pillaging of everything not Islamic. As it is a Muslims duty to follow in their war hero's foot steps, one doesn't need much imagination what this implies.