ISIS officially has 50,000 troops

[Bunyip]

This is true, which is why ISIS can never stay and consolidate. It will constantly be looking to expand into other neighboring countries. The U.S. can attack them in Iraq. But if it attacks them in several ME countries, that's pretty much a war between USA and the Middle East.

Which will escalate FAST.

The US will not send in the troops, it cannot. ISIS knows this. Further a war between the US and Middle East requires a unified Middle East, which is hardly the case.

I agree with you that expansion will be their principle tactic, but by doing so they will spread themselves thinner and thinner and make administering a stable governance increasingly impossible.

(Thanks for enabling a discussion on the ME in which ideas and opinions are being exchanged so civilly)

 

[MD]

The US will not send in the troops, it cannot. ISIS knows this. Further a war between the US and Middle East requires a unified Middle East, which is hardly the case.

I agree with you that expansion will be their principle tactic, but by doing so they will spread themselves thinner and thinner and make administering a stable governance increasingly impossible.

(Thanks for enabling a discussion on the ME in which ideas and opinions are being exchanged so civilly)

Well it's a pretty academic discussion, about the strategic expansion of a jihadist army. So it can be civil.

I think the US will send in troops if ISIS becomes too big or there is enough support at home. The right wing media is going ballistic right now with some news anchors calling for a holy war. I think that is what ISIS eventually wants, a holy war. The more sunni civilians that die, the more likely Sunnis will join and support ISIS. The more Christians are killed, the more the US right wing will get upset. However right now the U.S. is being smart by supplying the Peshmerga fighters. However in the future than can pose a problem as well with Iran and Turkey.

ISIS has actually increased its recruiting with their spread. I watched their documentary on Vice news, they set up training camps in each town they conquer. The boys are trained to be soldiers until 16, at which point they join ISIS. Since they are so brutal, most people are afraid of them and they actually have good control over the cities they rule.

The more they expand, the larger they will become.

 

[LuisDantas]

50 thousand is frankly way less that I was expecting.

 

[Bunyip]

Well it's a pretty academic discussion, about the strategic expansion of a jihadist army. So it can be civil.

I think the US will send in troops if ISIS becomes too big or there is enough support at home. The right wing media is going ballistic right now with some news anchors calling for a holy war. I think that is what ISIS eventually wants, a holy war. The more sunni civilians that die, the more likely Sunnis will join and support ISIS. The more Christians are killed, the more the US right wing will get upset. However right now the U.S. is being smart by supplying the Peshmerga fighters. However in the future than can pose a problem as well with Iran and Turkey.

ISIS has actually increased its recruiting with their spread. I watched their documentary on Vice news, they set up training camps in each town they conquer. The boys are trained to be soldiers until 16, at which point they join ISIS. Since they are so brutal, most people are afraid of them and they actually have good control over the cities they rule.

The more they expand, the larger they will become.

I think that the reality is that the US Christian right has been portraying all of this as a holy war since Kuwait. If it becomes a holy war it will be a self fulfilling prophecy on the part of the US right.

 

[MD]

50 thousand is frankly way less that I was expecting.

It's around 70k actually. Three months ago they were 7000. That's a pretty big gain imo.

 

[xkatz]

50 thousand is frankly way less that I was expecting.

A terrorist Wahabbi state that has existed only 2 months or so amassing that type of manpower (and still doing so) is pretty impressive and frightening, nonetheless.

 

[icehorse]

Couldn't tell if this 40 minute documentary on ISIS was old news or not:

https://news.vice.com/video/the-islamic-state-full-length

I think you'd be hard-pressed to say that they're not taking the Quran seriously. Notice the part where they describe the three step process for dealing with non-believers:

1 - ask them to convert to Islam
2 - offer them dhimmi status and demand the tax
3 - fight

textbook...

 

[s2a]

Indeed. The myth of peace through superior firepower has been categorically debunked.

Except in places proven otherwise.



Check google first

 

[Bunyip]

Except in places proven otherwise.



Check google first

Example?

 

[s2a]

I would imagine that much of ISIS would evaporate under airstrikes. That is why Al Qaeda had so little infrastructure - it had no targets to attack.

ISIS wants to be a government, a state - and so unlike Al Qaeda it cannot function without infrastructure and is thus vulnerable.

But, but...50.000!

Lions and tigers and BEARS, oh my!

It's not that it becomes predictably tiresome that the US, again and again, feels compelled (once more) to act virtually unilaterally in bombing tyrants, despots, dictators, and impotent wannabe regimes of religious fanaticism, it's the observable everyday realities that NO ONE else is then willing to step up and do anything about what happens in their own back yard, even when that dog is crapping upon their front porch daily.

"Let the Americans fix it" has become the most tiresome mantra of all.

Where IS Saudi Arabia? Where is Jordan? Where is Qutar?. Where is Egypt? Where is the UAE?.

I know...

"let the Americans fix it".

What happens when we REALLY leave that dust bowl, and armpit/arsehole of the cosmos? Then what? Anarchy and chaos? That's it?

Until then, it seems, yet another pile of turds we are left to clean up, again! Not even one of our fashioning, but the remnants of (once again) backing the wrong guys
with our leftover "stuff".

AGAIN.

*sigh*

 

[Bunyip]

But, but...50.000!

Lions and tigers and BEARS, oh my!

It's not that it becomes predictably tiresome that the US, again and again, feels compelled (once more) to act virtually unilaterally in bombing tyrants, despots, dictators, and impotent wannabe regimes of religious fanaticism, it's the observable everyday realities that NO ONE else is then willing to step up and do anything about what happens in their own back yard, even when that dog is crapping upon their front porch daily.

Your kidding right? I'm Australian, we have followed the US into every field of conflict since WWII. Not to forget that a good many of those tyrants were put there by the USA in the first place.

"Let the Americans fix it" has become the most tiresome mantra of all.

R
Only in your imagination, for much of the rest of the planet we see America as a big part of the problem.

Where IS Saudi Arabia? Where is Jordan? Where is Qutar?. Where is Egypt? Where is the UAE?.

I know...

"let the Americans fix it".

What happens when we REALLY leave that dust bowl, and armpit/arsehole of the cosmos? Then what? Anarchy and chaos? That's it?

Until then, it seems, yet another pile of turds we are left to clean up, again! Not even one of our fashioning, but the remnants of (once again) backing the wrong guys
with our leftover "stuff".

AGAIN.

*sigh*

I don't mean to offend you, but believe me on this - nobody across the world thinks "Oh don't worry America will fix it."

 

[MD]

Al Qaeda in Yemen declares support for ISIS | TheHill

 

[s2a]

Your kidding right? I'm Australian, we have followed the US into every field of conflict since WWII. Not to forget that a good many of those tyrants were put there by the USA in the first place.

I do not forget, and I think you crazy Aussies are about the bravest people on the planet. A belated thank you 10x over.

And yes, mostly, our bad for leaving tyrants in charge. Decades long hind sight does lead to better recriminations though...

Only in your imagination, for much of the rest of the planet we see America as a big part of the problem.

Not just my lone delusion, but one shared by many others that would prefer to escape the (primarily) unilaterally assigned blame. Being wrong is no source of pride, but being alone is even less of an alleviation of the pain.

I don't mean to offend you, but believe me on this - nobody across the world thinks "Oh don't worry America will fix it."

No offense taken (I promise), but to be fair, WWII was 70 years ago.

And, I do watch TV. Even the (especially silly) "news'. (I even "read" stuff). And MOST nations, (albeit not all) prefer to think the US of A will, or should, FIX things. After all, we broke the most of pottery in the first place.

Besides honoring the Japanese first for their sense of internal honor (and unending self- courage), I secondarily most admire Aussies for their innate sense of crazy bravery in the face of nearly certain eradication.

Again, TY.

Just time to replace the calendar forward to the 2010s, and get back into the merde.

The world is a different place (again), and tepid fans from the stands just doesn't get it done.

 

[Alceste]

Very sad and gruesome.

They are trying to draw us in again.

The real message is to pull all Americans out of these dangerous, crazy places.

And, we have a great deal to learn about assymetric warfare. It seems it is going to be the winning strategy of the 21st century.

The trouble is, America broke it, so has a moral obligation to try to fix it.

Unfortunate that the only strategy they are willing to employ is the same one that broke it in the first place.

 

[Nyingjé Tso]

What is the most disturbing to me is not the fixed number they currently are, but the growing number of european that go there to join them thanks to their internet propaganda. The number is growing. Increasing. That is frightening.

 

[Avi1001]

The trouble is, America broke it, so has a moral obligation to try to fix it.

Unfortunate that the only strategy they are willing to employ is the same one that broke it in the first place.

Exactly. The troops cannot solve this problem. Until we develop a new war strategy, we are only going to make things worse.

Einstein told us the definition of insanity....

 

[Alceste]

Exactly. The troops cannot solve this problem. Until we develop a new war strategy, we are only going to make things worse.

Einstein told us the definition of insanity....

Einstein probably understood that most of us are insane.

 

[Maldini]

It's Muslims civil war, let them solve it like Christians did some centuries ago.

 

[Godobeyer]

It's Muslims civil war, let them solve it like Christians did some centuries ago.

the most reasonable answser about this conflict

 

[Flankerl]

What is the most disturbing to me is not the fixed number they currently are, but the growing number of european that go there to join them thanks to their internet propaganda. The number is growing. Increasing. That is frightening.

Well better for them to die there than being here.