fighting isis

[eclipsenow]

Hmmm, I served in the Australian army decades ago and heard the (non-hostile) training rounds snapping past at 823 meters per second. Rather than just one Prime Minister or President deciding things, I think a Cabinet / Committee / should only decide things after serious briefings from the military involving PDF's, maps, and the best input from all sources strategic, psychological, sociological and geopolitical. And unless it is a purely defensive move, only after a good nights sleep.

 

[The Gryphon]

Fortunately, I had a wonderful Platoon Sgt. that I had told my father had been a First Sgt. during WWII and that I understood he knew more than I did and please keep my dumb a#% alive. He smiled and said WOW a Second Lt. with brains. Later on we were out on a mission and I stood there like an idiot trying to figure out what the sound was I was hearing, he tackled me saying you dumb #$%@ Lt, they're shooting at you. I never forgot that snapping sound after that BELIEVE me! The fire was coming from so far away the sound of the shots had not reached us yet so all I was hearing was the sonic snap as the bullets passed so close to me. Then I got the shakes.

 

[eclipsenow]

Fortunately, I had a wonderful Platoon Sgt. that I had told my father had been a First Sgt. during WWII and that I understood he knew more than I did and please keep my dumb a#% alive. He smiled and said WOW a Second Lt. with brains. Later on we were out on a mission and I stood there like an idiot trying to figure out what the sound was I was hearing, he tackled me saying you dumb #$%@ Lt, they're shooting at you. I never forgot that snapping sound after that BELIEVE me! The fire was coming from so far away the sound of the shots had not reached us yet so all I was hearing was the sonic snap as the bullets passed so close to me. Then I got the shakes.

Intense! Rounds snap-thumping. "It makes a distinctive sound."

 

[Choir Loft]

What are your views in the
Troops fighting isis

The war is bogus, phony, a false war of nebulous values and non-existent honorable goals - a struggle sufficient to enhance the profit margin of defense contractors and extend the hegemony of American financial and corporate interests.

Before the reader gets a bad case of ruffled feathers let me say that for the men and women who've suffered loss of health and life and for the families who've born the tragedy of loss - the battles far from our shores are real enough. I spent several years in uniform myself and suffered permanent injury for my effort. Included in my time away from home was two years in the middle east, another deployment to South America and half a year in GITMO. During those times I saw and did things that have not been believed or received by the lip service patriots of the church. Most want to bury their heads in the sand of imagined and justified murder and destruction. Most love war and brutality, willingly accepting what they are expected to believe. I do not.

The acronym ISIS is itself a misrepresentation altered and published to the American public so as to make it easier for ignorant arm chair warriors to understand who 'the bad guys' are. The actual name of the group in question is ISIL, an acronym for Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. Ask most Americans what the Levant is and you'll get a blank stare. Google it. I don't have time to explain.

Prior to 2013 ISIL was, or rather were, disparate bands of renegade Muslims who had had their butts kicked during and after the American invasion of Iraq. With no meaningful work to employ their energies, no competent leadership and with no effective weapons to speak of they wandered the cities and wastelands of northern and western Iraq with nothing to do except look for a fight. The British French and Americans would soon give them one.

In 2010 a wave of insurrections toppled several Arab nations along the Mediterranean coast of Africa. Generally referred to as Arab Spring, these rebellions against established governments were organized equipped and supported by Britain, France and the United States. Third party ground troops were enlisted to help with the mayhem and finish off the governments of each nation. The late John McCain declared the men of al-Quaeda were heroes when they toppled the Libyan government of Mohamar Ghadfy early in the campaign. Heroes? I don't think so John. What did you know about the relationship between the US government and al-Quaeda that wasn't published in the American press?

The American public never bothered to ask what happened to more than thirty tons of gold that had been held by Libyan interests and nobody cared about oil contracts that were all renegotiated to the advantage of the European powers. Nobody in America bothered to ask why the British manipulated grain prices to produce conditions of near starvation in Egypt and spawn a national rebellion there as well. All that sort of thing was happening to Muslims far away and who cares if another Islamic war breaks out? Most of Arab Spring went according to plan until a fellow by the name of Bashar al-Assad decided to appeal to his Russian allies for help.

Assad wouldn't go quietly into the night of American global domination. As a result the allied powers of France, United Kingom and United States decided to float some troops into Syria, put boots on the ground and settle the matter. It didn't go well at all. Russia intervened and after many phone calls and exchanges between the western powers and Moscow the invasion slowly broke up. The French were the first to turn tail and bring their ships home followed by the Brits. The United States, now alone in the planned invasion followed a day or two later. In the summer of 2013, Russia won a war without firing a shot but it didn't go down in American history books and the US media didn't publish a word about it. The foreign press, however, was full of it. A word to the wise is appropriate here. Don't believe everything you aren't told by American media.

Riyadh was furious at the break up of the invasion. Blaming their American puppets for the fiasco, the House of Saud threatened to break diplomatic relations with the United States and make economic war against America among the members of OPEC. At the direction of President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry boarded a plane in the middle of the night and flew to Riyadh to resolve the problem. There followed several days of talks followed by photos of smiling Saudi leadership. Once again the people of the United States would be screwed by the machinations of the House of Saud.

Before the end of 2013, an organization was set up called "The Syrian National Council". Its offices were located in Istanbul, Turkey and served to collect money from the GCC (*) and provide military support, training and recruitment for ISIL. If anyone had wondered how quickly ISIL became an organized threat to western Iraq and Syria they would only have to Google a few sources outside the US media.

Are we learning yet? ISIL is a tool of American and European efforts to dominate the middle east - at the behest of our puppet masters in Riyadh.

The real question here is why Syria? NOT what the heck is ISIL.

ONE answer can be found by examining any map, particularly the free ones provided by CIA to everyone who knows how to use a computer. Oil is transshipped to Europe and the United States via the Persian Gulf through the Straits of Hormuz. I've been there. It's a very narrow body of water and Iran threatens every single shipment that goes by.

An easier shorter and more secure route to transport oil would be via pipeline to the east coast of the Mediterranean. Guess what country stands in the way of such a development?

Now if Britain France and America could get their hands on the throat of a dictator who ran the Syrian government ...... financial advantages would accrue.....

Except that Mr. Assad isn't being cooperative, not cooperative at all.

And so you have a phony war being perpetrated upon the Syrian people .... a phony war that innocent Americans are being asked to fight and support.....

Because after all -

Our government is totally honest and would never participate in international gangsterism would it?

Washington DC would never allow foreign influence to dictate US policy would it?

Our government would never manipulate the news media to nudge us into believing what they want us to believe, would they?

There isn't a shovel big enough to clean up the bovine excrement that's been dropped on all of us.

that's me, hollering from the choir loft....

(*)
Gulf Cooperation Council (as of 2013)
========================
GCC is a political and economic union of Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf;

Nation / Capital / Ruler
---------------------------------------------------
Bahrain / Manama / Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa
Kuwait / Kuwait City / Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah
Oman / Muscat / Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al Said
Qatar / Doha / Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani
KSA / Riyadh / King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud
UAE / Abu Dhabi / Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan

 

[eclipsenow]

Hi, it sounds like you’re seeing a pattern in some of the random incidents of history. The British manipulated the grain price? Wasn’t that part of a global energy miscalculation that we could grow our way out of the oil crisis with ethanol? Sorry, not going to happen. There’s just not enough land. But they tried anyway, and tied the price of grains to the price of fuel which became astronomical back then. The Arab spring was a chaotic backlash against tyrannical rulers by a population recently exposed to the internet and social media. They saw the amazing wealth of the average middle class American and Australian and wanted some of that.

As to the origins of ISIS, remember, Iraq is mostly Shiite but Saddam Hussein came from the Sunni North. The Sunni had generations of rule over Iraq and the majority Sunni south and capital. When Saddam’s regime fell, as so often happens when strongman regimes like this fall, old squabbles break out. The Sunni’s wanted payback on their former Shiite masters, and so began the Iraqi civil war. AQI morphed into ISIS as a defensive move with the added fuel on the fire of radicalism.

“Bottom line here is why Syria? Not what the heck is ISIL.”

This point makes no sense to me. I don’t know what you’re quibbling about? One can say either “Islamic State” or “ISIL (Islamic State in the Levant” or ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria = pretty much the same region across the northern half of the Levant anyway.) It’s all the same to me.

“It took territory, and a new name: ISIS
After ISI's forces gained strength in Syria, it re-entered Iraq in 2013 "as a reinvigorated force ... seizing much of Anbar a year later," CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen wrote earlier this year.

That year, Baghdadi announced the group would be known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He also said he was merging his force with the al Qaeda-affiliated group Al-Nusra Front -- which didn't exactly agree.”

Here's how ISIS was really founded - CNN​

 

[Choir Loft]

Post #25 - last point first.

ISIS vs. ISIL - I mentioned references to the name of the organized militarist group to make a point. It's about government propaganda, not names.

Point being that the media and our government considers the American people to be geographically ignorant. Rightly so, I may add but that doesn't justify misnomers. YOU know what the levant is, but how many others do? Not many I wager.

What is the point about names? It is simply a propaganda issue to achieve compliance and support of the American people. Reference to Levant conjures memories and motivations of the crusades, which is also a false propagandistic idea directed at the American public. Muslims don't use the crusades as justification for fighting today. It's not an issue with them because THEY WON.

There's a lot of history involved in current issues, but Americans are totally unaware and disinterested. Therefore the term ISIS is used - and even then Americans only know them as the designated bad guys despite our government being instrumental in their birth - as well as Al-Qaeda. People don't remember these things or if you tell them they call you crazy because such knowledge is beyond their attention span or limited circle of interest, which consists entirely of celebrity antics and sports contests.

Americans have become a nation of fools.(*)

Arab Spring -

You quote CNN, which is a biased news media focused upon that which the government and their corporate sponsors dictate. The service is only good for incidental news coverage such as domestic headlines. American media is owned by about a dozen corporations and echoes those issues which are of commercial interest to those companies - and silence those issues which would not be commercially viable.

Attention paid to Gay Rights, for example, is not an issue of rights. It's a commercial one because the Gay community has a lot of money to spend on product. Alienation of a well financed and organized portion of society is not wise from a commercial point of view. Hence the Gay rights issue is promoted and those who oppose it crushed under the wheels of corporate interest. It has nothing to do with majority opinion, God's opinion or anything other than money.

There are many other examples too numerous to mention here. CNN is not to be trusted as a news source. Neither are most other American media outlets.

Arab Spring was an organized campaign by the French, United Kingdom and United States to overthrow existing Arab governments throughout northern Africa and the Levant - from Libya to Syria. Americans know nothing of this coordinated effort for two reasons; they aren't told and they aren't interested anyway.

The foreign press, despite their own tendency to spin news in their own interests, are much more reliable than the miopic American press.

For example, from the early days of Arab Spring it was known throughout Europe the Middle East and Russia that three nations had combined to overthrow the region for their own interests (meaning the petrodollar). In the foreign press the group was commonly referred to as the FUKUS alliance (meaning France United Kingdom and US). Most Americans have never heard of this acronym and couldn't care less if they did. My case in point once again - Americans have become a nation of ignorant fools.(*)

Americans fight for and agree upon matters which are not in their best interests - a nation of cattle being led to slaughter.

The Syrian campaign went south (meaning SNAFU) when the Russians were called in. ISIL did not begin to seriously erode until the Russian military began an organized campaign to snuff out the roots and supply chain. Six months after Moscow got involved ISIL was on the ropes. Like al-Qaeda before it ISIL was recruited, organized, funded and led by US and its allies. America is the bad guy, not the Syrians.

Again, somebody waves an American flag over an issue and its ok to murder bomb and destroy. Americans don't think beyond the opening worship of the flag at professional sports contests punctuated with the over-flight of bombers symbolizing our might - and deliberate intention to disregard the rights of foreign countries that do not agree with us.

The root issue is the petrodollar.

Every other example and argument with regard to American involvement in the Middle East is incidental and is commonly used to obfuscate interpretations of events. There is absolutely no other reason for the US and Europe to get involved in Middle East religious arguments except that of the flow of money.

This is a Christian web site with discussions of religious overtones to be considered.

Most Americans couldn't care less about God,

except as an object to legitimize our sins and wickedness. As citizens of a rogue government involved in lawless military adventures throughout the world we are nevertheless liable to the judgments of Heaven - and Justice.

The church has abandoned the Word of God as well as the cross in favor of the twin striped flags of American aggression (red white and blue) and social hedonism (rainbow). The church approves of wanton murder of innocent people in Africa and the Middle East simply because it's in the best interests of corporate America. What about the interests of innocent people who simply want to stay alive? Americans simply don't care about them.

History has shown over and over again that this sort of prideful attitude precedes the decline and breakup of an empire. Pride goes before a fall and always precedes judgment from God. Make no mistake. America is now under judgment ... and it will get worse, much worse. Watch and learn, pilgrim.

I love my country, but its been stolen from me and THAT is why I write these things.

God is NOT blessing America any more. Those few prayers that are uttered on behalf of the nation are not being heard. America has crossed the line and I fear for our future - as should anyone who knows the justice of God. The Lord of Hosts is no fool.

America has forgotten God and is, even now, reaping the foul fruit of our pride and ignorance.

The solution is to humbly repent, but those are words anathema to Americans. We're too big and proud for that sort of thing. We're also too stupid to acknowledge that there is a God who is Lord of History. Not for nothing is He called the King of Kings and it is He, not the US government, who decides the future of empires and peoples.

Repent.

that's me, hollering from the choir loft.....

(*) I do not make such statements lightly.

During my employment at a local college a mandatory seminar revealed horrible figures. As a national average, most students who enter a Community or Two year college do not graduate. Less than 5% of entering students ever graduate and over 2/3 do not complete half of the first semester.

They are too stupid, under motivated and poorly educated to make the cut. That is a fact. Americans have become stupid and lazy. The only thing the young generation has going for it is a misplaced arrogant attitude. Ask any local cop or college admissions officer. They will tell you the same thing.