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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
Yeah unlike Benghazi and the like ISIS isn't small time.
They're probably the biggest and best armed terrorist group in the world right now and they're kitted out with all the goodies we left in Iraq.
Oh really when?
Obama is not going to support Assad anywhere soon, even against ISIS, I believe. See, there are a couple of risks involved in doing so:
- Assad is a sleazy person with clear ulterior motives. The US has landed in trouble repeatedly for supporting such unreliable people - see Saddam Hussein and the Mujahideen in Afghanistan - and they won't take such risks anymore, especially given the suspicions that Assad supported ISIS in the hope of using them as leverage for support to him.
- It's not clear whether it would help at all, or whether it's necessary.
- Assad has been killing his own people. That is a pretty big ethical concern.
- The Sunni countries in the anti-ISIS coalition would not like it.
I was listening to a news program recently where they talked to some (anonymous) Syrian Army soldiers, who seemed to think a) that they won't have much trouble beating the ISIS forces in Syria without foreign help, and b) that any attempt by the US to combat ISIS in Syria is really just a pretext to get US military power into the country, which will then be used to attack the Assad regime.
edited 19th Sep '14 3:20:43 AM by Sledgesaul
I dunno, seems more like they are trying to get rid both of ISIS and Assad. Plus, that article relies too heavily to inferring motivations for my liking.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
It's not wrong. ISIS is very Neo-Wahhabist, and it was partly created by the Gulf states who wanted Assad out. It's the Mujaheddin-turned-Taliban in Afghanistan all over again. Plus, many Saudi royals agree with ISIS on ideological grounds. They want to manipulate this into removing Iran's biggest ally in Assad.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
I don't think he's stupid enough to start properly fighting Assad.
The reason we never intervened and booted him out in the first place is because he's armed to the teeth with the second most advanced AA on the planet courtesy of the Russians.
We're not hurting him without taking some really heavy losses.
edited 19th Sep '14 4:27:01 AM by LeGarcon
Oh really when?
The reason we didn't attack him is because the public flat-out said no last year.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I think you're overestimating the losses the US would have suffered if we went through such an attack.
That being said the possibilities of loses at all would be enough to give pause to the US. It would only have taken a couple of downed F-18s for the public to turn sour.
At this point though it doesn't matter since even if they are not going to support Assad directly, combating IS will definitely be a boon to him.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
The S-300 outclasses anything the West has ever built or faced. There only way we would have gotten out of heavy losses is if we took those SAM batteries out from the ground but then we'd have to face properly upgraded tanks and proper RPGs.
Assad's got top rate Russian gear and frankly their stuff is more than a match for our stuff.
Oh really when?
I've seen mixed reporting on whether they are actually in Syria or not. And at the very least they are not getting anymore in the short term.
Either way, I refuse to believe that the US and NATO do not have a strategy to suppress them. And no, I am not saying that the system is ineffective or that suppressing it wouldn't be risky, I just do not buy that it is as insurmountable a threat as you make it out to be.
edited 19th Sep '14 6:29:28 AM by Mio
HGW XX/7
NATO has had access to an S-300 since at least 1998, if not earlier. Its definitely a very capable system, but I doubt that NATO has no strategy for it.
edited 19th Sep '14 7:05:09 AM by Achaemenid
Schild und Schwert der Partei
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
The system last I heard is a big combined arms operation and destroying it from the ground. If we have nothing but an airpower presence in Syria we're not going to hurt Assad without losing a huge number of craft.
Especially if he takes a page from the Russian playbook and has it flanked with additional AA support.
Whatever the case is this is probably irrelevant. Last I heard we're sort of ignoring him and killing ISIS for our own benefit.
Oh really when?
Lost in Space
Try reposting that with context and with slightly more decorum.
Really, it's nothing new, just Boehner's true feelings coming out.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
About time we found some honesty from Boehner.
Boehner also ignored calls for the Voting Rights Act to be restored.
edited 19th Sep '14 12:17:16 PM by Sledgesaul
Wandering Jew
edited 19th Sep '14 12:51:49 PM by deviantbraeburn
Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016
Apparently, the Grand Jury verdict for Officer Wilson may not come out until January.
I first heard about this via this Op-Ed, which I was cussing at because...
1) He branded protest threats as "terror threats and temper tantrums" (obviously believing that they'll lead to rioting)
2) He's pretty much missed the entire goddamned point about why people are upset over the shooting itself, as well as the Prosecutor's conduct afterward.
3) His casual assertion that Officer Wilson is innocent of any wrongdoing - isn't that the exact same mentality he's decrying in regards to thinking the guy's guilty without knowing all the evidence?
edited 19th Sep '14 1:23:08 PM by ironballs16
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
edited 19th Sep '14 2:15:45 PM by PotatoesRock
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
What a goddamn hypocrite. Why should the government be liable all of a sudden when your ass is acting like it's your land free and fair?
Lost in Space
These folks don't need to be consistent. Their positions aren't based on logic to begin with.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
How Sam Wang's election model works.
edited 19th Sep '14 2:30:35 PM by PotatoesRock
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
Lost in Space
According to Bundy, the land is free for anyone to use but the fences belong to the government. The government that he doesn't believe exists.
edited 19th Sep '14 9:31:03 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
If ISIS keeps executing
hostages
and encouraging
terrorist
attacks
I don't think they're just gonna vanish from the media's attention any time soon.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel asked Congress today to appropriate an extra billion dollars to combat Ebola, supplementing the $30 million already set aside to send 3,000 American troops to West Africa to aid health workers.
Obama to offer $53 Million in new aid to Ukraine.
edited 18th Sep '14 5:06:37 PM by deviantbraeburn
Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016