BREAKING: US and Allies hit ISIS targets in Syria. Bombing campaign begins.

[Kirk Freeman]

Field Marshal Boehner calls for boots on the ground: Boehner Says Defeating ISIS Means Using Ground Troops | The Fiscal Times

 

[Expat]

Field Marshal Boehner calls for boots on the ground: Boehner Says Defeating ISIS Means Using Ground Troops | The Fiscal Times

Perhaps they should have brought an authorization up for a vote before recessing then.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

BBC reports on ISIL probes into Baghdad Governorate (video): BBC News - Iraq: The frontline between Baghdad and Islamic State militants

 

[zippy23]

i've read we've hit a bunch of civilians already, and havent done all that much against the terrorists. If the president had a R after his name you know this would be front page news and every pundit would be going crazy. its all political

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Thinkin we need to target our air strikes to make the various factions attack each other instead of trying to do all the damage ourselves. Maybe drop some bombs from planes that look a lot like MiG29s and Su37s so the Syrians get the blame.

 

[T.Lex]

I think we still have some black "Mig-28s" in inventory.

 

[T.Lex]

Ah, the tricky thing of force discipline in the social media era. Interesting (to me anyway) issues internal to ISIS as they adapt to air strikes:
BBC News - Islamic State 'adapting to US-led air strikes'

New restrictions include a ban on the taking of pictures and filming by cameras and mobile phones "during the battles", according to an IS memo aiming preventing "undisciplined diligence" by fighters.

This memo, published by the General Committee of Islamic State, has been circulating on twitter under the hashtag "media secrecy campaign".
The directive states that filming will be restricted to certified "media personnel" in charge of "documenting and filming [the] battles" and warns that offenders will be prosecuted.


A new Twitter account believed to be behind the campaign says: "Act in silence and protect your mujahedeen bothers."

In all seriousness, they are acting more and more like a real country/nation-state.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I kinda considered them a nation-state as soon as they congealed out of the festering swamp over there. I doubt Syria will last long; it'll be absorbed. They're bringing something like order to the area, um, something like, um, order... uh disorder. That's what it was. That's something like order, isn't it? Dropping bombs on them is just going to annoy them. They're already plenty pissed off at us. If the __________ don't want their heads sawn off, they need to head to Lebanon.

I always said we should split Iraq into three parts, because trying to keep it as one nation with three hostile factions was not the way to stability. That might have prevented all this. Iraq was originally a creation of Britain rather than a spontaneous nation, anyway. You wonder why they're hostile to meddling Westerners?

 

[T.Lex]

I always said we should split Iraq into three parts, because trying to keep it as one nation with three hostile factions was not the way to stability.

^^^ This.

Totally agree. Worked as long as there was an authoritarian regime and the trains ran on time. The hope was that in a democracy, the sides would all have to work together. Turns out, they didn't have to.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Just like the Balkan nations. Some people just can't get along.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Prez just exempted himself from accountability for bombing civilians.

Amazing.

White House exempts Syria airstrikes from tight standards on civilian deaths

 

[mrjarrell]

Neither he, nor his predecessor ever gave a damn about "collateral damage" and innocent lives lost to their bombing and drone campaigns. Why should now be any different?

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Neither he, nor his predecessor ever gave a damn about "collateral damage" and innocent lives lost to their bombing and drone campaigns. Why should now be any different?

Not looking at this from the "But Bush!" angle... I'm looking at this, and thinking of how he tries to lecture Netanyahu on the same subject with Hamas. Completely different standards.

 

[mrjarrell]

Both Netanyahu and he are psychos who don't give two craps about killing innocent people. I'm waiting till we can drag all of them before the bench and have a Neuremberg 2 convened and then see them executed or imprisoned at hard labour for their crimes against humanity. Both of them have done more to create terrorists than many of their predecessors.

 

[T.Lex]

Neither he, nor his predecessor ever gave a damn about "collateral damage" and innocent lives lost to their bombing and drone campaigns. Why should now be any different?

Here's where principles come into play IMHO.

Bush was unapologetic because he was principled. Collateral damage is a risk that was worth taking based on the perceived benefit of the strikes. Like or not, that was his principle.

Obama is sorta apologetic, but sorta not, because he is unprincipled. He asserts the principle that collateral damage is intolerable and sets limits, then excludes himself from the limits. No one knows what to expect from him because he has no foundation.

 

[rgrimm01]

Neither he, nor his predecessor ever gave a damn about "collateral damage" and innocent lives lost to their bombing and drone campaigns. Why should now be any different?

I would think this is why war should not be the first tool out of the bag to handle disputes unless the offensive act is of such hostility to warrant such a response. It is ugly. Bad things happen. How would one conduct an effective use of bombing and not have collateral damage? It is a hammer, not a scalpel. It strikes me as unreasonable to assume that no innocent people will come of harm in attempting to rid that region of that particular threat...

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Turkey approves motion to help with ISIS

https://twitter.com/AP/status/517721845576237056

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Has anyone attempted a reasonable justification as to why we're dropping bombs on these people? Planes/pilots/fuel/bombs cost marklar****ed money. Stahp it.

 

[mrjarrell]

Has anyone attempted a reasonable justification as to why we're dropping bombs on these people? Planes/pilots/fuel/bombs cost marklar****ed money. Stahp it.

What's the tab on the bombings? Almost a billion bucks so far and that price tag will just keep going up. And who's going to foot this bill? The usual patsies. Us.
Cost of U.S. Campaign Against ISIS Is Roughly $1 Billion - NBC News

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Australia has entered the fray

BBC News - Australia approves strikes against IS in Iraq