Tag: syria

Let us stop pretending that the Iraq War was the Worst Thing Ever.

(Via Instapundit) This is a pet peeve of mine, and it got triggered by this otherwise not-as-bad-as-it-could-have been article on Obama’s Syria debacle (the NYT prefers the term ‘nightmare’):

American interventionism can have terrible consequences, as the Iraq war has demonstrated. But American non-interventionism can be equally devastating, as Syria illustrates.

Stop. Freeze-frame. Rewind.  Look at those two sentences. Also look at that word ‘equally,’ which means that the author of this piece wants his readers to conclude that there are two separate military situations here, each one of which was, well, equally disastrous. Continue reading Let us stop pretending that the Iraq War was the Worst Thing Ever.

WaPo Editorial page Editor upset about the Syria crisis the WaPo helped spark.

I guess Barack Obama should have said ‘Macaca,’ or something.

Fred Hiatt (the aforementioned editorial page editor) looks upon the wreckage in Syria that his own newspaper helped spawn (via their unrelenting support of Democrats in general, and President Barack Obama in particular), and has the sheer unmitigated nerve to be appalled:

When Obama pulled all U.S. troops out of Iraq, critics worried there would be instability; none envisioned the emergence of a full-blown terrorist state. When he announced in August 2011 that “the time has come for President Assad to step aside,” critics worried the words might prove empty — but few imagined the extent of the catastrophe: not just the savagery of chemical weapons and “barrel bombs,” but also the Islamic State’s recruitment of thousands of foreign fighters, its spread from Libya to Afghanistan, the danger to the U.S. homeland that has alarmed U.S. intelligence officials, the refugees destabilizing Europe.

Continue reading WaPo Editorial page Editor upset about the Syria crisis the WaPo helped spark.

Marvelous: the Islamic State death cult is LAWFUL Evil.

This is a problem.  Chaotic Evil death cults are, of course, horrid: but they also can be slaughtered with relative impunity. Lawful Evil cults, on the other hand, tend to want to stick around for a while. As we are seeing in the Middle East right now.

While no one is predicting that the Islamic State will become steward of an accountable, functioning state anytime soon, the group is putting in place the kinds of measures associated with governance: issuing identification cards for residents, promulgating fishing guidelines to preserve stocks, requiring that cars carry tool kits for emergencies. That transition may demand that the West rethink its military-first approach to combating the group.

Continue reading Marvelous: the Islamic State death cult is LAWFUL Evil.

Syrian Kurds poised to start next stage of Greater Kurdistan?

Mayyyyyybe:

Kurdish fighters in northern Syria say they have captured a key town from Islamic State, just 50km (30 miles) from the group’s headquarters at Raqqa.

A spokesman for the the Popular Protection Units (YPG) said Ain Issa and its surrounding villages were now under the militia’s “total control”.

[snip]

The YPG captured the town of Tal Abyad on the Turkish border last week, cutting a major supply line for IS.

Via Michael Totten. Let’s go take a look at a map. Yellow is Syrian Kurds, slightly darker yellow is Iraqi Kurds, grey is Islamic State (IS), every other color is irrelevant for purposes of this conversation.

Northern Iraq Syria

Continue reading Syrian Kurds poised to start next stage of Greater Kurdistan?

More on Islamic State, the God-damned* death cult now running large sections of Iraq and Syria.

Remember when ‘ritual human sacrifice’ was an archaic term? …Yeah, I miss those days, too.

Yes, I am being perfectly serious.  You have probably all seen the image of Islamic State (IS) ritually slaying two gay men by throwing them off of a building, but I want you to look at this: Continue reading More on Islamic State, the God-damned* death cult now running large sections of Iraq and Syria.

Bruce Braley (D CAND, Iowa-SEN)… did *not* vote to authorize air strikes against ISIS.

I don’t care what he says here: Bruce Braley did not make the vote that he says that he made.

As in “I recently had the opportunity to vote to give the President limited authority to begin strikes against terrorists in Iraq and Syria.”  Except… that there hasn’t been a vote.  The President simply up and did it, because he says that the 2002 AUMF covers his actions with regard to Syria and Iraq.

Less than two months after President Barack Obama’s administration called for repeal of the Congressional authorization for the 2002 Iraq war, he is formally citing the 12-year-old measure as a basis for newly expanded airstrikes against the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant.

…Now, I happen to agree with the President on this, but I’m not going to pretend that there’s some kind of new Congressional authorization that covers this.  Why did Bruce Braley?  – Because what Bruce Braley DID vote for was something considerably less bomb-related: Continue reading Bruce Braley (D CAND, Iowa-SEN)… did *not* vote to authorize air strikes against ISIS.

12 Warthogs quietly sent back to Middle East.

Translation: expect more US troops to be deployed to the Middle East.

The Pentagon is deploying 300 airmen and 12 A-10 combat jets to the Middle East in early October, according to the Indiana Air National Guard.

The six-month deployment from the 122nd Fighter Wing is not specifically part of President Obama’s fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but the airmen and jets could provide air support to troops battling ISIS on the ground.

“I don’t know of a time in Blacksnake history we have taken this kind of aviation footprint forward,” said Col. Patrick R. Renwick, 122nd Fighter Wing commander, in a statement. “The A-10 ‘Warthog’ is uniquely suited for the Combatant Commander’s needs, and the Blacksnakes are the right team to bring that capability to combat.”

A-10s are essentially flying tanks: that ‘air support’ thing is typically ‘close air support.’ Warthogs are aboust as subtle as a depleted-uranium round in the face, so wherever they’re going, it’s going to be somewhere where you want that.  That means supporting ground troops.

This is just a thing that is.

Moe Lane

PS: I suppose that we could be putting the Warthogs at the service of somebody else’s ground troops.  …Whose? The Kurds? Because if we’re sending the ANG units there, that’s just more American troop buildup in Iraq anyway.

2012: Joe Biden slams Mitt Romney for… being right about Iraq, Syria, and Russia.

I honestly and truly do not like to tell people that the best thing that they can do for the Republic is not to vote.

But…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw6I7MWYKV4

…if Joe Biden’s argument here swayed you – if the thought that Mitt Romney, if elected, would try to:

  • Reverse our withdrawal of troops from Iraq (there’s a heck of a lot of people in ISIS-held territory that wish we were still there);
  • Stop using a fixed timetable for our withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan (I believe that ISIS has shown us all why that’s a bad idea);
  • Engage in combat in Syria (note that Joe Biden assumed that we’d be fighting the fascists there, not giving them [and the theocrats in Iran] tacit assistance);
  • And confront Russia (who is merrily pushing everywhere they can, right now)

– and you thought that this was all a bad thing; then I will submit to you that in voting for Obama-Biden you made the single most foolish, uninformed, and downright dangerous Presidential vote that you are likely to make in your life.  And while I absolutely respect the right of you to exercise your franchise – better men and women than either  you or I died to protect that right – it is my humble request that you refrain from damaging the country that we both love in the future.  I have kids, you see. I don’t want to see them worse off than I was, at their age.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Via

“Joe Biden 2012: If Romney Wins, We’ll Go To War In Syria.” – And it’s worse than it looks.

Instapundit linked to this post and article from 2013:

Two months before the 2012 presidential election, Vice President Biden warned on the campaign trail that Mitt Romney wanted to go to war with Syria.

The video, which was posted by BuzzFeed, was of Biden speaking to supporters at a rally in York, Pa. on Sept. 2, 2012.

“He said it was a mistake to set an end date for our warriors in Afghanistan and bring them home. He implies by the speech that he’s ready to go to war in Syria and Iran,” Biden said in his speech.

Here’s the thing, though: MITT ROMNEY WOULDN’T HAVE HAD US END UP BEING ON BASHAR AL-ASSAD’S SIDE.

White House debating whether to ally with… God help us… Syria.

You have got to be… kidding me.

There’s a battle raging inside the Obama administration about whether the United States ought to push away from its goal of toppling Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and into a de facto alliance with the Damascus regime to fight ISIS and other Sunni extremists in the region.

As President Obama slowly but surely increases the U.S. military presence on the ground in Iraq, his administration is grappling with the immediate need to stop the ISIS advance and push for a political solution in Baghdad. The 3 1/2-year grinding civil war is Syria has been put on a back burner for now. Some officials inside the administration are proposing that the drive to remove Assad from power, which Obama announced as U.S. policy in 2012, be set aside, too. The focus, these officials argue, should instead be on the region’s security and stability. Governments fighting for survival against extremists should be shored up, not undermined.

Continue reading White House debating whether to ally with… God help us… Syria.