ISIS!

So looks like shit is kicking off again in Iraq...

How long before UN gets involved?

I suspect the UN are already involved.

Probably not connected or possibly connected to the Ukraine situation, but the amount of US military vehicles I've seen at the local RAF base lately is way higher than usual

B52 bomber

Apache helicopters

F16 fighter jets

Lol good edit

Someone at work has seen a stealth bomber here this week as well

Where are those Ottomans when you need them? Keep this bloody heathen rabble in check.

isis oh isis

This feels like a build-up to the Caustic Window listening party in Baghdad.

*puts Oceanic on*

shoulda left well enough alone & kept Saddam in charge. Dictators wouldn't put up with this taliban bullshit.

Even back in March 2003 I didn't approve of the invasion of Iraq. We all know the WMD bullshit was a false pretense as an oil grab for our monkey president and ex-Halliburton CEO veep and their cronies.

And now this blowback with the ISIL takeover...should never have bothered in the first place.

Looks like Panopticon has failed us.

Yeah I biked into this thread hoping for some hot ancient Egyptian goddess pics

thanks watmm

omg sterling archer is going too far this time

I'll have to admit that that's eye candy

I say if we want to intervene in situations like this our interventions should be minimized to only include providing utilities and infrastructure. electricity, irrigation, internet, etc. There is no good done if you want to destabilize governments without empowering the citizenry..

The millitia groups are american backed through the saudis anyway, they didn't just come from nowhere, it's either that it's just a nice staging point to continue the proxy war against syria or kurdistan was hoping to ride in like the cavalry and take over the mosul region with it's oil reserves thereby capturing the rest of northern iraq, which of course the US would like because you'd have a weakened iran allied iraqi regime, unfortunately for this plan iran decided to quickly jump in and militarily back iraq's sovereignty. It makes you wonder at the loyalties of those placed in command of the iraqi forces that they would melt away from a fight that they could have clearly won, perhaps the commanders that are US assets were told to back off the not realising the plan to divvy up the territory or not really caring, thinking more about their kids university scholarships to US colleges and their retirements in florida.

Anyway, stuff is happening that has been planned and we don't have the full picture yet. In the long term kurdistan doesn't realise that it's going to be chopped up for the retred ottoman empire and the new kingdom of david.

  On 6/13/2014 at 2:44 PM, feltcher said:

Someone at work has seen a stealth bomber here this week as well

Not very stealthy after all...

I think it's pretty cute Iran is thinking about cooperating with the US on dealing with ISIS.

(both are more alike than they're willing to admit...)

fucking rambo iii

  On 6/13/2014 at 6:05 PM, doublename said:

Looks like Panopticon has failed us.

never.

how did "isis" become such a force that requires entire armies to conquer? who the F funded it?

btw, as a mozartean who loves die zauberflöte, im annoyed they're using that name.

  On 6/13/2014 at 2:26 PM, feltcher said:

I suspect the UN are already involved.

 

Probably not connected or possibly connected to the Ukraine situation, but the amount of US military vehicles I've seen at the local RAF base lately is way higher than usual

 

B52 bomber

Apache helicopters

F16 fighter jets

 

Lol good edit

RAF Fairford?

  On 6/16/2014 at 3:06 AM, skibby said:

how did "isis" become such a force that requires entire armies to conquer? who the F funded it?

 

it's a coalition of various Sunni extremist/jihadi groups that have been fighting in Syria and Iraq, and with their effectiveness in Syria they're become particularly well-organized and dangerous. The Iraq army had setbacks with desertions early on in the recent offensive, hence the quickly lost territory.

In the meantime, better trained Iraqi forces have launched a counter-offensive and won some territory back, and Baghdad is still in control of the goverment. The crazy thing is that there's a surreal, tentative unity between Kurdish Iraq, Turkey, Iraq's central government, and Iran in defeating ISIS (all historical rivals and oft enemies) because at the moment they all have a lot to lose if ISIS expands.

I must say, as much as I want to avoid any intervention, including airstrikes (as we did in Libya) ISIS is fucking brutal, their leaving an absolute bloodbath (which they are documenting themselves) of dead civilians in their wake: mass executions, horrific methods of beheading, blatant drive-by shootings at fleeing locals. That said this isn't anything new, just something of a "blitzkrieg"-esque conflict in the broader Jihadist war.

What a bunch of assholes.

I'm too suburban and American to understand this... But glad to see nothing is changing and our species is slowly, but steadily continuing down the yellow brick road to imminent demise.

I bleat and take solace in knowing someone will have all the monies, last say on oil and who's deity was the right one. That obviously needs to get cleared up before progress can happen.

An interesting post on the subject by one of my colleagues:

http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/counter-insurgency-in-afghanistan