Terror Attack: 130 Dead in Paris

[Montmorency]

Think of it as trimming the hedges with the added benefit of no one knowing who did it.

Well, it will be obvious who did it - the same operators as usual, no? The value isn't really in "trimming the hedges", but in comforting the electorates and in martial posturing between world powers. Better than throwing around nukes, I suppose, but still pretty wasteful.

As for propoganda, the West has simply been doing it wrong. I'm still reading on the matter but again, the goal imo is not about destroying Islamists but preventing the idea from spreading. We must push a successful propoganda message or we are fighting an endless stream of young Muslims.

As it comes to "my fantasy", I maintain that encouragement from the West will not have much impact on Islamism either way; it must deflate itself through fraternal bloodshed.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Well, it will be obvious who did it - the same operators as usual, no? The value isn't really in "trimming the hedges", but in comforting the electorates and in martial posturing between world powers. Better than throwing around nukes, I suppose, but still pretty wasteful.

This is what I am talking about Monty. http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...whistleblowers

When you send special forces in the middle of the night, people in the neighborhood will get woken up. When you drop a bomb from a drone, the entire city hears it. Minimize the exposure, change our tactics because our current strategy simply plays into the Islamist propaganda machine. This is what I am talking about when I say that the US simply does propaganda in the middle east wrong. No message you send out will resonate when they hear American bombs going off every day.

As it comes to "my fantasy", I maintain that encouragement from the West will not have much impact on Islamism either way; it must deflate itself through fraternal bloodshed.

What I am saying is that we can have an impact on Islamism by moving towards energy self-reliance, which will weaken the Arab governments in the region. We know that elements of the House of Saud are funding ISIS, but that is not the reason that ISIS chooses to avoid war with Saudi Arabia. ISIS is currently focused on the two destabilized areas of Syria and Iraq which are weak in comparison to their neighbors. Once the West (and China) remove their dependence on Middle East oil, Saudi Arabia and other oil exporting states become vulnerable. The goal of ISIS is to create a single Islamic Caliphate (if we take them at their word), and thus eventually they will try to control the cities that are most valuable to the Islamic faith. When ISIS takes the step to challenge the Arab governments, you will get your Islamist showdown.

[Kagemusha]

My prediction is that inside couple months we are going to see mainly European and Russian land troops at Syria. France is lobbying around Europe in order to free some of its land components from Africa additional to forces being deployed from France. Russian Duma has today approved the use of land forces at Syria. As act of solidarity i think other EU nations are going to either send smaller detachments to Syria or replace French troops at their current deployments. Hopefully some Arab countries like Jordan will join the forces. Im not sure what US is going to do, but i think we will know rather soon when next week Hollande will visit Washington. It seems behind the curtains US and Russia are working hard in order to get an cease fire at Syria between rebels and Assad.

I dont think this land operation will be very large scale as Isis has less then 50k fighters. Basically we need enough boots on the ground to draw Isis out to fight by attacking their area directly and then they can be destroyed from the air. Thats the easy part. What comes after that is a complete mystery.

[Husar]

When you send special forces in the middle of the night, people in the neighborhood will get woken up. When you drop a bomb from a drone, the entire city hears it.

When you lase someone from space in the middle of the night, only his wife smells it. When you poison someone's water or deliver a pill into his mouth via micro-drone, no one will know anything. Where are the movie/game assassins when you need them? Why not send ninjas? They won't even wake up the neighborhood. Why not exchange his Quran with one that looks the same but has only peaceful messages?

[a completely inoffensive name]

Mock it if you want. When you and Kage get your boots on the ground and it doesn't do jack shit against the bigger threat, there will be threads on who mismanaged the troops and which country is to blame and Islamic extremists will only have more converts.

But you are right, when we all hold hands and get ISIS to "draw out to fight", we will turn the tide of this war.

What comes after that is a complete mystery.

How well thought out!

[Kagemusha]

Mock it if you want. When you and Kage get your boots on the ground and it doesn't do jack shit against the bigger threat, there will be threads on who mismanaged the troops and which country is to blame and Islamic extremists will only have more converts.

But you are right, when we all hold hands and get ISIS to "draw out to fight", we will turn the tide of this war.



How well thought out![/COLOR]

Im not mocking you,nor commenting your post in any way. im just predicting what is going to happen and i liked Hus posts because thought of sending ninjas is rather funny. Whats up with you Yanks as of late?

[a completely inoffensive name]

Im not mocking you,nor commenting your post in any way. im just predicting what is going to happen and i liked Hus posts because though of sending ninjas is rather funny. Whats up with you Yanks as of late?

My apologies then to both you and Husar. I think it's a bit touchy because us Yanks have been through a gamut of policies aimed at preventing Islamic terrorism both domestic and abroad and we are all frustrated because nothing we have done seems to work. None of us wants France and the EU to fall into the same trap the US did after 9/11. Just remember that Iraq was no better in 2012 than in 2006, the surge did not work, the TSA does not work, Afghanistan the country might as well be a collection of cities surrounded by Taliban controlled countryside.

[Kagemusha]

My apologies then to both you and Husar. I think it's a bit touchy because us Yanks have been through a gamut of policies aimed at preventing Islamic terrorism both domestic and abroad and we are all frustrated because nothing we have done seems to work. None of us wants France and the EU to fall into the same trap the US did after 9/11. Just remember that Iraq was no better in 2012 than in 2006, the surge did not work, the TSA does not work, Afghanistan the country might as well be a collection of cities surrounded by Taliban controlled countryside.

I think you are right that there is no magic solution to this can of worms. The thing is that ISIS just needs their teeth kicked in, because they want to kill us that bad. It is inevitable or soon all the cool kids in Europe think that joining them is the best deal ever.

What can be done afterwards is that the Kurds should get their state in order to balance the North Iraq and Syria somewhat.

Iraq may have to be split into several states. The Southern Shia and central Sunni will just not fit into one country.

If we can get free elections at Syria after defeating ISIS maybe Baath will actually win. Maybe Sunni parts of Iraq could be actually merged into Syria, or a new country be created.

None of that might not happen. Some might or all might, but it could still all go down the toilet. But what is certain is that ISIS cant be allowed to continue running around in their pseudo state.

[Husar]

Mock it if you want. When you and Kage get your boots on the ground and it doesn't do jack shit against the bigger threat, there will be threads on who mismanaged the troops and which country is to blame and Islamic extremists will only have more converts.

But you are right, when we all hold hands and get ISIS to "draw out to fight", we will turn the tide of this war.



How well thought out![/COLOR]

Where did I mention "my" boots on the ground? I'd be the first to run away...

My apologies then to both you and Husar. I think it's a bit touchy because us Yanks have been through a gamut of policies aimed at preventing Islamic terrorism both domestic and abroad and we are all frustrated because nothing we have done seems to work. None of us wants France and the EU to fall into the same trap the US did after 9/11. Just remember that Iraq was no better in 2012 than in 2006, the surge did not work, the TSA does not work, Afghanistan the country might as well be a collection of cities surrounded by Taliban controlled countryside.

I talked to someone who said it is a full success because the US (and ultimately the NWO, who control the US) want to destabilize the EU with all the refugees in order to prevent it from rivalling the US. That's also why they ordered Merkel to let them all in. To have ISIS as a convenient scapegoat is part of the plan of course. I'm sure you agree because I also heard (from the same person) people from the US are even more critical of their government than Europeans.

[Montmorency]

I talked to someone who said it is a full success because the US (and ultimately the NWO, who control the US) want to destabilize the EU with all the refugees in order to prevent it from rivalling the US. That's also why they ordered Merkel to let them all in. To have ISIS as a convenient scapegoat is part of the plan of course. I'm sure you agree because I also heard (from the same person) people from the US are even more critical of their government than Europeans.

You heard it from me, personally.

Just doing my bit to divide and conquer.

[drone]

I talked to someone who said it is a full success because the US (and ultimately the NWO, who control the US) want to destabilize the EU with all the refugees in order to prevent it from rivalling the US. That's also why they ordered Merkel to let them all in. To have ISIS as a convenient scapegoat is part of the plan of course. I'm sure you agree because I also heard (from the same person) people from the US are even more critical of their government than Europeans.

[Rhyfelwyr]

What I am saying is that we can have an impact on Islamism by moving towards energy self-reliance, which will weaken the Arab governments in the region. We know that elements of the House of Saud are funding ISIS, but that is not the reason that ISIS chooses to avoid war with Saudi Arabia. ISIS is currently focused on the two destabilized areas of Syria and Iraq which are weak in comparison to their neighbors. Once the West (and China) remove their dependence on Middle East oil, Saudi Arabia and other oil exporting states become vulnerable. The goal of ISIS is to create a single Islamic Caliphate (if we take them at their word), and thus eventually they will try to control the cities that are most valuable to the Islamic faith. When ISIS takes the step to challenge the Arab governments, you will get your Islamist showdown.

Will ISIS ever be that strong? The impression I got is that they are starting to be forced back a bit now, for all their pretensions of being a state they're still a pretty lightly-armed army in the tens of thousands. Could they really fight a conventional war against a rival state?

[a completely inoffensive name]

Will ISIS ever be that strong? The impression I got is that they are starting to be forced back a bit now, for all their pretensions of being a state they're still a pretty lightly-armed army in the tens of thousands. Could they really fight a conventional war against a rival state?

Well, IF their propaganda takes hold in these rival states, and IF they have consolidated their holds in Iraq and Syria, and IF they continue to have money coming in from black market oil sales as well as donors from high officials in these rival states, I think there is a case to be made that ISIS has a chance of being a very annoying pest to kill if they choose to be one.

Didn't matter how many troops the US sent into Iraq, 2007-2008 there must have been 150,000. We could have sent 500,000 and it wouldn't have made a difference in the end. They hide, we anger the population and when weakness appears the Islamists return with more recruits.

[AE Bravo]

Get Saudi Arabia to stop importing IS militants to Yemen. AQ and IS is quickly gaining a front in Yemen and there's really no need for them considering the coalition forces have already paid Senegal, Eritrea, and Sudan to fight the north. Those Colombian mercenaries are fighting side by side with IS too. There is a tactical alliance with IS and coalition forces, as long as that's not broken IS is not going anywhere soon. Their presence is stamped in the region. They're awarded some form of legitimacy every day.