Category: Terror War

Fox News reports that after the warning that Russian diplomats gave the White House today, Russian aircraft has struck Syrian rebels in the northern part of the country this morning.

A U.S. official said Russian airstrikes targeted fighters in the vicinity of Homs, located roughly 60 miles east of a Russian naval facility in Tartus, and were carried out by a “couple” of Russian bombers. The strikes hit targets in Homs and Hama, but there is no presence of ISIS in those areas, a senior U.S. defense official said. These planes are hitting areas where Free Syrian Army and other anti-Assad groups are located, the official said.

According to a U.S. senior official, Presidents Obama and Putin agreed on a process to “deconflict” military operations. The Russians on Wednesday “bypassed that process,” the official said.

“That’s not how responsible nations do business,” the official said.

Yeah, well, it may not be “responsible” but it’s sticking with the character of the Russian government in the last few years. It should have been completely predictable. The Washington Post reports on the US response;

Washington quickly criticized the airstrikes — warning it brings added risks to Syria — but said Moscow’s moves would not change the U.S.-led air campaign targeting the Islamic State strongholds in Syria.

It also sharply raised the stakes over the competing visions for Syria outlined earlier this week at the United Nations: Russian President Vladi­mir Putin insisting that Syria’s embattled government is the key to stability, and President Obama saying the “status quo” cannot stand after more than four years of bloodshed.

Yeah, well, after four years of not taking a stand or not having a strategy has finally paid off for the Obama Administration. The troops that Russia targets are the non-ISIS rebels in the area where the civil war began. The obvious outcome now will be the status quo and the Assad government will remain. They probably won’t be very friendly towards the US either.

Of course, the real upside will come when the Russians get around to dealing with ISIS – I doubt they will have some rules of engagement that will forbid their engagement with the enemy. Between the Iranians and the Russians, the ISIS forces will become a gooey mass. I only hope that the President will get our troops out of the way beforehand.

The Russians have been building up their military presence in Syria the last few weeks in support of the Assad government against rebels, and now, Fox News reports that Russian diplomats have issued instructions to the Obama Administration to cease military operations in Syria;

“There is nothing to indicate that we are changing operations over Syria,” a senior defense official said.

“We have had every indication in recent weeks that (the Russians) were going to do something given the build-up,” another defense official added.

The move by Moscow marks a major escalation in ongoing tensions between the two countries over military action in the war-torn country and comes moments after Russian lawmakers formally approved a request from the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, to authorize the use of troops in Syria.

Yeah, well, it was bound to happen – the Obama Administration diddled and fiddled long enough that someone was bound to take a lead in the civil war. That seems to be their strategy in everything we do – half-ass a strategy that doesn’t accomplish anything but looks like we’re struggling to do something. The world needs US leadership, and they’re just not getting it and look at the mess that has been created in the vacuum. Evil is advancing everywhere on the planet.

According to Fox News, Sergeant First Class Charles Martland, the Special Forces sergeant who is being discharged for shoving a tribal big-wig who raped a bound boy in his home, made a statement to Congressman Duncan Hunter in regards to the incident which caused the Army to relieve him from his duties in combat;

“While I understand that a military lawyer can say that I was legally wrong, we felt a moral obligation to act,” he said.

[…]

“Captain Quinn picked him up and threw him,” Martland said. “I [proceeded to] body slam him multiple times.”

Martland continued: “I kicked him once in his ribcage after one of the body slams. I put my foot on his neck and yelled at him after one body slam, but did not kick or punch him in the face. I continued to body slam him and throw him for 50 meters until he was outside the camp.”

Quinn said, “I physically threw him through our front gate and off our camp.”

Martland, though, disputed allegations the confrontation was more severe.

“He was never knocked out, and he ran away from our camp. It did not last longer than 5 minutes. The child rapist’s allegations against us are ridiculous,” he said.

The motto of the Special Forces is “De Oppresso Liber” meaning “to free the oppressed”, I think you would have to work real hard to find someone more oppressed than a child tied to a post in a man’s bedroom for about two weeks for the purpose of rape. Ask any father if they would have reacted differently, or any other real man.

But, then we’re talking about the same Army who thought it was perfectly acceptable to disarm soldiers in combat while they were being slaughtered by their allies, and then blame those dead soldiers for being culturally insensitive, thus causing their own murders.

The Army is really screwed on this issue;

“The entire operational Chain of Command supported the relief for cause and reprimand,” [an individual claiming to be Colonel Steve Johnson — a U.S. commander in Afghanistan at the time] wrote. “Vigilantism is illegal in the United States and should not be condoned elsewhere.”

He wrote: “We should do our best to ensure that the accused is brought to justice legally and fairly — we should never take the law into our own hands (as Martland and Quinn did).”

Maybe that’s true, but the Army is handling this all wrong. In a time of budget constraints, and the need for more Special Forces soldiers, it makes little sense to toss out the best and the experienced for being a normal man.

I learned a long time ago when I was a private that it’s much easier to mount an effective defense than it is to mount an effective assault. But, as with everything else lately, we have to learn all of our lessons all over again. The Iraqis are faltering trying to win back Mosul and Ramadi after losing those cities to ISIS, and now the Afghans are trying to win back Kunduz after losing the city of about 300,000 souls to the Taliban over the weekend, according to Fox News;

The city fell Monday, after hundreds of Taliban gunmen launched a coordinated, multi-pronged attack at several points around the city. After a day of fierce fighting, they managed to overrun government buildings and hoisted their flag in the city square. The fast-moving assault took the military and intelligence authorities by surprise.

[…]

The Defense Ministry vowed in a statement to Reuters that the city would soon be retaken. Reuters reported that government forces had spent the night holed up at Kunduz’s airport after being driven out of the city itself the day before.

Kunduz is one of the richest cities, according to the article and it’s been Taliban-free since they were defeated in 2001. The Taliban released about 600 prisoners from the local hoosegow, about 150 of them were Taliban.

The UK’s Daily Mail has tendency towards the hyperbolic, and in the link they claim that Germany is under siege by Syrian refugees. Although they might be a little early in their assessment, it’s pretty clear that they will indeed be under siege in the coming months;

Atif is well-dressed and speaks perfect English. He used to be a transport manager at Karachi airport and is from a well-to-do family. Between mouthfuls of curry, he adds: ‘But there is violence between political gangs in Karachi. Lots of people are leaving for Europe. The trafficker decided that Germany was the place for us because it is welcoming refugees.’

Yet the raw truth is that Atif is not fleeing war or persecution. He is one of thousands of economic migrants getting into Germany as the EU’s immigration crisis grows bigger each day.

[…]

Yesterday, the Mail reported how social workers and women’s groups in Giessen wrote a letter to the local state parliament claiming that rape and child abuse were rife in the refugee camp. The allegations were corroborated by Atif over his curry. ‘The camp is dangerous,’ he agreed. ‘Men of different nationalities fight and women are attacked.’

This “migration” is only a few weeks old, but already the refugees are complaining that the “north” didn’t have facilities ready for them. The majority of the “refugees” are military-age males and there’s no structure of governance in the camps, so, of course, crime is going to skyrocket. They’re all looking for the economic benefit that they think will be handed to them by the already stressed economies of Europe. It’s almost as if it’s part of a grand strategy, isn’t it?

Fox News reports that France has launched it’s first airstrike against ISIS in Syria and the opening blow flattened an ISIS training camp. President Hollande says that they chose the target as a response to operations that ISIS sponsored against the French people;

“The camp was totally destroyed,” Hollande said Sunday after arriving at the United Nations, before the start of a major development summit and the U.N. General Assembly bringing together world leaders.

“We’re sure there were no casualties” among civilians, he added.

The French president’s office announced the strikes, without details, in a statement hours earlier.

“Our nation will strike each time our national security is at stake,” the statement said.

My question is “How can there be a training camp left in Syria?” The US has been conducting airstrikes in the country for months, and it seems to me that our folks knew the camp was there, so how did it last long enough for the French to knock it out?

Hollande announced on Sept. 7 France’s intention to start airstrikes, days after the photo of a dead 3-year-old Syrian boy galvanized public concern about Syrian refugees fleeing to save their lives.

Whatever. Good for the French, good for ISIS, but I still don’t see any strategy. All I see a bunch of emotional reaction to stuff.

Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, in eastern Afghanistan, ISIS adherents attacked Afghan police checkpoints – the first time ISIS has engaged with Afghan government forces deviating from their regular gun fights with the Taliban. Three Afghans were killed in the engagements. The Afghan government launched air strikes in response and they claim that the ISIS members they killed were all Pakistanis.

One of my former workmates sent us a link from the UK’s Daily Mail about a 16-year-old Nusra Front (al Qaeda) suicide bomber as his older jihadist buddies send him off to die in an explosive-laden BMP armored vehicle;

Looking at the scenery around him, the militant appears to realise he is just moments from death and bursts into tears, sobbing as his fellow militants do their best to reassure him and insist he carry out the attack.

The clip then cuts to Tayyar driving off into the distance and blowing himself up, causing a huge mushroom cloud to rise high in the air.

This version has the explosion at about 1:47 in this video which is said to be taken from a jihadist drone;

He really should have pushed the button while his buddies were hugging him and sending him on his way.

That’s a great recruiting video, though, ain’t it?