The Islamic state

[kebabking]

So, broadly speaking, when given a choice between ISIS and Iran the State of Israel will choose ISIS?

its probably wrong to see this as the Israeli's picking a side, they haven't exactly been reticent about giving Al-Nusra (the sometime AQ ally, now IS ally..) on the Israeli-Syrian border a right shoeing in recent months - they see two enemies on their borders who fight each other and sometimes fight them, Israel is just happy to let them get on with it while taking advantage of any targets of opportunity that come up on either side.

 

[flypanam]

Daesh are threatening that two Japanese hostages will be killed within 72 hours if they don't get a $200m ransom. Poor hostages.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/wor...atens-to-kill-two-japanese-hostages-1.2072296

 

[Teaboy]

Daesh are threatening that two Japanese hostages will be killed within 72 hours if they don't get a $200m ransom. Poor hostages.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/wor...atens-to-kill-two-japanese-hostages-1.2072296

One's a journo the other sounds like a proper oddball who's been pictured in fatigues carrying guns around, not sure the Japanese gov will be rushing to pay his ransom.

 

[Sasaferrato]

not at all. prisoners should be taken and turned. by saying 'no prisoners' you prolong the conflict.

Debatable. If one assumes that there is a finite number of fundamentalist lunatics, you wipe them out. If however, you consider it to be a 'dragon's teeth' situation, then you don't. Any way up, removing the seasoned and experienced ones makes any 'followers on' easier to deal with.

I don't think that these people would be terribly amenable to 'turning'.

In a way it is quite sad. The causes of the conflicts go back generations, and we are now at a stage where the two choices are annihilation of the fundamentalists, or capitulation to their wishes. Capitulation is not going to happen.

What is even more sad is the willingness of these people to use children as suicide bombers. If hell exists, there will be a special corner for them. What they have done is unforgivable.

 

[Sasaferrato]

So, broadly speaking, when given a choice between ISIS and Iran the State of Israel will choose ISIS?

That is based on the assumption that the guy was killed deliberately, rather than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[Teaboy]

That is based on the assumption that the guy was killed deliberately, rather than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I think Israel have been pretty clear that the real problem is Assad and Iran, they really don't see IS as a threat to themselves and therefore don't really give much of a shit about them, in fact they are useful idiots because they are doing a lot of the dirty work for them.

So yes, for Israel, Iran are much more of a concern then Isil/IS/Daesh etc etc

 

[Sasaferrato]

Islamic State fighters mass on Lebanon border and threaten to launch attacks across it

That is the real problem in Syria, if there was to be armed intervention tomorrow, whose side would you fight on behalf of? It is a civil/religious war, with none of the combatants particularly 'clean'. I am not a believer in the 'enemy of your enemy being your friend'. The West armed the Afghanis in their fight against the Russians, only to have those weapons used against them.

 

[Sasaferrato]

I think Israel have been pretty clear that the real problem is Assad and Iran, they really don't see IS as a threat to themselves and therefore don't really give much of a shit about them, in fact they are useful idiots because they are doing a lot of the dirty work for them.

So yes, for Israel, Iran are much more of a concern then Isil/IS/Daesh etc etc

Aye, I can understand that.

 

[coley]

I think Israel have been pretty clear that the real problem is Assad and Iran, they really don't see IS as a threat to themselves and therefore don't really give much of a shit about them, in fact they are useful idiots because they are doing a lot of the dirty work for them.

So yes, for Israel, Iran are much more of a concern then Isil/IS/Daesh etc etc

At the minute.

 

[Geri]

In the meantime, 13 kids are executed for watching football in Mosul:

sis publicly execute 13 teenagers for watching Asian Cup football match, activists claim

 

[butchersapron]

Report of YPG and regime clashing again - this time in north of Allepo in al-Shrafeyyi - YPG previously active here against ISIS. Getting really murky.

A collection of stuff about resistance to ISIS in areas they control. I've not checked them all, some have been posted on here before though and were kosher.

 

[weltweit]

Daesh are threatening that two Japanese hostages will be killed within 72 hours if they don't get a $200m ransom. Poor hostages.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/wor...atens-to-kill-two-japanese-hostages-1.2072296

So hostages from countries that don't pay ransoms get killed, while those that do, don't. I suppose the UK and USA feel that if no one paid, IS might stop taking hostages, eventually. I have my doubts.

 

[NoXion]

Debatable. If one assumes that there is a finite number of fundamentalist lunatics, you wipe them out. If however, you consider it to be a 'dragon's teeth' situation, then you don't. Any way up, removing the seasoned and experienced ones makes any 'followers on' easier to deal with.

Can you accept that the proportion of a population amenable to militant fanaticism is not a fixed quantity? "No quarter" can be (however cynically) used as a rallying point, and furthermore is not actually necessary for combating militant fanatics.

 

[BigMoaner]

living under that Isis shit sounds worse than livning in margate in the winter

 

[gabi]

Oh great a bored sunday for a proddy fundie whose been in the services.

Lol. Dude, you're posting bullshit yourself. On a Sunday arvo. Sported by nobody but your missus. I'd lay off this guy and look in the fucking mirror, if you can. Th ultimate keybored warrior.

Anyway, reports on twitter that the Japanese guys are already gone. Allah u akhbar.

 

[Sasaferrato]

In the meantime, 13 kids are executed for watching football in Mosul:

sis publicly execute 13 teenagers for watching Asian Cup football match, activists claim

'The report has not been confirmed by international news agencies or Iraqi authorities and IBTimes UK cannot independently verify it.'



I certainly have no love for the murdering scumbags, but...

On the other hand, it is line with other atrocities that have been verified, so...

 

[butchersapron]

A good basic mainstream top-down backgrounder for those wanting to get to grips with what 'Turkey' is playing at and why/how:

How Turkey misread the Kurds

The AKP's Syria policy has only contributed to the outcome that it had sought to prevent: widespread support among Kurds in Turkey for the Syrian Kurdish efforts to achieve autonomy in Syria. Turkey appears to have overlooked the anger bubbling among its own Kurds towards its Syria policy.

Yet, it does so at its own peril - AKP's policy is undermining Turkey's efforts to isolate the PKK-affiliated Syrian Kurds and, most importantly, to make peace with its own Kurds.

 

[coley]

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-scope...-after-troops-firefight-islamic-state-1484220
WTF don't just we concentrate our assistance towards the Kurds, provide UN safe havens for the innocents and let the assorted nutjobs fight it out?

 

[phildwyer]

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-scope...-after-troops-firefight-islamic-state-1484220
WTF don't just we concentrate our assistance towards the Kurds, provide UN safe havens for the innocents and let the assorted nutjobs fight it out?

Which Kurds do you think we should assist?

 

[likesfish]

The kurds are not above induluging in inter communal slaughter if nobodys shooting at them.
Old kurdish joke god got bored with other people fighting kurds so gave them a chance to fight among themselves
Iraq,iran and syria all armed various kurdish factions at times
just about anybody whose armed and can fight has very dubious history
This is the one comflict where israel has mostly clean hands you can tell things have gone massively wrong when the state of israel looks cleanish

 

[kebabking]

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-scope...-after-troops-firefight-islamic-state-1484220
WTF don't just we concentrate our assistance towards the Kurds, provide UN safe havens for the innocents and let the assorted nutjobs fight it out?

because however much our sympathies are directed towards the Kurds and not towards the Iraqi government/state/whatever, if the Iraqi state is defeated by IS, or just stops resisting them, IS will be free to fight on one front instead of 2 or 3. if that happens then the Kurds - of whatever myriad group - will be in very deep shit.

air power, and certainly air power of the level that western electorates will agree to pay for and send to Iraq, will not stop IS if they were free to fight only the Kurds.

 

[CNT36]

air power, and certainly air power of the level that western electorates will agree to pay for and send to Iraq, will not stop IS if they were free to fight only the Kurds.

Lucky no one gives a shit what they think then.

 

[butchersapron]

The kurds are not above induluging in inter communal slaughter if nobodys shooting at them.
Old kurdish joke god got bored with other people fighting kurds so gave them a chance to fight among themselves
Iraq,iran and syria all armed various kurdish factions at times
just about anybody whose armed and can fight has very dubious history

Is this because of some pre-political genetic disposition or due to being in the middle of very definite historical contexts - i.e the cold war and the regional expressions and local power moves playing out in various situations?

 

[Geri]

British parliamentary committee breaks historic taboo on Kurdish independence

 

[skf]

I am saying nothing on this subject

 

[DaveCinzano]

The War Nerd on sexualised reporting of the YPJ and other women fighters:

...One paragraph into the story, and already it’s gone very badly wrong. What you see in this opening paragraph is Percy’s home-world: Upper-middle class America, home of the strivers, winners of Pushcart Prizes and Capote Fellowships. This is a world where age, weight, and looks are everything — in which context, it might not be amiss to see what Percy looks like...

...It’s one of the funniest misreadings I’ve encountered since Pale Fire, though it’s more like P. G. Wodehouse than Nabokov in its playing with typecast characters. Percy—horror of horrors—is force-fed by the matriarch! Forced to eat chicken! And quite possibly, improperly cooked chicken! And then forced to lie next to the “Female Warlord,” like the vampire queen’s concubine!

http://pando.com/2015/01/19/the-war-nerd-getting-women-warriors-wrong/

(Edited to clarify it's not all about the YPJ - this was just the most obvious thread for it though)

 

[butchersapron]

That's a very funny piece, i love it when anger and funny come together. I shall have to look out for the work of this Percy in the future.

 

[seventh bullet]

That was great.

 

[frogwoman]

The War Nerd on sexualised reporting of the YPJ and other women fighters:





http://pando.com/2015/01/19/the-war-nerd-getting-women-warriors-wrong/

(Edited to clarify it's not all about the YPJ - this was just the most obvious thread for it though)

Thats a fantastic article.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Damn these beak-nosed matriarchal warlords and their possibly undercooked chicken hospitality