News Iraqi unrest, Syrian unrest, and ISIS/ISIL/Daesh

[Astronuc]

American Troops Capture ISIS Leader In Iraq
http://www.npr.org/2016/03/02/468937637/american-troops-capture-isis-leader-in-iraq

U.S. Special Ops Troops Aim To Round Up ISIS Leaders In Iraq
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...s-troops-aim-to-round-up-isis-leaders-in-iraq

U.S. Captures ISIS Operative, Ushering in Tricky Phase
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/w...-isis-operative-ushering-in-tricky-phase.html

The US is apparently being more effective in targeting Daesh and its leaders.

 

[Astronuc]

Istanbul bomber identified as militant with Daesh links
http://news.yahoo.com/israel-confirms-third-citizen-killed-istanbul-attack-100334468.html

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's interior minister on Sunday identified the suicide bomber who killed four foreign tourists in Istanbul as a militant with links to the Islamic State group.

Minister Efkan Ala said the bomber was Turkish citizen Mehmet Ozturk, who was born in 1992 in Gaziantep province, which borders Syria. He said Ozturk wasn't on any list of wanted suspects and five other people were detained as part of the investigation.

Apparently not Kurdish.

 

[Astronuc]

The war against Daesh: What’s changed for the terrorists
http://news.yahoo.com/the-war-against-isis--what-s-changed-for-the-terrorists-210326726.html

Daesh is losing ground, but striking out.Daesh has trained ~400 fighters to attack Europe in wave of bloodshed
http://news.yahoo.com/trains-400-fighters-attack-europe-191549896.html

 

[mheslep]

Up to 5000 US troops back in Iraq now, incurring casualties. As far as I tell, with no status of forces agreement with Iraq, no authorization to use miltary force from Congress

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/25/politics/general-us-troops-iraq/

 

[naima]

you got the power when you can decide and ignore the citizens. In France our president was elected after he promised to apply several things. He decided after to apply the opposite. He only said I am elected four 5 years and i will go on. Only 15% would vote for him now. The problem in our democracies is that the candidates are allowed to lie before. I am not sure to vote anymore.

 

[nikkkom]

The problem in our democracies is that the candidates are allowed to lie before. I am not sure to vote anymore.

Without a democracy, you would be even less able to effect any change. Kings did not need to care what people want.

BTW, voting is the least effective of the methods available in democracy to effect some changes (one vote is not really important). People who really want something to change start publishing articles about politics, organize demonstrations, join a party, or create a new one.

 

[naima]

But in the reality those who will decide for you will always belong to the same priviligied clan.

 

[nikkkom]

But in the reality those who will decide for you will always belong to the same priviligied clan.

Obama is a counterexample.
I think you are just looking for a way to justify your "I'm unhappy about current situation but won't actually do anything to change it" attitude.

 

[mheslep]

Obama is a counterexample...

No family in politics, but many US Presidents meet that standard, including all three GOP candidates. Otherwise, Obama's background includes elite private prep school, Ivy League college and law school, Chicago machine politician and organizer.

 

[Astronuc]

French journalist infiltrates jihadist cell for six months
https://www.yahoo.com/news/french-journalist-infiltrates-jihadist-cell-six-months-031631439.html

"One of the main lessons was that I never saw any Islam in this affair. No will to improve the world. Only lost, frustrated, suicidal, easily manipulated youths.

"They had the misfortune of being born in the era that the Islamic State exists. It is very sad. They are youngsters who are looking for something and that is what they found."

Interesting how the recruiters who encourage suicide bombing don't practice what they preach.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

Interesting how the recruiters who encourage suicide bombing don't practice what they preach.

There probably aren't any religious elements around because most of them are too functionally illiterate and can't understand their book enough to even preach, even if they wanted to do so. The leaders seem to be educated though and probably count on those young men having low intelligence and little confidence about themselves to begin with.

 

[mheslep]

...

Interesting how the recruiters who encourage suicide bombing don't practice what they preach.

Like the leadership of many cults.

 

[Astronuc]

The war against the Islamic State hits hurdles just as the U.S. military gears up
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...3897f8-10ac-11e6-a9b5-bf703a5a7191_story.html
Muslim leaders deny ISIS’ religious claims, stoking group’s anger
http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-...y-isis-religious-claims-stoking-groups-anger/

Death threats are a sign that Muslim religious leaders have antagonized the Islamic State, and their growing influence also contradicts those who claim that Muslim leaders have been silent in the fight against violent extremism.

 

[mheslep]

Navy Seal Charles Keating IV was killed in combat with ISIS several days ago in northern Iraq.

http://www.navytimes.com/story/military/2016/05/03/seal-killed-in-iraq-officials/83866702/

Out of respect, Obama might at least acknowledge the reversal of his repeated no ground combat, i.e. "no boots on the ground" fighting with ISIS.

 

[Astronuc]

A depraved and deranged group that they are, Daesh is shooting civilians who flee Fallujah: aid group
https://www.yahoo.com/news/shooting-civilians-flee-fallujah-aid-group-183959411.html

 

[Astronuc]

Why ISIS Sees an Elderly Priest as a Threat to the Caliphate
http://observer.com/2016/07/why-isis-sees-an-elderly-priest-as-a-threat-to-the-caliphate/

Their targeting of Jews is as clear as it is for any other terror group from Hamas to al-Qaeda to the mullahs in Tehran: they want to wipe Israel off the map and seize Al-Aqsa for Muslims. ISIS’ war in the Sinai, infiltration in Gaza and its goal of carving “pathways” through Jordan and Lebanon are critical cogs in their strategy to be the ones to “liberate” Jerusalem. According to an ISIS e-book, “Black Flags from Palestine,” they think the final confrontation with the antichrist will be at Ben Gurion International Airport.

When noting ISIS’ broader attacks against Christians, recent events have grimly underscored the group’s special targeting of Catholics.

The sacking of Rome and the Holy See, after all, is essential to their apocalyptic game plan.

Daesh and their affiliates achieve new lows in depravity.

 

[mheslep]

Reading through old posts in thread ...

Maybe the best solution would be to split Iraq in three. One piece for Kurds, one piece for Sunnis, and one piece for the Shi'ite people. Of course I think it should happen at an international negotiation table with the involvement of: Kurds, Sunni Iraqis, Shi'ite Iraqis, Iran, Syria, USA, Russia and China.

It worked in India, but it was very, very bloody...

Yes, bloody. One could just as well say the partition of India "is", but that it did not "work".

Estimates of the dead vary from 200,000 (the contemporary British figure) to two million (a later Indian estimate) but that somewhere around a million people died is now widely accepted.

https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/butalia-silence.html

 

[nsaspook]

 

[Astronuc]

What Life is Like for the Children of War-Torn Aleppo
https://www.yahoo.com/news/life-children-war-torn-aleppo-113321765.html

The bloodied, dust-covered face of Omran Daqneesh, the five-year-old Syrian boy recovered from the rubble left by an airstrike this week, has shocked the world.

Omran has become a symbol of the ongoing civil war in Syria, but he is just one of an estimated 75,000 children fighting to survive in eastern Aleppo, the divided and once-great city at the heart of the struggle between the regime of Bashar Assad and the rebels attempting to oust him.

Pro-government forces aided by Russian air support, make life even more difficult for the 300,000 Syrians still living there.

http://time.com/4457417/aleppo-boy-ambulance-omran-syria/

 

[Bystander]

http://www.wral.com/us-says-it-may-have-struck-syrian-troops-while-targeting-is/16022599/ " ... unintentionally ... ?"

 

[nsaspook]

The 'ceasefire' is over.

Syrian and Russian warplanes have reportedly mounted the heaviest air strikes in months against rebel-held districts of the city of Aleppo overnight, defying U.S. calls for a halt to flights in order to salvage an all but buried ceasefire. Mana Rabiee reports.

 

[nsaspook]

This might be the end game in Aleppo.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ack-foreign-syrian-fighters-plan-shia-islamic

 

[Astronuc]

The 'ceasefire' is over.

A ceasefire that never was. 'Cease fire' means ceasing fire, not a reduction in rate of firing.

A now the Russians (and perhaps Assad's pilots) are apparently using 'bunker busters' or more deeply penetrating bombs to go after residents sheltering in basements. The Syrian regime (and possibly Russian aircraft) have targeted hospitals and ambulances.

 

[nsaspook]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/01/politics/kerry-audio-recording-syria/index.html

He later added, "A lot of Americans don't believe that we should be fighting and sending young Americans over to die in another country."

If the reason is to replace Assad with another despot then I totally agree.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37507207

But Russia's military role ensured that the Assad leadership was not going to be removed from the chessboard.

This made Washington revise its own approach and pursue what has largely proved an illusory effort, to develop some kind of partnership with Russia.

The United States was compelled not just to deal with Russia as a diplomatic equal but also to shift its own stance towards the Assad government to one - that for all the obfuscation - falls well short of its long-time insistence that President Assad had to go, as the essential pre-condition for any negotiated settlement.

The indiscriminate nature of the Russian and Syrian air campaigns - exemplified by the current struggle over Aleppo - has certainly not won Russia many friends in the West.

Russia has been accused by several governments of barbarity and potentially committing war crimes.

According to the UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, almost 4,000 civilians have been killed in one year of Russian strikes.

But Western public opinion seems largely unmoved by the struggle; perhaps to an extent a reflection of war weariness in the wake of the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

[jim hardy]

If the reason is to replace Assad with another despot then I totally agree.

well said.

from your link http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/01/politics/kerry-audio-recording-syria/index.html

"They were invited in, we were not," he added, referring to Moscow's military operations in Syria.

 

[mheslep]

Some media outlets have been recently noting a history written by former Kennedy School professor Samantha Power. Power won recognition with her 2001 article, Bystanders to Genocide, published in the Atlantic regarding the 1994 genocide in Rwanda which killed an estimated 800,000 people in three months. Power's article cites the relevant history of the Clinton administration and Kofi Annan's UN at the time, and describes a damning story of willful avoidance in the US diplomatic community, the US military, and the White House. Power developed the history into a book which won the Pulitzer prize. The recognition won Power a position in the 2008 Obama campaign.

Power resigned from the Obama campaign after calling the then Senator Clinton a "monster". Now of course Power is United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and there is another mass slaughter underway. The UN as of Feb 2016 estimated 470,000 dead in Syria from the war there, and since then has stopped providing public estimates.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Russia has clearly committed to Assad. Exactly what end games are we looking at? Either we go to war against Russia or we abandon Syria. It's fairly clear we will abandon Syria because it's less risky than engaging Russia. The strategy of proxy war is lost unless the rebels suddenly get anti air units. Is there another way?

 

[jim hardy]

abandon Syria

abandon ?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

abandon ?

Still not sure what your question is. Nothing seems to work as long as Russia is actively supporting Assad.

 

[mheslep]

... It's fairly clear we will abandon Syria because it's less risky than engaging Russia. ...

Plenty of other ways to apply pressure on Russia. But why single out Syria to be abandoned? A real line as to where Russia can't go should be established. Does this apply to Ukraine, eastern Europe? Russia goes into Iraq, or proxies into Israel? Russia attacks a US Navy vessel in the Black Sea?

It's also important to think back about what early intervention could have done in Syria. The US/NATO could have destroyed all of Assad's air power at the beginning of the civil war, air power with which he bombed civilians, well before the Russians were involved. Maintaining a US force in neighboring IRAQ with air assets would have helped. The excuse of no Status of Forces Agreement is now clearly seen as nonsense with 5K troops back in Iraq.