Day: October 22, 2014

Turkey’s Reluctance to Help Against ISIS Should Be a Red Flag by Ivan Eland — Antiwar.com

The war against ISIS is not going as we had hope it would go……..now Turkey has entered into the fray…..but is that a good thing or not?

Some do not think Turkey is the ‘good guy’ they want the world to believe…..whatcha think?

 

Turkey’s Reluctance to Help Against ISIS Should Be a Red Flag by Ivan Eland — Antiwar.com.

ISIS Coalition Situation Report (SITREP) #22

Good day and welcome to the briefing………

The battle for Kobane has re-ignited after several days of relative quiet……would appear that ISIS fell back re-evaluated and decided to try it again…….

Item 1–ISIS has made great strives in Anbar…….

While the focus of the US air war on ISIS seems to be Kobani, in northern Syria, ISIS has once again turned its sights to Iraq, with mounting gains in Anbar Province and a new offensive pushing them back into Kurdish territory in the nation’s northwest.

ISIS seized parts of Anbar way back in January, but has grown its territory across the area, and now controls 80 percent of the province, with the other 20 percent virtually constantly being contested.

Baghdad is still the prize and it appears that Kobane may be a way to divide and conquer the Coalition….

Item 2–There is a danger rising that I and others have warned the international community about for years…..Shi’a militias……….

One of the major Shi’ite militias on the rise in Iraq, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, has engaged in a major overnight gunbattle with police in the capital city of Baghdad after it was discovered they kidnapped the cousin of Deputy Premier Roz Nuri Shaways.

Police went to the warehouse and found what they thought was a small extortion gang, but it was quickly reinforced by the militia itself, with large numbers of fighters arriving and a battle quickly erupting. Four police were wounded in clashes, and they had to smash an armored personnel carrier through a militia roadblock for reinforcements.

ISIS in the West………Militias in the South…Baghdad is looking very vunerable from this angle…..

Item 3–US and Iraq are planning what some would call a major offensive against ISIS……

The United States and Iraq are drawing up a campaign plan for offensive operations by Iraqi ground forces to gradually reclaim towns and cities that have been occupied by the Islamic State, according to a senior administration official.

The plan, described as methodical and time-consuming, will not begin in earnest for several months and is designed to ensure that Iraqi forces­ do not overextend themselves before they are capable of taking and holding territory controlled by the militants.

Without experienced and well trained troops will it be successful?

Item 4–A little publicized battle in Syria illustrates just what the future of an uprising against ISIS would look like……

The little-publicized story of this failed tribal revolt in Abu Hamam, in Syria’s eastern Deir al-Zour province, illuminates the challenges that will confront efforts to persuade those living under Islamic State rule — in Iraq as well as Syria — to join the fight against the jihadist group, something U.S. officials say is essential if the campaign against the militants is to succeed.

The Abu Hamam area has now been abandoned, and many of the bodies remain uncollected, offering a chilling reminder to residents elsewhere of the fate that awaits those who dare rebel.

This event needs to be studied and studied hard if there is ever going to be a success in this situation.

Item 5–Monday the big story was that ISIS was practicing on 3 jets that it had captured…..and now a report is coming out of Syria……..

President Assad’s air force has brought down two fighter jets captured and operated by Isis (Islamic State) in Syria’s northern Aleppo province, leaving the jihadists with just one Soviet-era planes.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported earlier this week that Isis had flown the three jets over Aleppo, citing local witnesses. “They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for [former Iraqi president] Saddam Hussein,” the group said.

The jets appeared to be MiG 21 or MiG23 models captured from al-Jarrah Syrian military air base.

This report has not been confirmed……..watch this spot!

That concludes today’s briefing…..I hope you find it informative.

Thanx for your time and attention.

Turn The Page!

Always Money Well Spent

There is a constant supply of news on just how badly the US spends its cash……there was the story of all those Nazis that are still drawing Social Security…..and then we had the story of many many government employees that were paid to stay at home for years in some cases…..and there is always a story about a $160 hammer and a $200 toilet seat…..but the Us spends money on programs that are designed to control oir stop some practices….like the opium production in Afghanistan……..

The latest report on the policy of controlling the production of poppies is not all that great…….

Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is at record levels, according to a new report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. That’s despite more than a decade of American efforts to knock out the Afghan drug trade—at a cost of roughly $7.6 billion.

SIGAR’s data, which comes from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), shows that Afghan opium cultivation nearly tripled between 1994 and 2013. More than 780 tons of heroin or morphine could be produced with the current crop, whose total value is estimated at nearly $3 billion, up from $2 billion in 2012.

In his report, John F. Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, informs Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Eric Holder, and USAID administrator Rajiv Shah that the levels of opium poppy production don’t exactly square with all the time, money, and effort that have gone into eradicating crop. “The recent record-high level of poppy cultivation calls into question the long-term effectiveness and sustainability of [prior US government and coalition] efforts,” Sopko writes. “Given the severity of the opium problem and its potential to undermine U.S. objectives in Afghanistan, I strongly suggest that your departments consider the trends in opium cultivation and the effectiveness of past counternarcotics efforts when planning future initiatives.”

It is just amazing how our Congress has NO problem asking for cuts that would effect the poor but they seems to not care that more money is being pissed away in this worthless effort

Does anyone else think that our priorities should be making this country strong and a good place to live?  Somebody needs to walk into Congress and start shaking trees…..and shake hard enough to dislodge all the rotten fruit.

Thoughts?

 

Some Do The Right Thing

I am sure that many Americans remember that horrific ferry disaster in South Korea that cost many many children their lives….of course the Korean government has arrested many that worked for the ill fated ferry and its parent company……

I wrote awhile back that the CEO of the ferry company took responsibility for the disaster and immediately went out and wrote and note and killed himself…….after reading that news I wrote that unlike the US people in other countries, especially Asian, that take their responsibility seriously to the point that they would kill themselves because of the embarrassment they have caused the country and their families.

I wrote that it was a shame that American business people cannot do something similar…..like take responsibility for their actions that cause a disaster, ie the 2008 crash……

I bring all this up again…because it has happened again…….

A South Korean man involved in planning an outdoor pop concert where 16 people were killed after falling through a ventilation grate was found dead today in an apparent suicide. The man, 37, an employee of the Gyeonggi Institute of Science and Technology Promotion, was found dead at around 7am in Seongnam, the city south of Seoul where yesterday’s accident occurred, said city spokesman Kim Nam-jun. The site of his death was not far from where 16 people watching a performance by 4Minute, a girls’ band that is popular across Asia, were killed when the ventilation grate they were standing on collapsed. Eleven other people were seriously injured.

It was believed that the man, who was questioned by police last night over the accident, leaped from the top of a 10-story building. In a televised briefing today, Kim said the death toll could rise. Of the 11 people treated at hospitals, eight had life-threatening injuries to the abdomens or lungs, he said. Most of those who were killed were men in their 30s and 40s, while five were women in their 20s and 30s, fire officials said. The collapse came as South Korea is still struggling with the aftermath of a ferry disaster in April that left more than 300 people dead or missing.

I say again…..American business people should be so serious about their actions……..but NOPE!  These parasites like Jaime Dimon will continue their fleecing of the American consumer and any harm they do they will get the Federal government to pass a law that will protect them and possibly allow them to do the same thing all over again without any consequences…..

Personally, I like the idea of these bastards taking dull responsibility for their actions and even suicide if that is what it takes to eliminate these butt monkeys….the American consumer means NOTHING to these capitalist slugs……NO one protects the people from the exploitation.

If them committing suicide drives the point home…..then I say…Let the Bastards Die!