Good day….I do hope that everyone had a lovely holiday…..shall we move on to what is happening in the Middle East?

Item 1–During the Xmas break a Jordanian plane was downed by ISIS and the pilot captured and put on display.  This could open another front in this war….Jordan has its supporters of ISIS.

A warplane in the US-led coalition that is bombing ISIS in Syria went down near Raqqa today, the AP reports, and Jordan is confirming ISIS claims that one of its pilots has been captured by the militants. The pro-ISIS Raqqa Media Center published photos to Facebook showing a bleeding man they claim is the Jordanian pilot, reports the BBC. The photos show a man in a white shirt being taken out of a body of water by armed men, as well as an image of a military card and a caption identifying him as Royal Jordanian Air Force Flight Lieutenant Moaz Youssef al-Kasasbeh, the BBC notes. The lieutenant’s father confirmed to a Syrian newspaper that his son’s plane went down in Syria and passed a message along to ISIS: “May Allah plant mercy in your hearts and may you release my son.”

It would be the first warplane shot down by the Islamic State since airstrikes began three months ago, and the first foreign soldier to fall into the group’s hands, notes the AP. Activists from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claim ISIS used an anti-aircraft missile. Some worry what this incident means for how well ISIS fighters are armed, how well US-led aircraft can protect themselves, and whether Arab nations will be more reluctant to join. In its air mission against Syrian ISIS sites, the US has been joined by Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, with Qatar lending logistical aid, the AP notes

Item 2–Some are searching for a negotiated settlement of the war in Syria…….

The search for a negotiated settlement to the Syrian civil war is gaining steam, as President Bashar Assad’s forces feel increasingly squeezed on the battlefield and Islamic extremist groups proliferate across the region.

Russia, Assad’s chief international ally, is trying to convene peace talks in Moscow between Syrian government representatives and the mainstream opposition on how to move toward a political transition. Its diplomats have been shuttling between various sides of the conflict to try to arrange talks without preconditions.

Elsewhere, U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura is attempting to decrease the level of carnage in Syria through a plan that calls for “freezing the conflict” in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo as a building block for a wider solution to the war.

So far, there is little to suggest that either of those plans has a real chance of success. But analysts say there is a greater chance now for a settlement as a result of recent government losses in the north and south as well as growing resentment toward Assad among his traditional supporters ? particularly after the mass killings of soldiers by militants.

The longer the war in Syria goes on the worse everything will become…..this will gain traction in 2015….as the war in Iraq gets further expanded….

Item 3–As the US continues the military build-up of troops so with the defense contractors……those overpaid people that do what the troops should be doing….

As the Pentagon continues to add ground troops to Iraq for the ISIS war, it is expected that considerable numbers of private military contractors will follow.

The Pentagon made it clear, before they even started going into Iraq this next time, that they were looking for contractors for long-term deployments. Officials say the exact size will depend on how spread out the actual ground troops are, but signs are it will be considerable.

What this means is that corporations will be raking in massive profits from the use of US Troops.

Item 4–Reports are that the Islamic State is a failed state……

Recent reports out of ISIS territory are declaring the region a “failed state,” with shortages of medicine and rising food prices. The major city of Mosul has run out of chlorine, making its drinking water dangerous.

Though being spun as a failure of leadership by ISIS, such sights are pretty common in war zones, and all of ISIS territory is undergoing regular bombardment by the US and its allies, while US sanctions aim to prevent commerce from the oil-rich Syrian territory ISIS holds.

This of course sounds more like a propaganda piece…..yes there are difficulties but I do not think the end is near…..right now.

Item 5–Is there a sign that the Us will be more involved than today in the battle with ISIS?

For years, the US was wondering what it was going to do with many thousands of war vehicles it shipped to Afghanistan when the drawdown left so many of them in surplus. At times they talked about giving them away, or shredding them.

Instead, 3,100 such vehicles have been sent to Kuwait, where the US is massing them for use in the ever-escalating war against ISIS. Officials simply found another war for them

US Transport Command says that the Army has “room” to hold all the gear in Kuwait, and is simply storing it there until they figure out what they have a need for. History suggests they’ll invent needs for it, if nothing immediately springs up.

A small piece of intel but warrants keeping an eye on…….these vehicles are close….”if needed”.

Item 6–