Category: Terror War

According to Fox News, General Lloyd Austin, commander of the U.S. Central Command, was grilled by Congress about the progress of the grand White House plan to train 5400 Syrians by the end of the year to fight against ISIS. General Austin admitted that only about “four or five” remained on the battle field. You’d think they’d be able to nail the number down a little better. But no.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., suggested the Pentagon shift to supporting other countries operating in the region like Turkey.

“This four or five U.S.-trained fighters — let’s not kid ourselves, that’s a joke,” she said.

The witnesses acknowledged the shortcomings with the program but suggested it is salvageable.

“They will figure out a way to get the job done one way or the other,” Austin said of U.S. trainers.

Christine Wormuth, under secretary of defense for policy, said the mission is part of a “broader effort” and those getting training can be “force multipliers” for other groups on the ground.

I’m pretty sure that General Austin was hating his job. Those “four or five” force multipliers are gong to be pretty busy, multiplying like bunnies. Stars & Stripes says that John McCain said that he’s never been to a hearing that was so “divorced from reality”. You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet, Senator. We still have another year and a half of this BS.

According to CNN, the US spent $41 million to train 54 Syrians to fight against ISIS. Littler bang for your buck.

[Abu Iskander] and his “classmates,” known as the New Syria Force, are a key part of the U.S.’s anti-ISIS efforts. But there aren’t nearly enough of them to worry ISIS — yet.

The U.S. wants its train-and-equip scheme to help create a moderate and well-disciplined force to counter the Islamic radicals on the ground and assist moderate societies in finding a foothold in war-torn Syria.

Yeah, well, according to Politico, we’ve sorta lost track of the massive force;

After nearly 12 months of extensive international outreach, the program has so far yielded only 54 fighters — all of whom were killed, captured by terrorists in Syria or scattered when they came under attack this summer.

The White House’s original goal for the first year was for more than a brigade’s worth of combatants — about 5,400 — who would be able to push the Islamic State out of the villages it controls in northern Syria and then go on offense against the terror group.

The White House announced the program in May 2014, but didn’t start it until June this year. And by August all of the trainees were dead, captured or in the wind.

Why don’t we just drop the rest of the money we were going to spend on this program over Syria. At least it might discourage this migration thing. I guess this is what happens when you try to fight a war against terrorists on the cheap. It’s almost as if the administration wants to lose this war.

According to the Daily Beast, the Defense Department is rushing reinforcements and armament to the Sinai to bolster the US contingent of the Multinational Force and Observers because of the attack on US troops that we talked about last week.

In the last week, the Pentagon authorized the shipment of additional high-caliber weapons, surveillance towers, Bradley fighting vehicles, and medical equipment to bolster security for the 1,600 U.S. and UN troops tasked with ensuring Egypt and Israel abide by the 1979 peace treaty, The Daily Beast has learned. Much of that equipment is now en route in the northern edge of the peninsula.

[…]

While the American troops did not suffer life-threatening injuries during last week’s attack, the talks now have a different tenor “because we are now talking about a real threat to their safety,” as one defense official explained.

It’s funny how trying to fight a war against terror on the cheap can get exponentially expensive. It’s also funny how much more difficult it is to run the United States than it is to campaign. Actions and inaction seem to have consequences. And the troops are the ones who pay in blood for bad political policy.

I’m sure at this minute, someone in the pentagon is preparing a proposal that describes how we’ll be supplying both sides with weapons. Anyway the leader of al Qaeda, Doc al-Zawahiri, declared war on the Islamic Caliphate, otherwise known as ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State, back in the Spring, but the audio of the announcement was released this morning, according to ABC News;

“It’s pretty interesting,” said former National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew Olsen. “Zawahiri until now has not been willing to openly condemn Baghdadi and ISIS. It highlights how deep the division is between al Qaeda leadership and ISIS. It suggests that the differences are irreconcilable.”

Had ISIS and al Qaeda realigned by joining forces, it “would be terrible,” said Olsen, an ABC News contributor.

If I’m not mistaken, the Taliban declared war on ISIS a few months ago and they’ve been fighting over control for dominance over the Afghan shit hole. I really don’t see how this changes anything, but I’m sure that the White House will call it one of their great victories over…whoever. Oh, wait;

Though it didn’t foresee the rise of ISIS, former CIA Director Michael Hayden said the intelligence community had predicted a rift in al Qaeda emerging after bin Laden’s death — something like what’s happening now between ISIS and al Qaeda, which the U.S. could use to its advantage.

For years, we were told that killing bin Laden would accomplish nothing, but those same folks who told us that are now claiming responsibility for the rift.

The Washington Times reports that the peshmerga forces are begging for more arms to battle against the ISIS thugs. ISIS considers them a more dangerous target than the Iraqis, apparently. ISIS has been converting the spoils of their battles with the Iraqis into Vehicle Borne Explosive devices. HMMVs and bulldozer are being fitted with shaped charges so the suicide bombers can drive them into peshmerga defenses;

“We don’t have the kind of equipment that we wish to have, especially when it comes to heavy weapons,” the younger Mr. Barzani told the BBC in an interview Friday, adding that the last major shipment from Baghdad arrived in May. Peshmerga forces have only about 1,000 gas masks, he said.

“Unfortunately,” the issue of adequate supplies and firepower “has been a problem from Day One” of the war, he said.

Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the terrorist organization known as the PKK, has been taking advantage of the civil war in Syria that has spilled over into Iraq and Turkey to attack Turkish forces, according to Voice of America, which also reports that the Turks are spending more time attacking the PKK and Kurds than they are ISIS;

Turkish fighter jets responded overnight with airstrikes against Kurdish militants after the Kurdish fighters attacked a troop convoy near Turkey’s border with Iraq and Iran.

The military said Monday F-4 and F-16 warplanes struck 13 targets of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

Sunday’s attack involved roadside bombs that heavily damaged two armored vehicles and left an unconfirmed number of Turkish troops dead.

The PKK said the militants killed 15 soldiers.

So, the US finds itself in the position of needing the Turks’ cooperation in the war against ISIS as well as the peshmerga who seem to be doing a better job of killing ISIS than Iraq or Turkey. However if we supply weapons to peshmerga, how can we keep those weapons from falling into the hands of PKK and prevent those weapons from being used against the Turks?

There’s a price for not being proactive in the war against terrorists.