Tag: Islamic State

Iraq: ISIS Coalition Operational Briefing #5

Good day and thanx for attending today’s briefing….we attempt to keep the American people on their toes and to give them as much ubder-r4eported info as possible so that they can be more well informed.

The battle for the destruction of ISIS has begun in earnest….France is the first to join in the attacks on ISIS positions in Iraq…..but there is more….and now all out pee spanking of ISIS in Syria has begun………

Since the ‘war’ has begun in real time….my briefings will now become a SitRep, beginning with next briefing #6………..

Item 1–The US to quell all the criticism over allowing the deaths of two American journalists have done what they always do……

The US Senate has unanimously approved a bill providing up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of people involved in executing two American journalists murdered by extremists.

“One way we can honor the memories of James Foley and Steven Sotloff is to bring their evil murderers to justice, which this measure will help do,” Senator Marco Rubio said Friday.

Rubio, from Sotloff’s home state of Florida, said it was important to send the message “that the United States will work tirelessly to ensure that the deaths of these beloved journalists do not go unpunished.”

The thought here is that the rest of the world is a greedy money hungry place…..we do this for Osama, al-Zarqawi and it seldom leads to any good actionable intel….what it does do soothes souls over the loss of life.

Item 2–Remember the build up to the attacks on Iraq in 2003?  The admin took to the media to build a case for public support…it worked and guess who is using the same tactic?

Kerry’s comments appear aimed at adding momentum, with the US moving against ISIS in Syria, to go after the Assad government as well. Israel chimed in today as well, claiming they believe Syria secretly kept some chemical weapons no one knew about, though they declined to provide any evidence of that beyond claims that Israel figured they had more than what was destroyed.

This after a month ago when he was thumping his chest at the conclusion of the destruction of Syrian CWs…..does it sound familiar?  It should!

Item 3–It is official…..we, the US, do what we always do….underestimate the enemy……….

Discussing the new ISIS war in an interview with David Ignatius, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper drew parallels between the new war and the US war in Vietnam.

“We underestimated the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese and overestimated the will of the South Vietnamese. In this case, we underestimated ISIS and overestimated the fighting capability of the Iraqi army,” insisted Clapper.

“It boils down to predicting the will to fight, which is an imponderable,” he added, saying that US intelligence had offered “anticipatory intelligence’ about the ISIS surge in Iraq, but had underestimated how big it would be an how fast Iraq would be beaten back.

I include this in the briefing because it is our norm……we underestimate and then we have to play catch up….I have been saying for years…..we need different people in the intel sector….the old farts we have now are worthless.

Item 4–The entire Obama admin has been in a full court press to explain the situation and so far they have done a terrible job…..not a single pertinent question has been answered….lots of cute phrases and chest thumping but NO answers.

My fave interview was the one with UN ambassador S. Powers….she did all the talking points that everyone else is giving the public……..while talking about ground troops that were going to be used she said…..”the Iraqis will step up and with a degree of professionalism”…….to me that yelled volumes…..this is going to be a long engagement……..it takes years for an army to become and function in a professional manner.

Americans need to prepare themselves for another long and arduous conflict.

Item 5–Jahbat al-Nusra was attacked by Hezbollah and many fighters were killed and/or wounded……al-Nusra is an AQ affliated rebel faction and Hezbollah is in defense of the Assad regime……

Hezbollah has launched its first ever drone strikes today against several western Syrian bases belonging to al-Qaeda faction Jabhat al-Nusra, killing 23 fighters.

The strikes targeted bases near the Lebanese border town of Arsal, which has been contested by Nusra, ISIS, and other Syrian Islamist factions off and on in recent months. The strikes were reportedly followed by a ground offensive in which Hezbollah captured several additional fighters.

The big item in that report is the use of drones by Hezbollah…..until now the West had the upper hand in the use of drones to eliminate one’s enemies….this is a situation that needs watching closely.

Item 6–Now that the big show has begun………there is lots of talking about our coalition partners and their participation in the initial strikes….Saudi Arabia is listed as one of those partners….I have reachieved word of something that I cannot verify at this time…….

The Saudi foreign Minster called his American counterpart, demanding him to end “the devastating campaign” against the Muslim population in eastern Syrian territories ,occupied by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, reported RT.

During his phone –call, Saud bin Faisal Al Saud, importuned Mr. John Kerry to persuade U.S. president to end all hostilities with the hardline Islamist organization to save tens of thousands of innocent Syrian entrapped civilians and to continue preventing Iran from achieving its goals   , RT quoted the Saudi Daily Al-Okaz as saying.

Sounds like the coalition is not as strong or willing as Mr. Kerry would have us believe.

This concludes Briefing #5……future briefings will be released as events warrant them…..thanx for your time and attention……

Turn the page.

 

ISIS: I Am Just Not Convinced

Inkwell Institute

Middle East Desk

First of all, I am not convinced that the American people fully realize what the country has gotten itself into……this will be a multi-year operation…..an operation that needs a name….why not call it “Operation We Are Making This Shit Up As We Go”?

Second, I am nit convinced that the airstrikes will do any good other than making the M-IC orgasmic because the ordinances will need replenishing.

What of the airstrikes?

Six weeks of ever-intensifying US airstrikes have had Obama Administration officials hyping the “progress” in their new war in Iraq. The situation on the ground, however, doesn’t bare that out.

Far from progress, the situation on the ground appears virtually unchanged in six weeks, with only a handful of frontline towns changing hands and ISIS controlling the same massive chunk of Iraq it did when the US started launching attacks.

The US has been giving airstrikes to Iraq for 23 years and what, if anything, has changed?  Good question, right?  If anything the area has become more and more volatile with each American mission.

Since the most recent airstrikes began….ISIS has overrun numerous villages and even more Iraqi failure as they overrun a base camp…..

ISIS fighters attacked a surrounded military camp in Saqlawiya, near the city of Fallujah, quickly routing them and killing 40 soldiers. Another 70 soldiers who fled the camp during the attack were said to be captured.

Suicide bombers approached the site in an armored personnel carrier, blowing it up and starting the onslaught. The area around the case had been mostly cut off, preventing the escape of the scattering troops. The troops are said to have mistaken the truck for one of their own, allowing it into the base.

As the war continues there is NO evidence of a “success” that Kerry and the admin are pushing on the public.

Then there is the thought out there that sending in troops, any troops, not necessarily American, will do little to solve the ISIS problem……if anything I could strengthen their resolve and provide them a massive recruitment coup.

And then there is the all popular….”train the moderate rebels” for a sustained program against ISIS. and Assad.

I am not convinced that we or anyone can actually find these ‘moderate’ rebels and training and arming them may only help ISIS in the long run.

I am not convinced that we are at all capable of defining who is a “moderate rebel”.

I am not convinced that even if we were fortunate enough to locate these ‘moderates’ that they would be capable of fighting both ISIS and Assad or that they would even want to do such a thing.

In closing, I am not convinced that this war was a good idea and I am sure that it was pout together without much thought of the consequences.

In closing I would like to reiterate…….I am not convinced that the American people are aware of what they have gotten themselves into…..it will be much harder to extract ourselves the further into the mission we go.  The case for war was made in steps just like 1991 and 2003…..those were lies, for the most part….what about today’s?

I am not convinced that we, the American people, have been given accurate information….only the items that would garner popular support.

I am just not convinced that all this was truly necessary.

Are you?

 

 

ISIS: Making The Case Step By Step

Inkwell Institute

Middle East Desk

By now all America is aware that we are returning to a war footing, a air war (for now)……..I have been watching all aspects of the run up to the war……..I am old enough that I recall the days and weeks to the 1991 Gulf war…….the steps that were taken to garner all the public support for the war possible.  The invasion of Kuwait by Iraq….the rockets aimed at Israel……the WMDs and the possibility of nukes hiding in the sand……with all the steps in place the public was gung-ho and off we went.

The after the dastardly attacks of 9-11…..the admin started lining up the steps…….the rhetoric of “axis of evil”…..then the case for WMDs…….and then the search for uranium and finally the vision of a mushroom cloud……then the steps were in line and off we went in 2003 to invade the country of Iraq….again.

And now the year is 2014 and case is being made, yet again….and as usual step by step……….

ISIS trapped about a bazillion people on a mountaintop in Iraq…..a real humanitarian crisis….US stepped up and commenced with airdrop of supplies and a limited amount of airstrikes just to give those trapped a fighting chance……

In response of America/’s actions, ISIS beheaded an American journalist and after more concentrated airstrikes a second American was beheaded……

At this point the rhetoric ramped up among pundits and especially with the politicians…..the prez in response to ISIS brutal message began a concentrated action  of more airstrikes and sending in US troops (as trainers and protection of diplomats)…….at this point America began asking its allies for help with the new battle in Iraq….the r4easponse was lackluster at best…..NO one wanted to get bogged down in Iraq (again)………

Then there was a break in the action…..ISIS beheads a British humanitarian aid worker……and Britain became a staunch supporter of the American plan (a plan which few a sure what it entails)……..

At this point the Us began a whirlwind tour of its allies to put together a coalition that will take on ISIS….this would help the American people accept a return to the sands of Mesopotamia…….Kerry got a total of 40 nations to sign onto the Obama plan and NO one is sure what these countries will be doing to assist in the fight………

Then after thump their chest about the coalition John Kerry announces…….Syria may have a hidden stash of CWs waiting to be used…….this on the heels of the congrats that Kerry announced that all Syrian CWs have been destroyed……I think this revelation comes on the heels of an Israeli report that the weapons were there in Syria (BTW, Israeli intel has proven bad in past operations by the US using their intel)………

Now recently a news bomb was dropped…….KHORASAN!

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) may be dominating the headlines and stealing attention with its prolific propaganda, but CBS News’ Bob Orr reports, another group in Syria — one few have even heard of because information about it has been kept secret — is considered a more urgent concern.

Sources tell CBS News that operatives and explosives experts from Osama bin Laden’s old al Qaeda network may again present an immediate threat to the U.S. homeland.

Sources say it’s due to the emerging threat in Syria, where hardened terrorists loyal to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri are working on new, hard-to-detect bombs.

Sources confirm that the al Qaeda cell goes by the name “Khorasan.”

Unlike ISIS, which is believed at present to be largely engulfed in its fight for territory. Khorasan is developing fresh plots to target U.S. aviation, and it’s trying to recruit Westerners who have flocked to the fight in Syria, some of whom have joined the al Qaeda franchise in the country, known as the al-Nusra Front.

Iraq joins in the case building scenario…..it seems they have found some ISIS CWs………..

Soldiers dismantled seven chlorine gas-tipped rockets in the Diyala province, Foral al-Tamimi was quoted as saying in a report by the semi-official Iranian news site Press TV.

The rockets were to be fired at civilians in the predominantly Shiite city of Muqdadiyah, northwest of Baghdad, the report said.

Still cannot find confirmation of this report…….or could it be just a story made up to be part of the steps to all out war?

The steps have been taken and taken carefully……..the admin does not want to move too quickly and possibly lose what limited support the actions have among the people…….

Every action has fallen into place so very neatly…………….This is not over….there will be other steps thrown into the mix until they get where they need to be……….and then?  Nothing new here……the admin is doing what admins do………making their case–step by step!

Case Made?  And NOW it begins!

ISIS: The Fun……Has Begun!

The title is not meant to be contrite in any way….it is just I can hear the M-IC sniffing the air for the smell of profits………

As of early morning, our time, the ISIS Coalition has made its move against the likes of ISIS in Syria, yes I said Syria…………..

The US and five Arab countries launched airstrikes late Monday on ISIS targets in Syria, the Pentagon says. Using a mix of manned aircraft—fighter jets and bombers—plus Tomahawk cruise missiles, the strikes were part of the expanded military campaign that President Obama authorized nearly two weeks ago in order to disrupt and destroy the militants. US officials say the airstrikes began around 8:30pm EDT and were conducted by the US, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. The first wave of strikes finished about 90 minutes later, but the operation was expected to continue for several more hours, according to one official.

Some of the airstrikes were against the group’s headquarters in Raqqa in eastern Syria. Military officials have said the US would target militants’ command and control centers, resupply facilities, training camps, and other key logistical sites. “We will be prepared to strike ISIL targets in Syria that degrade ISIL’s capabilities,” Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators last week, using another one of the acronyms for the group. “This won’t look like a shock-and-awe campaign, because that’s simply not how ISIL is organized, but it will be a persistent and sustainable campaign.”

Map of IS areas of control

Now that the war has become a world war, in essence, what will Syria have to say about the action?  We know that Syria has said that any action without their knowledge would be a act of aggression against the country…….

Syria’s parliament speaker said Sunday that the U.S. should work with Damascus to battle the Islamic State extremist group rather than allying with nations which he accused of supporting terrorism.

During a parliament session, Laham, the speaker, said those “who really want to combat terrorism, must cooperate with Syria in accordance with long-term plans and not by supporting terrorist organizations under false titles.”

Never fear the Coalition has that covered……

Did Syria get a heads up? It says it did. The Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement that the US informed Damascus’ envoy to the UN that strikes would be launched against ISIS in Raqqa. In the past, Syrian officials have insisted that any strikes against ISIS in the country should come only via coordination with Damascus, but US officials have ruled out direct coordination with Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Now all the “i”s have been dotted and the “t”s crossed……..its on…..and the finally outcome will be on America’s head…….I sincerely hope we are truly prepared for the reaction.

Why Obama’s ISIS Strategy is Incoherent | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

Kerry has gone to the Hill to explain the Obama Plan for dealing with ISIS……….Hagel has gone to the Hill for the same purpose……….Generals have shown up to testify before Congressional committees to also explain……Amb. Power has taken to the airways in an explanation tour of the Obama Plan……everyone is explaining the plan.

The problem is that after everyone has had their say as far as the explanation goes…..there are more questions to be asked…..NO one has any idea what the plan is or what the stated objectives are…..at this point…….other than to “degrade and destroy”…..a cute turning of a phrase that explains NOTHING.

 

Why Obama’s ISIS Strategy is Incoherent | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

Iraq: ISIS Coalition Operational Briefing #4

My briefings are aimed at keeping the American people abreast of the background noise that will lead the armed conflict….the noise from the candy ass politicians is a diversion……the real story is platyed out in the shadows……

Good Morning.

Item 1–The House and the Senate have given their approval to part of the plan that will defeat ISIS……so now it is official…Congress has given its permission to return to a war footing……

273-156 vote the House of Representatives approved President Obama’s plan to train, fund, and arm “moderate” Syrian rebels. The bill included a handful of limitations aimed at placating disturbed rank-and-file Democrats and Republicans.

The measure passed easily, 78-22, but the Hill notes that some potential presidential candidates were in the “no” camp,

Let the fun begin.

Item 2–Now that we have a way forward to war the stepping on toes will,.begin….every agency will have its fave tactic and the battling will begin….as a matter of fact is has already begun…..

the CIA has already been covertly equipping Syrian rebels at the instruction of the White House, but has come to find the fighters increasingly disorganized and radicalized as the conflict goes on, with U.S.-supplied arms winding up in the hands of more radical fighters.

Meanwhile, some turf issues are at play. While officials in the CIA are skeptical of the broader strategy to arm and train the rebels, they are also wary of a plan that would give the Pentagon a responsibility that has so far rested with their agency.

I can understand the CIA’s skepticism…..they have been dealing with the situation in Syria for a long time even while the country was worried about how many children were going to invade from the South.  Now they will have to compete with others for resources.

Item 3–The big concern in the hearings I watched was the pressing question….troops on the ground?  Of course the admin people echoed the prez…..American forces “do not and will not have a combat mission,” he said. “They will support Iraqi forces on the ground as they fight for their own country against these terrorists.”  That is a good thing, yes?  But that does not answer the question of WHO will be the unfortunate SOBs to be the ‘troops on the ground”?

Item 4–ISIS is preparing for the coming war……..they seem to be consolidating their forces…….

Jihadists in a Syrian stronghold near Iraq have abandoned some bases and redeployed their forces and armour from other positions, with the US military poised to strike, activists said Wednesday.

The Islamic State group (IS) has “started to empty out many of their bases and positions in Deir Ezzor province,” said Abu Osama, an activist from the eastern region mostly under jihadist control.

Speaking to AFP via the Internet, Abu Osama said all of IS’s known positions in Eshara, a town about 60 kilometres (45 miles) east of Deir Ezzor’s provincial capital, had been “shut down”.

They are making all the necessary precautions to be ready for the onslaught…..now, is Iraq doing the same?

Item 5–Have the Iraqis learned anything from America’s two invasions of their country?  The answer is that they may have…….part of the problem with the last invasion was the presence of US soldiers in every town and city…….the Iraqi people felt like they were being occupied……

In a new interview with the Associated Press, Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder Abadi ruled out any move to send ground troops to Iraq to engage in combat, insisting they would be unwelcome.

“We don’t want them. We won’t allow them,” declared Abadi, who said he was fine with the ongoing US airstrikes against ISIS but found it “puzzling” that the US had excluded Iran from the Paris summit on ISIS Monday.

Abadi’s comments come just days after Iraqi President Massoum had commented that the US recruitment of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to join the air war were likewise unwelcome.

Item 6–The Kurds in Iraq are not the only ones being pressed by ISIS……..

Despite the indications that ISIS forces in Raqqa were moving underground in anticipation of US attacks, the group continues to remain on the offensive across Northern Syria, and is once again pressing Kurdish territory.

ISIS has reportedly taken 21 Kurdish villages in the past 24 hours and is once again mounting an offensive against the oft-threatened Kurdish border city of Ayn al-Arab.

I include this in the briefing because it involves Syria and Turkey and also may help to weaken Kurdish forces as they try to protect all Kurds….something that needs watching…

Item 7–France has joined the US in carrying out airstrikes against ISIS targets…….

Less than 24 hours after President François Hollande announced he had approved a request from the government in Baghdad for air support, at least two French Rafale planes attacked the insurgents’ positions.

A statement from Hollande’s office read: “This morning, at 9.40am, our Rafale aircraft carried out a first attack against a logistics centre of the terrorist organisation Daesh [Isis] in the north-east of Iraq. The target was hit and entirely destroyed. Other operations will be carried out in the days to come.”

That concludes today’s briefing……not much to report….that should change in the coming days and weeks as the plan flies into a full court press……please stay informed.

Turn the page.

 

 

Iraq: ISIS Coalition Briefing #3

The third edition of my briefing series on the war on the Islamic State (IS)……information that the media sees fit not to pass on to the American public……I do this so people interested do not have to spend all day on the internet trying to get all the info……it’s what I do………you are welcome………..

Item 1–McCain has been all over the media with his push to do more for the ‘moderates’ fighting ISIS……but he may need to check IST briefings from time to time apparently he has not gotten the word……

Col. Riad Assad, the leader of the US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel, has announced that his group will not join the anti-ISIS coalition the US is assembling, nor will they participate in attacks on ISIS.

Col. Assad insisted that the rebel group’s chief goal is to conquer Syria and oust President Bashar Assad (no relation). He complained the anti-ISIS coalition did not make regime change in Syria its goal.

Even though the FSA isn’t on board with fighting ISIS, Col. Assad did say his group would be happy to keep taking US money and weapons.

The US arms to the FSA and other “vetted, moderate” rebels have been controversial because so many of those weapons have wound up in the hands of ISIS anyhow. The FSA has also been facing growing defections of their fighters into ISIS.

Maybe McCain needs to step aside for he has tunnel vision and that could be lethal in this region.

Item 2–One of the big plans, especially from war hawks, is to train and arm ‘moderates’ to help fight our newest enemy ISIS.  But that is not the way to go….

an international coalition to take its campaign against Islamic State from Iraq into Syria, fighters like Ammar al-Wawi could make the difference.

He fears that restrictions on the kind of weapons he’ll receive and the training he’ll get under a $500 million White House proposal to arm moderate Syrian rebels will make his job impossible.

“We don’t really need more training. And we have enough soldiers. What we need are quality weapons,” said Wawi, a commander in the Free Syrian Army, a loose collection of moderate rebels fighting both the Islamic State and Syrian government forces.

“We need anti-aircraft weapons. We need anti-tank weapons. If we don’t get those, we can’t win, no matter what the United States does.”

They don’t need training?  Yeah, they are doing a helluva job against Assad as they lose area after area to the regime.  And AA guns?  Do we really need to give them those so they can be passed on to ISIS as so many other weapons have?  Wrong to do this!

Item 3–Everybody keeps asking “what about Assad”? after all he is fighting ISIS also as well as a wealth of other groups…….

The United States and other Western governments have dismissed the idea of cooperating with Syria in the fight against Islamic State, which has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria. Western governments see Assad as part of the problem and say he must leave power.

The meeting between Faleh al-Fayad, the Iraqi national security adviser, and Assad indicated that the Iraqi government aims to maintain those ties. It also points to the scope for possible indirect contact between Syria and the West over the fight against Islamic State via third parties such as Iraq.

Fayad “put Assad in the picture of the latest developments in Iraq and the efforts that the Iraqi government and people are making to combat the terrorists”, Syrian state news agency SANA said.

The meeting stressed “the importance of strengthening cooperation and coordination between the two brotherly countries in the field of combating terrorism that is hitting Syria and Iraq and which threatens the region and the world,” SANA said.

My educated guess is that we used a proxy to let Assad know what is happening…..even though we are not officially including him in any decisions…….Iraq can.

Item 4–Remember back in the dark days of the last Iraq War?  Remember al-Sadr?  A Shi’a cleric who commanded a large militia that fought against the US in those dark days….well he has NOT gone away…….

Influential Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered members of his Mahdi Army militia to withdraw from areas where US forces are conducting their ir war against ISIS, and urged popular demonstrations against the return of US ground troops to the country.

The Mahdi Army largely disbanded after the US pullout, but Sadr has kept ties with its leadership, threatening regularly to bring them out of retirement if the US tries to return to the country in a military role. With the ISIS war looking to do exactly that, they could quickly be another foe for the US in its ever-expanding conflict.

Another wrinkle in our latest war in Iraq….this could be a major problem down the road…..

Item 5–the US has scouts on the group in Iraq…..they are searching for Sunni tribes to help in the fight against ISIS…….the problem is the lack of trust by the tribes……..

Unwilling to send U.S. troops back to Iraq, Washington is trying to persuade armed Sunni factions and tribal figures to fight Islamic State militants in an echo of the “Awakening” movement that drove al Qaeda from the country six years ago.

Unwilling to send U.S. troops back to Iraq, Washington is trying to persuade armed Sunni factions and tribal figures to fight Islamic State militants in an echo of the “Awakening” movement that drove al Qaeda from the country six years ago.

The plan is far from easy, since many Sunnis regard the Awakening as a failure and a betrayal and see the Sunni Islamic State’s sweep into predominantly Sunni northern and western Iraq as the lesser of two evils, despite its mass killings.

U.S. and Iraqi officials say it is not a rehash of the Awakening but will incorporate Sunnis into a “National Guard”, a security force intended to decentralize power from Baghdad, addressing Sunni demands to stop oppression from the majority Shi’ite security forces.

Sorry dudes but trust is everything to these tribes…….our word was given then ignored….it will be a hard row to hoe…..and then the ‘national guard’ thing…..we will building yet another militia for future conflict….now there is a good plan.

Item 6–al-Qaeda is pushing for more unity among the warring factions in the Middle East……

Two al Qaeda branches urged warring militant factions in Iraq and Syria to stop fighting each other and unite against a U.S.-led alliance preparing to attack the ultra hardline Islamic State armed group, according to a joint statement posted online.

“Stop the infighting between you and stand as one rank against America’s campaign and that of its satanic alliance that lies in wait for all of us, to break us stick by stick,” al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said in a rare joint statement.

This could be seen as an attempt for unity…….or it could be seen as an attempt to isolate ISIS from other groups so they can carry on without interference from the US and whoever else wants in on this fight.  This needs to be watched closely.

Item 7–this final piece would have been predicted if anyone had taken the time to do some research…….

Support for the Islamic State organization has grown since the US launched airstrikes in Iraq and the group is attracting many new jihadist fighters, top US officials said Wednesday.

The IS group’s “widespread use of social media and growing online support intensified following the commencement of US airstrikes in Iraq,” FBI head James Comey told the House Homeland Security Committee.

This ends briefing #3…..the next briefing will be as events warrant….time for Americans to pout aside their fascination with celebs and to pay attention…..the world is about to become a lot more dangerous and we need to stay alert.

Thanx for the attention to this briefing.

Turn the page.

Is It ISIS? Or ISIL? Or IS?

Let’s have some fun shall we…..what is life without a little whimsey?

Some call the terrorist organization ISIS for Islamic State In Iraq and Syria……the prez and his boyz want to use ISIL…..and the ‘bad guys’ want to be called IS, the Islamic State…….me?  I call them DA’ISH.  That is the acronym for their name in Arabic……al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi Iraq wa al-Sham, but only when I am corresponding with friends in the region.  For me ISIS works.

If the organization was not such an evil and brutal group it would be almost funny at the acronym problem….we Americans love our acronyms……..but why the massive confusion?

You’ve likely seen different names thrown around this summer in reference to the group that beheaded twoAmerican journalists and wreaked havoc in the Middle East. But which is the right one? Jonah Blank, formerly of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, tells NPR‘s Steve Inskeep that the Islamic State, the name favored by the group itself, isn’t it. “They’re claiming to represent all Muslims everywhere—they have declared the establishment of a new caliphate,” he says. “So if they are to actually own this term, that’ll be a huge propaganda victory for them.” Plus, the “Islamic State” name gives members the impression that they’re not terrorists but “freedom fighters,” fighting for something that “has a real meaning” to Muslims, Blank says.

Some women who are named “Isis” aren’t big fans of “ISIS,” the short form for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, either, CNBC reports. Plus, that version of the name also spouts confusion. Syria is a direct translation of the term “al-Sham” within the group’s Arabic name. However, that term actually means “Greater Syria,” or “Syria, Lebanon, parts of Turkey, parts of what are now Jordan,” Blank says. A little confusing, no? “The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” is less so, since the Levant is another name for the large region, Blank says, which is probably why President Obama favored “ISIL” in his prime-time address this week. However, as the region’s borders have shifted over the years—once including Israel and Cyprus—that term, too, can be a bit hazy.

The Levant?  What the Hell is that, right?

No matter what one decides to call this organization the fact is it does not matter……it is a brutal, bloodthirsty and evil entity…..which cannot go out of existence soon enough.

No reputable group will call it the Islamic State for that would give it some an air of respectability……few will acknowledge it as a true “state”.

In conclusion….call the pricks whatever you like……everyone has an idea who they are and what we will do to them….so it matters not what they are called.

Pros And Cons Of The Obama Plan

I know that the American public is hopped up on revenge right now…..but is the plan as put forth by the prez the best plan?

Most Americans do not want to hear any negativity about the fight against the Islamic State…..but there needs to be a truthful conversation and a deep search to the realization that there may not be a path to victory against IS.

 

Obama’s Hazy Plan To Fight ISIS Is Unlikely To Succeed by Ivan Eland — Antiwar.com.

 

That is the negative….how about a positive….well sort of……..

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ruben-gallego/obama-has-right-strategy-_b_5829646.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Iraq: ISIS Coalition Briefing #2

As promised I will try and keep my readers up to date on the happenings around our newest war……the battle for hearts and minds in Iraq/Syria….or the coalition of the willing (cute name for a handful of cowards) against the spread of the Islamic State…….

There is a lot more happening than the media is willing to tell the public…..I will try and do my best to tell “the rest of the story”…….

Item 1–the media coverage of the conflict…….we know that the media will not have free access as in Vietnam but rather an imbedding system that way the control of information can be controlled.  the media will be used to drive the conversation…I know I keep harping on that point but if not why would this have taken place?

President Barack Obama met with over a dozen prominent columnists and magazine writers Wednesday afternoon before calling for an escalation of the war against the Islamic State, or ISIS, in a primetime address that same night.

Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, reported on Saturday that Obama had met with columnists and magazine writers but did not name the attendees.

Baker wrote that three New York Times columnists and one editorial writer attended, but indicated they weren’t sources for his story. Since the meeting was off the record, the Times columnists could not report what Obama said. But Baker, a Times reporter not in attendance, was under no obligation to withhold the fact that the meeting took place.

The Obama team will need some allies in their trip to control the flow of information……and the media is a willing participant.  You still think that there is a free press?

Item 2–The Free Syrian Army (FSA) has been named as one of the ‘moderates’ that we should be supporting…..but how successful are they?

The FSA has a much smaller footprint across Syria than it once did, having lost virtually all of its territory to rival rebels, and seeing mass defections, including large numbers joining ISIS.

The FSA’s ability to recruit and keep fighters seems to be heavily weighed down by the group’s lack of success so far, as the group has not shown itself to be particularly adept at anything but currying favor with Western nations, and what arms its obtained from them are quickly distributed to other factions, which do all the heavy combat.

Sounds like any training and weapons we give the FSA will be of more use to IS than any coalition Obama may put together…….

Item 3–Some members of the ‘coalition of the willing’ does not think it is a good idea that it include other Arab nations……

The Obama Administration’s efforts to cobble together a coalition of nations for the new war on ISIS has netted a handful of Sunni Arab nations willing to conduct airstrikes inside Iraq, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and by some accounts Egypt.

The big problem is that no one asked the Iraqis if they were okay with this, and President Fuad Massoum today made clear that the Iraqi government considers such nations “unnecessary,” which is a polite way of saying extremely unwelcome.

That dislike comes from sectarian distrust more so than any geopolitical reasons…..will this be a major sticking point when the hard choices become necessary?

Item 4–I personally do not like smoke up my butt……it appears that some Americans relish the idea……I am talking about the Iraq/IS thing……as long as Maliki was the PM we did nothing in Iraq….we went on and on about the needs for a inclusive government…….you see Maliki was of the Shia persuasion and a majority in the country are of Sunni……so Obama’s rhetoric was a more inclusive government….then there was a new Pm and our airstrikes began seemingly because it was a new day in Iraq and inclusiveness…..but there is a slight rub that no one mentioned very much in all the reports…..

New Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s cabinet is 56 percent Shia, according to a count by indispensable Iraq blogger Joel Wing. That makes his cabinet even more Shia heavy than either of his disgraced predecessor Nuri al-Maliki’s last two administrations, which were (respectively) 52 and 46 percent Shia.

“I’ve insisted that additional US action depended upon Iraqis forming an inclusive government, which they have now done in recent days,” Obama said in his September 10 address announcing the new counter-ISIS campaign.

But the reality of the Iraqi government, thus far, suggests the opposite. “The government is composed mostly of Shia Islamists who may not differ from Maliki on many key issues,” Fanar Haddad, an expert on Iraq’s Sunni-Shia divide at the National University of Singapore, told me in an email. “In fact, the track record shows that the new government is likely to be more hardline than Maliki on contentious issues.”

So what part of the Iraqi election changed anything?  Anything culturally that is……

Item 5–Al Anbar province of Iraq, a Sunni majority area has been under attack and parts controlled by IS…..but it seems that IS has decided to pull out of the region at least for now…..

 

In a piece written in Asharq Al-Aswat an Arabic newspaper………

Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat—The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is adopting new tactics in anticipation of impending air strikes by the US-led coalition, an expert on armed groups has told Asharq Al-Awsat, at the same time that authorities in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province announced the group is beginning to flee areas in and around the governorate.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the head of the Anbar Provincial Council, Sabah Karhout, said Anbar’s security forces had received information that members of ISIS were “fleeing the districts and surrounding areas of the province which are under their control and heading to the Western Desert region and to Syria in a state of panic.”

Hisham Al-Hashimi, an expert on armed groups from the Al-Nahrain Center for Strategic Studies, told Asharq Al-Awsat that ISIS was adopting “new tactics” in anticipation of international military action, including “hiding in ditches and using camouflage to evade fighter jets, since the [impending] international mobilization [against the group] will only rely on air strikes for the time being.”

Hopefully Western intel has picked up on this change in tactics……..if I were part of the ‘coalition’ I would be concerned about this…..what tactic will they replace it with?

Item 6–One might ask….why is the US having such a problem lining up willing participants in the war on IS…..and the answer is an easy one to pin point…….

U.S. credibility has suffered in the Middle East since Sept. 11, 2001, which doesn’t help the recruitment effort. The arguments for invading Iraq have been discredited, and the Iraqi and Afghan campaigns — which went on years beyond the original plan — are not looking successful. Smaller fights against terrorists in Pakistan and Yemen seem destined to continue without end. The Obama administration’s swift abandonment of Hosni Mubarak in 2011 shocked allies in the region, most of whom were hardly more democratic than the ousted Egyptian leader. U.S. attempts to work with Islamists, during the brief rule of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, left many concluding that American leadership was naive and its diplomacy inept. When the U.S. threatened Syria if it used chemical weapons, and then did not attack after their alleged use, it was seen as America flinching, even though Assad eventually gave up the arms. In an echo of colonial-era animosities, many in the region see Western leaders who are stirred to action by the beheading of a few Westerners — but not by hundreds of thousands of Arab deaths. Washington also has proven unable to influence its close ally Israel to slow down Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank — one of the few things that can unite virtually all Sunnis and Shiites in angry opposition.

That ends briefing #2.  You may smoke if you have them.

If you want to stay up to date on the newest US war in the Middle East then I suggest that IST become your new fave site.  I will be giving you all the info available that you will need to stay up to date and on your toes….

Next briefing will be as soon as possible the intel is available.

Thanx for your attention.

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