Category: Terror War

  • Good Riddance (Redux)

    Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security has announced that latest Taliban leader – Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour – was killed this past Saturday.  He was reportedly riding in a vehicle in Baluchistan province, near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, when the vehicle was destroyed by a US RPA strike.

    Senior Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Rauf confirmed to the press that Mansour had been killed in the strike yesterday.  US officials are currently “awaiting confirmation”, but have indicated they believe Mansour was killed in the strike.

    Mansour succeeded the one-eyed terrorist bastard Mullah Omar as the Taliban’s leader last year after the latter’s death in 2013 became public knowledge.

    Good riddance.  May Shaitan pay him “special attention” for all eternity; and my all of his 72 virgins look thusly.

  • Dunford: US could deploy troops to Libya “any day”

    Dunford: US could deploy troops to Libya “any day”

    The Washington Post reports that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford told reporters that a deployment of US troops could have boots on the ground in Libya soon.

    “We’re just not ready to deploy capabilities yet because there hasn’t been an agreement. And frankly, any day that could happen.”

    Dunford spoke to a handful of journalists while returning to the United States from Brussels, where he met with military chiefs this week from numerous NATO nations. There is interest among some NATO nations in participating in the mission, Dunford said, but the specifics of who and what would be involved remain unclear. The operation will likely focus on training and equipping militias that pledge loyalty to Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, the leader of the new Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), which is backed by the United Nations.

    “There will be a long-term mission in Libya,” Dunford predicted, adding that NATO will want a request from the new government in order to get involved.

    I guess there was an expiration date on that promise that the President made years ago about no boots on the ground in Libya – an expiration date that no one told us about. It’s funny, well, not really funny, that all of a sudden US troops in Libya is suddenly the solution to all of the world’s problems there, now that shit has gotten out of hand. The politicians made this problem, so arm the politicians and drop them in the middle of that shit. And cut their pay, fire support and benefits so they’ll fight harder.

  • So, How’s the Fight Against Daesh Going?

    Remember those little conflicts with Daesh that have been ongoing in Iraq and Syria for a while?  (I say “conflicts” because from my perspective they are indeed multiple separate, apparently uncoordinated efforts.) You know, the ones the POTUS pledged to “accelerate”?  The ones that the POTUS said would require no US “combat troops” or “boots on the ground”?

    Well, we have some recent updates from the Pentagon and the IC regarding the “big picture” status of operations against Daesh.  And it turns out things are apparently going . . . a bit slowly.

    Yes, we’ve supposedly beaten up their financial infrastructure somewhat via air strikes.  But on the ground things don’t exactly seem to be going well.

    Per Pentagon sources, since December US allies have retaken a 5% of the territory Daesh held in Iraq at maximum extent.  That’s an average of a whopping 1% per month.

    At that rate, it will only take 55 more months (40% had been recovered prior to December) – or until December 2021 – to eradicate the Daesh regime in Iraq.  Behold the Swift Success, doubters!

    Oh, and regarding retaking Mosul:  don’t hold your breath.  Last week the US Director of National Intelligence said that it’s “unlikely (Daesh) would be pushed out of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, during the Obama administration”.  Gee, that’s . . . wonderful.  Just freaking wonderful.

    Even so, things seem to be going substantially better for US allies opposing Daesh in Iraq than in Syria.  Per Pentagon officials Daesh controls about the same amount of territory in Syria today that it did in January.

    Oh, and did I mention that it appears we now have a “small number” of us troops on the ground in Libya opposing Daesh elements there as well?  I guess US involvement in two simultaneous and       poorly thought-out and unsuccessfully executed interventions based on fatally flawed strategy       less than perfectly successful interventions against radical Islamic forces just isn’t enough for the current Administration.

    Fox News has an article giving more details about the above.  IMO it’s worth a read.

    National Security and Foreign Policy competence:  that’s not what this Administration “serves for dinner”.

  • Good Riddance

    The military leader of the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah, Mustafa Badreddine, is reported to have been killed in an explosion in Damascus, Syria, recently.  His demise was acknowledged by Hezbollah yesterday.

    Hezbollah military forces are currently fighting in the Syrian civil war.  As an Iranian ally, Hezbollah’s forces are supporting Syria’s current government under Assad.

    Badreddine was a known explosives expert and was suspected of involvement in numerous terrorist attacks – including the 1983 bombings of the French and US embassies in Kuwait (5 were killed in those attacks).  However, Badreddine escaped Kuwaiti custody (he had been sentenced to death and had been incarcerated for years) and disappeared after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

    Initial news reports attributed his demise to an Israeli airstrike; however, those reports have been withdrawn.  It is currently unclear precisely what caused the explosion that took out Badreddine.

    And you know what?  I couldn’t care less who or what was responsible.  Another terrorist bastard with American blood on his hands is dead, thus making the world a better place.  That’s enough.

    May this evil terrorist bastard enjoy the “personal attention” of Shaitan for all eternity.  And may all of his 72 virgins look thusly.

  • Next Generation Jihadists:  A Rant

    Next Generation Jihadists: A Rant

    There is an obvious push by radical Islamists to spread their barbaric belief system across the globe.  They call it the Caliphate, and they have aspirations of a world subjugated to their interpretation of Islam.  None of this is new stuff.  We’ve been watching and reading about it for several years now.

    This being the case, why has our main effort continued to be “whack a mole” while the Islamists are committed to a concerted effort to raise up a new generation of radicals?

    In 2014, a filmmaker from Vice News embedded himself with ISIS in Raqqa, Syria.  One of the ISIS members interviewed was running a training camp for children.  He stated,

    “For us, we believe that this generation of children is the generation of the caliphate. This generation will fight the infidels and apostates, the Americans and their allies, God willing. The right doctrine has been implanted in these children,”

    In November of 2015,  a PBS documentary reported on ISIS training children as young as three-years-old in Afghanistan’s Kunar province.  The documentary shows an ISIS member teaching the children to operate Ak-47s and hand grenades.

    The Long War Journal brings us the most recent development in the disturbing trend of radical Islamists and their strategy to indoctrinate the next generation of jihadists.

    The Islamic State’s “Library of Zeal” has released an application for teaching the Arabic alphabet to children on Android devices. The vocabulary taught within the application includes jihadist themes.

    Words like “tank,” “gun,” and “rocket” are among the first few taught within the application.

    By now, this end state shouldn’t surprise anyone.  Yet, European countries have continued to open their borders to Middle Eastern migrants, and any suggestion to the contrary in the United States it met with accusations of xenophobia.

    London just elected the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital, and in a demonstration of solidarity for Ramadan printed the phrase “Praise Allah” on the city’s iconic red buses.

    You know what, f**k Europe—we saved them twice.  They made their bed, let them lie in it.

    I’m more concerned with what the United States is doing against this clear and present danger? (h/t Tom Clancy)

    Answer: The Obama administration continues to make the humanitarian argument.

    Despite Paris and Belgium, despite the fact that European women and children are sexually assaulted by throngs of migrant men, Obama seeks to emulate Germany’s immigration debacle and believes that Angela Merkel “is on the right side of history on this issue.”

    In November of 2015, Obama made the claim that members of the GOP were “scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America”—as if only members of the GOP are concerned about more San Bernardino terrorists slipping through the cracks (pronounced walking upright through the gaping holes) in immigration.

    Ironically, Obama made this statement while in the Philippines—a state that has fought an insurgency with Muslim secessionists for decades.  A state that knows all too well how an organized body of Muslims can demand, fight for, and ultimately win autonomy.  A state that recently elected a new president—Rodrigo Duterte.  Duterte is known as the “Trump of the East” and has vocally pledged to kill suspected criminals and end crime within six months.  In reference to territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Duterte stated, “I’ll go down, riding a jet-ski, carrying a Filipino flag … and then I would say, ‘This is ours.”

    Duterte’s comments may be testosterone fueled rhetoric, but it demonstrates that the Philippine electorate is looking for stronger leadership to replace an ineffective leader and increasingly absent U.S. ally.  Good for them.  The world is in desperate need of leaders that view the world through a lens of realism.

    Could leadership, or its seven-year absence—in the United States—be partly responsible for the continued rise of ISIS—or Trump for that matter? (rhetorical) And to think, many Americans are seriously considering voting for a liar who refuses to utter the phrase radical Islamists. (and who lied about being in combat)

    The kid that blew himself up and killed 65 civilians in Baghdad was only a teenager.  We can’t afford to give the keys to the White House to a stolen valor c**t who will do nothing to prevent today’s three-year-olds from entering the U.S. and becoming tomorrow’s suicide bombers.

  • 1st Lieutenant David Bauders passes

    1st Lieutenant David Bauders passes

    David Bauders

    Someone sent us the sad news that 1st Lieutenant David Bauders, a 25-year-old Engineer officer with the Washington National Guard died in what the Pentagon called a “non-combat” incident at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq supporting Operation Inherent Resolve. According to USAToday;

    [Guard spokesman Captain Joseph Siemandel] said Bauders’ death remained under investigation and that no details were immediately available.

    Bauders was commissioned as an engineer in May 2013 after graduating from the University of Portland. The 176th specializes in construction, Siemandel said.

    Yeah, but, you know, all of the deaths over there are “non-combat” if the Pentagon is to be believed these days.

  • SEAL Killed In Iraq Identified

    SEAL Killed In Iraq Identified

    SO1 Charles Humphrey Keating IV

    The identity of the SEAL KIA in Iraq yesterday has been released.  He was SO1 Charles Humphrey Keating IV, based at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado.  He was a native of Arizona.

    SO1 Keating was reportedly part of a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) sent to rescue a small group of US advisors to the Kurdish Peshmerga when they and their Kurdish allies were attacked by numerically superior Daesh forces.  While performing that mission, he was killed in ground combat, most probably by AK-47 fire, IVO the town of Tel Asku, Iraq.

    He was 31 years old.

    If the name rings a bell, yes:  his grandfather was indeed that Charles Keating Jr.  However, regardless of his grandfather’s history of financial malfeasance the younger Keating appears to have been a decent  guy.

    Rest in peace, brother-in-arms.  May God comfort your surviving family, friends, and professional colleagues.

    No combat troops in Iraq, eh?  Yeah.  Right.

  • Another casualty in the war against ISIS

    Another casualty in the war against ISIS

    last convoy out of Iraq

    CBS News reports that a US advisor to Kurdish forces has been killed in combat. The Pentagon was careful to add that he was killed a few miles from the very fluid battle lines;

    The U.S. military did not immediately confirm which branch the slain service member was serving with, but the American troops operating in northern Iraq are largely U.S. Special Operations Forces.

    Earlier Tuesday it was widely reported that U.S. and coalition aircraft were supporting forces battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) north of Mosul. Mosul is approximately 50 miles west of Erbil.

    The insurgents were able to get past the main battle area and engage forces with rifle fire and kill the unidentified US soldier. According to another unnamed US official, it was an “intense battle”.