Yukawa, aged around 42 and who dreamed of becoming a military contractor, was captured in August outside the Syrian city of Aleppo. Goto, 47, a war correspondent with experience in Middle East hot spots, went to Syria in late October to try to help Yukawa.
Astronuc said:How long can Saudi Arabia stand on the sidelines?
Ultimately, there needs to be a force on the ground.Warmly greeting a group of Sunni leaders led by Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha, the president of the Iraqi Awakening Council, Allen reminisced last week about the critical help the leaders had provided the U.S. military eight years ago in ridding Anbar province of al-Qaida insurgents.
. . .
But hours later, Abu Risha and Allen got a rude jolt. IS fighters, they learned, had just stormed the compound of Abu Risha and his family, overrunning security forces, blowing up homes and the mosque.
“This was a message to the United States — that you cannot protect anyone. … We are able to reach anywhere,” Abu Risha told Yahoo News.
Whose force?Astronuc said:...
Ultimately, there needs to be a force on the ground.
My cousin tells me we will soon have a vast army of invincible AI robots, perhaps just in time for the ultimate battle on the ground.Astronuc said:In battle against Islamic State, Iraqi tribal chiefs plead for more U.S. aid
At meeting with Obama envoy, Sunni leaders paint bleak picture of U.S.-backed campaign
http://news.yahoo.com/in-battle-aga...chiefs-plead-for-more-u-s--aid-155913315.html
Ultimately, there needs to be a force on the ground.
mheslep said:Whose force?
Then, if Iraqi forces area unable to destroy ISIS, you favor a unilateral US ground force invasion of ISIS held Iraq?Astronuc said:So maybe a US force would be the best solution.
I favor a European army conscripted from all those countries which invaded and intervened since Sykes/Picot.mheslep said:Then, if Iraqi forces area unable to destroy ISIS, you favor a unilateral US ground force invasion of ISIS held Iraq?
Multinational force from the region would be better.mheslep said:Then, if Iraqi forces area unable to destroy ISIS, you favor a unilateral US ground force invasion of ISIS held Iraq?
http://news.yahoo.com/japan-says-efforts-free-islamic-state-hostage-deadlocked-075801477.htmlTOKYO (AP) — Japan and other nations condemned with outrage and horror on Sunday the beheading purportedly by the Islamic State group of Kenji Goto, a journalist who sought through his coverage of Syria to convey the plight of refugees, children and other victims of war.
Analysis: The world's problems enter Japan's psyche, againTOKYO (AP) — The Japanese, who inhabit one of the safest countries in the world, have been brutally reminded that the world is a dangerous place.
In a shock to a country that can feel insulated from distant geopolitical problems, two of its own have reportedly been killed by Islamic radicals in Syria, the latest apparently beheaded in a video posted online this weekend by militant websites.
Dotini said:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31121160#
BBC suggests the Jordanian pilot has been burned alive
Greg Bernhardt said:Can Jordan have any meaningful response to this?
There is one flaw in such strategy. For being feared they need firepower a bigger by a few magnitudes. Now I mainly see fury - on a main left wing leaning Polish newspaper in comments complain that we have to many qualms and with great applause people are suggesting rather nasty ways of dealing with ISIS (advices include napalm / white phosphorus / sarin).Vanadium 50 said:Yes. They don't want to be loved. They're happy being feared.
IMO this is exactly what ISIS wants - European armies crusading in the middle east. IMO, they also want every country in the region, including Jordan, inflamed in war.Czcibor said:Now I mainly see fury - on a main left wing leaning Polish newspaper in comments complain that we have to many qualms and with great applause people are suggesting rather nasty ways of dealing with ISIS (advices include napalm / white phosphorus / sarin).
Damn, now if Americans asked us for some troops I guess, that there would be no problem with convincing public opinion that we're fighting with evil incarnated and request would be accepted by masses.
Dotini said:IMO this is exactly what ISIS wants - European armies crusading in the middle east. IMO, they also want every country in the region, including Jordan, inflamed in war.
Somewhere in Game of Thrones you can read, "Chaos is a ladder."
Czcibor said:Now I mainly see fury - on a main left wing leaning Polish newspaper in comments complain that we have to many qualms and with great applause people are suggesting rather nasty ways of dealing with ISIS
When a fly becomes annoying enough somebody will swat it.Sherman's tactics were brutal. But they worked.
Why did he consider it necessary to inflict hardship on civilians as well as enemy soldiers?
Early in the war, Union commanders, including Sherman, had required Union soldiers to respect the property, lives and even the freedom of Southern civilians in areas occupied by the Union forces. But this worked out badly for the Union army. Armed Southern "civilians" frequently murdered Union soldiers who traveled in small groups or who became separated from their units. Confederate guerrillas sabotaged Union communications behind Union lines.
Commenting on this situation, Sherman wrote,
"We are not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and we must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war."
The Union forces needed
"to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us...
"We cannot change the hearts and minds of those people of the South, but we can make war so terrible ... [and] make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it."
McPherson and other historians believe that Sherman 's tough tactics, however distasteful they may have been, saved hundreds of thousands of lives by bringing the war to an end more quickly than would otherwise have been the case.
What lessons can America learn from Sherman 's March?
Does the Polish military have the air capability to deliver such weapons?Czcibor said:Polish newspaper in comments complain that we have to many qualms and with great applause people are suggesting rather nasty ways of dealing with ISIS (advices include napalm / white phosphorus / sarin).
Czcibor said:EDIT: I think that they reached a threshold of believing in their own propaganda.
HossamCFD said:I know that words like barbaric and monstrous have been used too much in discussing Daesh and started to lose their meaning, but burning someone alive is to me a new level of savagery. I cannot think of a worse fate.It seems there's a huge sentiment calling for revenge in Jordan. People are demanding the immediate execution of Sajida al-Rishawi, the convicted suicide bomber on death row that Jordan was trying to swap with the late pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh.
Captive treatment vs. opening fire to a legitimate target? (in the same way as we would not be specially outraged if this pilot burned to death in case of being hit with heat-seeking missile)Dotini said:Please allow me to play devil's advocate for just a moment. Of course it is monstrous to burn anyone alive. But the Jordanian pilot could also have burned people alive during his sorties with coalition forces. ISIS is said to have lost 6000 people to recent coalition actions. So ISIS took revenge by burning him in turn. Now the cycle of revenge is continued by calls to execute prisoners. Please explain why burning people alive is okay for the coalition, but not for the enemy? How is the cycle of revenge to be broken? Thank you for indulging a potentially naive question.
I've heard an idea that Jordanians should learn from Europe. Instead of such barbaric death penalty, they should express their deep concern, while implement a minor asset freeze and visa ban.naima said:I agree with dotini. Jordania replies with death sentence to terrorists. What does it mean? that killing the adversary is autorized! There is only one coherent answer: life sentence in jail!
It didn't take long - Jordan hangs two Iraqi militants in response to pilot's death.HossamCFD said:It seems there's a huge sentiment calling for revenge in Jordan. People are demanding the immediate execution of Sajida al-Rishawi, the convicted suicide bomber on death row that Jordan was trying to swap with the late pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh.