Good day……the war is still the furthest thing from the minds of Americans….but that does not stop the death and the destruction…..

Item 1–Is this the beginning?

Canadian Brigadier General Michael Rouleau has confirmed Canadian ground troops were involved in the first battle by members of the US-led coalition against ISIS forces.

Details on the clash are still vague, but Canadian troops were said to have been “planning” an Iraqi offensive, and went to the front lines to see the terrain first-hand. That was when they came under fire.

Item 2–A peace deal brewing in Syria?

In a dramatic change in policy that has gone largely unappreciated, the Obama Administration has recently come out in favor of both the UN effort to negotiate a ceasefire in Aleppo and the Russian effort to resume peace talks between Syria and secular rebels.

Giving support to either measure is a shift, as the US has long spurned diplomatic efforts in Syria on the grounds that only a full-scale regime change was acceptable to them. They have long pressed the pro-US rebels not to join such talks

Item 3–The flood of fighters joining ISIS appears to be unstoppable…….

The tide of foreign volunteers crossing from Turkey into Syria to fight for Isis cannot be stopped, the Turkish Prime Minister has warned, with authorities unable to close the porous 510-mile border between the two countries.

Ahmet Davutoglu, whose government has been accused of not doing enough to stop jihadi fighters from Britain and other countries crossing into Syria, told The Independent that Turkey could not put “soldiers everywhere on the border”. He added: “In any case, there isn’t any state on the other side [of the frontier].”

Time for someone to step up and do something to control this situation…..ya think?

Item 4–The battle for Mosul is about to bring….hopefully this is not an indication of the success that will be fleeting…….

Ahead of attempts to recapture Mosul, Kurdish forces launched an operation that reclaimed a large amount of territory. Airstrikes and fighting in that region reportedly left hundreds of militants dead, but there is, so far, no independent confirmation of any casualty figures. Assuming they are correct, however, that would leave 361 dead and 19 wounded across Iraq.

Kurdish forces killed more than 200 militants in a large operation near Mosul that allowed them to gain back a 300-square-mile area and liberate several villages. In the city, militants killed dozens of members of the Gahaish tribe and arrested dozens more.

Item 5–Did VP actually say we need boots on the ground?

Joe Biden inadvertently made the case for boots on the ground in Syria during an interview Wednesday.

Responding to the fact that the Islamic State is gaining ground in Syria, the vice president went where President Obama probably wishes he did not. Biden said the reason Obama’s plan is failing was because there were no troops to combat the Islamic State group.

A scary report….but one that is gaining popularity among the halls of DC….

Item 6–$6 million in tax dollars goes to Syria…….

The opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) said on Thursday it had received $6 million from the United States in the first direct US financial support for the rebel body.

Ahmed Tohme, the chief of the SNC’s self-proclaimed interim government, said the money would be divided into two parts, with $4.4 million devoted to reconstruction and the purchase of heavy equipment include generators, water pumps and tankers.

The remaining $1.6 million will be used to strengthen local governance in rebel-controlled areas and for emergency aid response, including food baskets and assistance to bakeries.

Be honest….do you really see this cash going to reconstruction in the middle of a war?

Item 7–We have conflicting reports coming out of the Coalition on just how much damage we are actually doing to ISIS…..State Dept sez we have killed 6,000 fighters……

The State Department’s key talking point on the ISIS war today is that everything is going swimmingly. Secretary of State John Kerry declared ISIS’s momentum ‘decisively halted” while other officials bragged of 6,000 ISIS fighters, and half of the ISIS leadership, killed in their air war.

“We do know that thousands of ISIS fighters have been killed, and we do know that some of ISIS’s leadership have been killed,” Hagel said, saying he hadn’t seen any verification of exact numbers on either.