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These Are The Warships Attacking Syrian Militants From Afar

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Two classes of warships kicked off the U.S.-led attacks on Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Khorasan group.

 

WSJ's Jason Bellini explains what are these ships' capabilities?

 

Source: WSJ Video

 

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Tue, 09/30/2014 - 21:47 | 5273440 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

Fighting the Islamic State? Is that what they call bombing a sovereign nation these days? BTW, I though that the Islamic state wasn't Islamic.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:00 | 5273488 Greenskeeper_Carl
Greenskeeper_Carl's picture

Attack the Syrian govt and aid the people trying to overthrow it. Attack the people who are trying to overthrow the Syrian govt( though preferably without helping the Syrian govt). We've always been at war with Eurasia ... Eastasia is our ally.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:41 | 5273644 COSMOS
COSMOS's picture

Why no ships off Cyprus.  Dont the Brits have a permanent naval and airbase on Cyprus?  I am sure US Navy ships could use them.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:23 | 5273801 gmrpeabody
gmrpeabody's picture

Frankly..., anybody taking out the liver-eaters is a friend of mine.

Deal with it...

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 00:30 | 5273935 Stoploss
Stoploss's picture

Where's the body count?????????????????????????????????????????

We want a fucking body count DAILY...............

Exactly, how many of those motherfuckers are we killing??? NOT ENOUGH...

Open season on the muzzies.

FLAWED FUCKTARDS EVERY SINGLE ONE.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 01:56 | 5274008 TruthInSunshine
TruthInSunshine's picture

OT

http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com/2014/09/maximum-alert-dallas-ebola-...

CDC's time line of the Dallas Ebola victim's flight date and symptom onset date indicates a greater than 50% probability that the Dallas Ebola victim ACQUIRED HIS INFECTION DURING HIS FLIGHT.

Per the Center For Disease Control's very own Ebola simulation model, 50% of all Ebola infections develop symptoms five and a half days after infection (flight time from Lagos to Dallas is 17 hours and 20 minutes). Given that the Dallas victim's symptom onset occurred within 6 days of his Liberian departure flight; it is most likely that he/she was infected on that flight by someone else on that flight who was actively shedding Ebola virus.

*Since the Dallas victim is most likely a secondary infection, patient zero from that flight is still on the loose* and more victims are to follow in the near term. The situation is potentially catastrophic because of the massive number of potential secondary victims who have no African travel history and are likely to not attract attention in any Emergency room until massive hemorrhaging has started.

Rest of article with time charts:
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com/2014/09/maximum-alert-dallas-ebola-...

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 03:47 | 5274092 Manthong
Manthong's picture

 

Gee, since the “mystery virus” that is whacking all the n‘merican kids in school doesn’t get much press nowadays, maybe Ebola will.

They both come from the same folks that brought you Obamacare.

..and let's see if Sidwell Friends is immune to viruses.

 

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 04:08 | 5274116 gold-is-not-dead
gold-is-not-dead's picture

Next stop, cities in the US. Civil war.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 04:09 | 5274117 gold-is-not-dead
gold-is-not-dead's picture

Then, City of London occupied by the brixton and peckam residents.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 04:10 | 5274121 gold-is-not-dead
gold-is-not-dead's picture

And then finally, the awakeining of the Goyim and the disasembly of the ruler structures.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 04:24 | 5274129 Manthong
Manthong's picture

I had a dream.

Bankers dangling at the column in Trafalgar.

It was a good dream.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 06:44 | 5274247 Sandmann
Sandmann's picture

You have been watching "Fringe"

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 07:30 | 5274311 Thom_333
Thom_333's picture

Don´t worry - Ebola seems to be picking up good speed just in time for annual Hajj (I believe it´s in October 2014). Considering the special requirements for that event , amongst others a ban on washing as well as , I believe , 5 days on site in Mekka (the average incubation time). I think you can safely assume a huge body count once the figures start coming in.

Ebola has begun making a strong showing in muslim countries (Nigeria which is partly Islamic) and the we have the Hajj and air travel and so on.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:02 | 5273495 mjcOH1
mjcOH1's picture

No Littoral Combat Ships? Whut?

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:18 | 5273546 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

They don't carry Tomahawk guided missiles (long range surface-to-surface stuff).  They are designed for "close to shore" operations, which eastern Syria and western Iraq are definitely NOT.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:33 | 5273621 mjcOH1
mjcOH1's picture

Is there not some nearby navigable creek it can sail up to bring the mighty 57mm cannon to bear?   Standoff weapons are so 20th century.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:54 | 5273871 Stuck on Zero
Stuck on Zero's picture

I agree.  Those two warships are capable of defending a carrier but cannot carry a war to anyone. 

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 11:29 | 5275347 Herodotus
Herodotus's picture

Too bad they can't bring in the Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, and Wisconsin and open up on those Gaza and Tel Aviv high rise apartment blocks with all of their 16" guns at once.  Those folks would learn to get along with each other after several volleys like that.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:02 | 5273498 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Doc- you've got mail.

And believe me, this "war" is going to make Vietnam look like a glorious military victory over the forces of evil by comparison.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:13 | 5273534 Otrader
Otrader's picture
“If my sons did not want wars, there would be none.” Gutle Schnaper Rothschild

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:27 | 5273593 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

Tomahawks are an expensive way to bomb desert.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 00:20 | 5273916 Richard Chesler
Richard Chesler's picture

You're missing the point.

The more expensive the better $$$$$$

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 02:44 | 5274049 Lore
Lore's picture

They're using old ordnance in order to justify lucrative new M.I.C. Offense contracts, all denominated in ordnance-backed Federal Reserve notes: mutual back-scratching.

Tyler, why do you pay lip service to this "Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Khorasan group" garbage?  It's phony as a three dollar bill and poisons the ZH well

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 07:37 | 5274334 tonyw
tonyw's picture

Yes, a very expensive missile to take out a single truck with a machine gun.
Meanwhile the IS have over run the Saqlawiyah military base. One wonders why there was no US air strikes against a large mass of IS??
The behaviour of Turkish troops, preventing Syrian Kurds from crossing the border and help their fellow Kurds fight Daash in Kobani, is also very telling. Also, US strikes outside Kobani were "unable" to halt Daash's advance.

Consider, is this being done to set up the "need" for boots on the ground?

Maybe another atrocity or claim of attacking US cities will push our terrorised citizens into calling for a real war to destroy this major threat??

 

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 05:51 | 5274183 dicksburnt
dicksburnt's picture

You're missing the point. The more expensive the better $$$$$$

This is why I come to ZH - how true is that statement!~ GDP building!! (I have to train myself to think like a Krug in this new Krugonomy.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:58 | 5273882 thamnosma
thamnosma's picture

If the Islamic State isn't Islamic, does that mean it's The State?

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 02:41 | 5274057 Lore
Lore's picture

Ask Israel.

This is getting wide circulation:  How to Fake an ISIS Beheading In 5 Easy Steps (Proxy Bogeymen Explained)

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 01:28 | 5273984 Canadian Dirtlump
Canadian Dirtlump's picture

With s300s and oniks missiles ( inter alia ) if the west goes rogue they may well win in syria but it wont be without losing ships, aircraft, missiles as well as starting ww3 for their troubles.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 21:47 | 5273443 TeamDepends
TeamDepends's picture

And it's 1 2 3
What are we fighting for?
Don't know and I don't give a damn
Next stop is Kurdistan

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:11 | 5273506 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

An anti-Vietnam-war protest song is entirely appropriate in this situation.

Remember they already told us this conflict would last for "years".  To make such an admission right from the outset means it will likely last "forever".

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:20 | 5273566 BlindMonkey
BlindMonkey's picture

It will last until it can't.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 00:16 | 5273908 Flybyknight
Flybyknight's picture

Yes thats exactly correct. The first bombing run killed civillians including four children. How many terrorists did that create all with a justified hatred of America and its puppets.

 

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 07:39 | 5274344 tonyw
tonyw's picture

There's not much in the MSM but gas and oil plants are also being attacked, just to make sure there's nothing of high value left that could strengthen the country.

 

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:25 | 5273587 ozziindaus
ozziindaus's picture

1 2 3 4 Assad's cooperation is an act of war
5 6 7 8 drop freedom bombs and liberate
9 10 11 12 with their treasure we'll pay ourselves
13 14 15 16 in a couple of decades it's rinse and repeat

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:20 | 5273788 Sages wife
Sages wife's picture

Kardashian?

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 01:28 | 5273987 Canadian Dirtlump
Canadian Dirtlump's picture

Ive said before kurdistan is the only sacred cow here. Already we have the moderate syrian opposition coalescing with isis thanks to civilian casualties.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 21:48 | 5273448 Sizzurp
Sizzurp's picture

Never mind Ebola, let's drop some cash on missiles.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 21:52 | 5273461 MansaMusa
MansaMusa's picture

Aren't we still paying for the Iraq & Afghanistan wars?  Where are we getting the cash to drop bombs in the sand again?

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 21:57 | 5273475 FieldingMellish
FieldingMellish's picture

Our grandchildren.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 21:59 | 5273482 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

Actually, the debt is so bad that it's on their grandchildren.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:22 | 5273574 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

The "deep debt" solution to the Deep State.

A billion each does sound a little pricey.  What's the trading strategy?

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 07:41 | 5274354 tonyw
tonyw's picture

With an annual deficit the debt only grows and grows, people and other countries will eventually wake up and realise that if you just print more it only makes each dollar worth less and less.

Wars worsen the situation for the vast majority of the people, only a few benefit.

 

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 14:45 | 5276455 omniversling
omniversling's picture

What difference does it make (TM)? Planet 'US BATTLEFIELD' will be 'cruized' anywhere, anytime. The new territory and resources will more than cover the $200tn in debt and unfunded liabilities.

Repost, but worthy:

Century of Enslavement: The History of The Federal Reserve

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IJeemTQ7Vk  

 

By The 'Consent of the Governed' - Steve Bates film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMjPbbM5fPU&feature=youtu.be   

 

Facts and Lies of the US 'democratic constitutional republic'

http://worldtruth.tv/40-outrageous-facts-most-people-dont-know/  

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:23 | 5273559 Rusty Shorts
Rusty Shorts's picture

Ah yes, the good 'ole days of "Shock and Awe"

 

FRESNO, CA --- After my last column laying out the bad news about Asymmetrical warfarehttp://www.exile.ru/2006-November-03...tricalwar.html a lot of readers wrote in asking, "So OK, how DO we beat urban guerrilla groups?" It's a good question, but at the moment there aren't a lot of good answers to it. I've said before, we're living through one of those moments in military history where a powerful, successful military model runs into its limitations.


The military-industrial steamroller that won WW II for us and the Soviets was a glorious thing, but then so was the phalanx, and the medieval heavy cavalry, and the British square. They all hit a wall eventually, and so have we.

The way you can tell when a military model has hit that wall is that the guys who've spent their lives learning it start calling fouls. And if you've listened to interviews with our troops in Iraq lately, you've heard a lot of that. When I heard one guy telling a reporter, "I hate to say it but these Iraqis are just sneaks," I got really bummed. I mean, I understand why uniformed regulars learn to hate guerrillas; you don't end up admiring people who plant IEDs in your path and then try to play the innocent civvie when you grab them after the blast that just killed your best buddy. Of course you hate them. Of course you want to kill them, and the whole neighborhood with them, because of course the whole 'hood is in on it too. That's how Hadithas happen.

But like I've said before http://www.exile.ru/2006-June-02/mas...sandnukes.html those Hadithas are just what the guerrillas want. They want you to blast the street; makes everybody hate the occupier, helps them recruit new guys. That's how the game is played.

So first of, forget about talking the insurgents into fighting "fair," according to the so-called "laws of war. "Laws of war"-what a joke that is. Ever check out these "laws"? I have, and they make no sense whatsoever. For instance, according to these laws, dum-dum bullets are a forbidden weapon, too evil to be allowed in civilized warfare. But napalm? Noooo problem! Napalm is on the checklist of approved weapons, gets escorted past the velvet rope while those poor dum-dums wait in the rain.

The reason is simple: dum-dums were used by the Boers against the Brits, who were so outraged they lobbied to get those nasty exploding bullets banned. Meanwhile the British forces were rounding Boer civvies up in some of the nastiest concentration camps ever invented, where a quarter of the whole Boer population bought the farm.

Reminds me of that great line from Butch Cassidy: "Rules? In a knife fight?"

There ain't no law of war. There's just double-dealt rules pushed through by the big powers. Asking guerrillas to put up their dukes and face the attack helicopters is as stupid as scolding the Boers for filing the tips of their bullets while they watched their families die, nice 'n legal, in those Brit death camps. Like Rummy said, "You fight with the army you have, not the one you wish you had," and if that means you've got nothing but small arms and IEDs, then you fight sneaky.

Still, there are a few ways of doing CI that do work. I oughta give an evil cackle right about here, like the evil wizard offering the hero a way to get revenge, because none of these ways are noble, or pretty, not the stuff you want on your resume. And some are very risky, too. Try them at your own risk.

The obvious solution is genocide. I've mentioned it before, even predicted it'll come back into fashion, because what we've got now is a huge gap between the military force a superpower has and what it's actually ready to use. We've got a problem in the Sunni Triangle, and we're fighting it with mid-20th century weapons, armor and cannon and air strikes. Sure, it's much better armor, cannon and air support than we had in 1944, but we're talking little refinements of old weapons. Cannon have been around for 600 years, people! A 25mm chain cannon is just a much smaller, faster, more accurate version of the humongous, sloppy tubes that blasted the walls of Constantinople in 1453.

Which brings us to the weapons that we WON'T use: the NBC network. Not the broadcast network; "NBC" for you amateurs means "Nuclear Biological Chemical" although some of this stuff can be broadcast, har-har-har, especially the bio weapons. Just make sure you're upwind when you open the bag, and try not to inhale much for, oh, let's say the rest of your life. If we were willing to use these big dawgs, Ramadi would be as quiet as a retirement community on Halloween.

Of course there are solid reasons to think twice before ripping that bag'o'spores open, like the fact that it's hard to control who dies. Anthrax isn't biased; it'll kill a Shia as easily as a Sunni. And you do sort of concede the moral high ground if you bring in the crop dusters, I guess. I'm not much on high ground myself, but it seems to matter a lot to other folks.

Chemicals are softies compared to bioweapons, because they can't generate one of those Stephen King scenarios that brings world population down to K-Fed album sales numbers. They're nice simple weapons: shell pops open, lethal chem slithers downwind like Pepe LePeu's perfume, everybody dies one horrible way or another, and a few miles further downwind it's just a funny smell, a few athsamatics flopping over. But it wouldn't look good, taking the Formula 409 approach to cleaning up Iraq, because, you, Addam-Say already did that to the Urds-Kay, and we kind of made a big freakin' deal about it, and we love those Kurds now.

It's just one fuss after another, once you start playing genocide, worse than a Mexican-Okie wedding. That's why we end up with good ol' nukes. Nukes are, no question, the class of the hit-man world. You don't have to wonder if a nuke is going to start a pandemic that leaves silverfish as the dominant species on the planet. You don't have to get bashed with Saddam comparisons like if you used chem weapons, because if there's one thing this lame-ass war has proved, it's that Saddam never had any nukes, wasn't close to having 'em, would've shrieked and run like a girl if you'd handed 'em to him. Nobody could say we were just like Saddam if we sanitized the Triangle with nukes.

You think things disappear in the Bermuda Triangle? Just watch how everything taller than a scorpion vanishes in the Sunni Triangle, once we get those high-school compasses out and start drawing little red circles around every habited area from Kirkuk to Karbala, Tal Afar to Najaf. Nukes solve the problem fast - very fast - and clean - well, pretty clean. A few years ago we'd have had a much bigger problem nuking Sunni Iraq, because the sneaky bastards had all these mixed neighborhoods - you know, the ones MSM correspondents loved to mourn the passing of. Well, if you think about it those ethnic-cleansing squads have solved the problem for our megatonnage-management team, because there are no more mixed neighborhoods in Iraq. No need to worry about vaporizing Shia families along with their Sunni neighbors - not that I personally would mind much, but I'm supposed to pretend I do. Nope, no worries, because the ash that would float around the stratosphere after we zapped the Triangle would be 99% Pure Sunni.

Getting carried away here, so I better move on to other CI methods, suitable for children and Democrats. There are three that I know of: targeted assassination, bribery and starting a civil war between insurgent factions. They've all been used successfully; they've all failed too, and sometimes with real Frankenstein results.

Simplest and safest is bribery. I don't know why we don't do it more often. Almost makes me believe the guys running things are secret war nerds themselves, because otherwise they'd do bribery as a way of bringing down "rogue states" all the time. Just do the math. Right now, November 12, 2006, the official cost of Iraq is around $340 billion. Suppose we'd just bombed Iraq with dollars; we'd be the heroes of the world, and every family in Iraq would be - are you ready for this?-$70,000 richer. That would make Iraq one of the richest countries in the world. I guarantee you those greedy bastards would find better things to do with their time than drill holes in each others' heads with power drills. Everybody'd thank us. Not just the Iraqis but every gold chain manufacturer in Egypt, every brothel manager in Amsterdam, every Mercedes dealer in Baghdad. They'd be wheeling and stealing, cheatin' and greetin', till they OD'd on haggling.

Which would be just fine. Along the way, Saddam would have been overthrown in a few seconds, like the first time he tried to tell a young Baghdad blood he couldn't drive his new convertible into the country.

The Iraqis were never going to revolt for democracy - I mean, be honest, who would?but a new car? Boom, ol' Soddom is a hood emblem, and Uday and Qusay are seat covers. Then, when every Iraqi had a car, all we'd have to do is let them run out of gas and say, with our feet up on the table, "So...y'say you need some oil refined, huh? Let's make a deal." Piece of low-sulfur hi-octane cake.

You don't want to give those Baghdadis all the cash? Well, kinda late to figure that out, but OK, there are still ways. One slow, bloody; the other fast, risky, also bloody. The slow bloody way is targeted assassinations by mixed US-local kill teams. We did it in Nam and it worked tactically, wiped out the VC networks in many provinces, but couldn't fix the huge sucking black hole where our strategy was supposed to be. In other words, we hosed the VC with those Phoenix teams but that didn't matter when NVA armored columns rolled in a few years later.

Since the Nam case ended so sucky for us, the NeoCons are trotting out El Salvador, where Reagan's guys did a very good job of wiping out the leadership of the local communist insurgency. What I always admired most about it was it was done so quietly. You never heard about it back then, in the Cheers era, unless something really dumb went wrong, like killing those four nuns. It was a good operation, but let's be real here: El Salvador had a population of four million people, and the insurgency was run by a tiny clique of middle-class commies. When they were killed off, the rest of the people, the campesinos/Indios, went back to their old masters.

The Sunni Iraqis are not shuffling little Indio serfs. They're used to killing, they like it, we can't "selectively" kill their leaders because they don't have any beyond neighborhood level.

Other examples of successful CI, like the Brits against Chinese commies in Malaysia in the 1950s, are a lot more like El Salvador than Baghdad: small groups (ethnic Chinese in Malay territory) with nothing but an ideology to keep up their morale. Ideology, compared to tribal loyalties like we're facing in Iraq, is weak stuff, soymilk compared to Jagermeister. Commies didn't strap on suicide vests like the Jihadis do. We're up against a clan, a big old clan that will fight to the last dummy. Taking out the leadership just won't do it.

That leaves maybe the best, and also the riskiest CI strategy: giving the insurgency enough rope to hang itself with an endless civil war. I wish I had time to go into details, but basically what you do is identify the weak element among the insurgent leadership, strengthen it vs. the hardliners (and here's where having a good assassination squad or two can help, by wiping out the most effective hardline commanders) and then force the weak faction to sign a treaty with you.

It's a sure thing that the hardliners won't accept the deal, but it's just as sure the moderates won't give up power, because (a) they like it, and (b) they don't want to be tortured to death along with their entire families. So booya! You've got a nice civil war going between what used to be comrades in insurgency, and you can play one faction against the other, keeping them both weak. You can't stay in open power as the foreign occupier, but you can take a terrible revenge, because this kind of war is one long massacre, neighbor vs. neighbor. Big sales for Black & Decker reps, as well as your leading makers of rope, soldering irons, hacksaws and other devices for reeducating pesky folks who used to park in your driveway.

The classic success-story for this kind of CI strategy was by Britain vs. the IRA in the early 1920s. The Micks had basically forced Brit CI forces out of most of the rural areas and were using hit teams, like the VC "sparrow teams," to take out officials and informers in the cities. The Brits offered to make a deal with Michael Collins, who ran the IRA's urban campaigns, and got him to sign a treaty they knew the hardliners wouldn't accept. Worked like a charm; the IRA killed Collins, its best strategist, and the Irish settled back for decades of blaming each other, and the Brits never had to deal with more than nuisance campaigns until Ulster blew up in the late 60s.

The Israelis tried to do exactly the same thing by ceding Gaza and bits of the West Bank to the PLO. They had Hamas waiting, way tougher and younger than Fatah, and hoped the Pals would duke it out - the old, weak Arafat cronies vs. the bloods from Hamas. The reason they knew Hamas was in the mood to go to the mattress is that it was the Israeli secret services that created Hamas in the first place, as a "counterweight" to the quasi-commie PLO. Hamas was going to be the dumb Islamic faction that would harass the PLO into ineffectiveness, as if the PLO ever needed any help getting there. Well, it worked a little too well. Two intifadas and one Hamas leadership later, the Israelis would give anything to have a pitiful coward pol like Arafat back in charge, instead of these crazy Hamas guys with 17 children each and a bad case of martyr-envy.

See, that's the problem: you set up two insurgent factions at each other's throats and you're likely to be running a tournament, with the meanest and most determined bastards winning. And that's not who you want for neighbors. The Israelis had some early successes sparking feuds between Palestinian factions. It's not exactly rocket science getting Arabs at each others' throats. The hard part, and the part where the Israelis lost their nerve, is staying out of the way long enough to let the puppet government you've set up get strong enough to take on the hardliners in a really big, bloody civil war. In Ireland, the Brits gave Collins - a guy they hated like poison - not just their backing, but heavy artillery. Now that, folks, is discipline. And sure enough, Collins' forces couldn't wait till the guns were offloaded to start bombarding Dublin neighborhoods where their hardline enemies were holed up.

The Israelis couldn't stay out of the little Palestinian pockets they'd handed over to the PLO, because some Hamas or Islamic Jihad kid would blow himself up in a Tel Aviv deli and the public would demand that the IAF go blast some Pal refugee camp. It made the public happy, but then the public, any public, is a moron. And in the long run, it meant that the Pals never stopped having some new Israeli raid to be mad about, so they couldn't get around to the next step of hating each other enough to get a decent civil war going.

So yeah, this is a cool, clever strategy but I don't give anybody enough credit for sheer cold-blooded smarts to do it except the Brits. And I mean the old Brits, not these poor saps today who tagged along with Dubya for the ride to Baghdad.

Not even those old-school Brits could do it now, in Iraq. Because whereas the 1920-vintage IRA had a fairly disciplined leadership to play games with, we've got -- who? -- to talk to in Iraq. You'd be better off trying to divide and conquer the roaches in your kitchen. Nobody runs the insurgency, and nobody really runs the Shia militias either, not at national level. Sadr? He's their poster boy as long as he mouths off the way the hardliners want, but he'll go the way of Sistani if he tries to curb the boys' enthusiasm. They don't need help. They're having the time of their lives. It's not so much fun for the other focus groups, like women and men over 25 but for Iraqi boys from 15-25, these are the Wonder Years.

The key measurement for insurgencies in all these strategies is leadership, ranging from the almost Inca-style pyramid structure of the VC/NVA to total chaos. The steeper the pyramid, the more room you have to play with CI options, especially the ones involving negotiation. The more chaotic and localized the insurgents, the more you start thinking about those nice, clean red diameter-circles you get with our old friends the nukes.

 - by Gary Brecher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NktsxucDvNI

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:27 | 5273786 gmrpeabody
gmrpeabody's picture

Cut and paste is too cheezy..., really.

If you have something to say, then say it.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:29 | 5273817 Rusty Shorts
Rusty Shorts's picture

lol right, you mean like the WSJ cut and paste you and I commented on???

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:39 | 5273828 gmrpeabody
gmrpeabody's picture

oops...

perhaps I didn't think that through...

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 07:41 | 5274350 Ratbagger
Ratbagger's picture

Wow. Just wow.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:29 | 5273813 Sages wife
Sages wife's picture

MM, you're not paying anything other than the interest on these wonderfully extravagant middle-eastern adventures.  Drones don't keep people out, drones keep taxpayers in.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 21:53 | 5273467 Bennie Noakes
Bennie Noakes's picture
Syrian Militants From Afar

Wouldn't most of the Syrian Militants come from Syria?

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 21:57 | 5273469 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

The US never intends to engage in a fair fight.

Ask any US military man or woman if they want a fair fight and the answer will always be no. They want overwhelming superiority and dominance.

<And anything goes including the deliberate propagandizing of the US population to ensure they have overwhelming superiority and dominance.>

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:12 | 5273535 thatthingcanfly
thatthingcanfly's picture

I think Patton put it thusly: "If ever, as a military commander, you find yourself engaged in a fair fight, you have failed to plan adequately!"

He was right in a narrow sense.

Far more the gentleman, Robert E. Lee got it right in the broadest sense: "It is well that war is so terrible. We might grow fond of it."

I wonder if we would be better off if we gave up all this technology and returned to fighting with swords and bows. And let those who get us into wars lead the first attack wave. We wouldn't be so fond of war then, would we?

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:46 | 5273855 Sages wife
Sages wife's picture

Or if it suddenly appears on Main Street.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 03:06 | 5274077 zhandax
zhandax's picture

"I wonder if we would be better off if we gave up all this technology and returned to fighting with swords and bows."

Take heart.  No less than Albert Einstein predicted that WW4 would be fought with sticks and stones.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 02:54 | 5274070 Lore
Lore's picture

Only psychopaths are 'fond' of war.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:14 | 5273538 thatthingcanfly
thatthingcanfly's picture

Dupe.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:34 | 5273615 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

The thing is we are fighting politically correct. Bring back napalm, cluster bombs and daisy cutters, death and destruction tends to get peoples attention.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 02:54 | 5274071 Lore
Lore's picture

Nothing says 'freedom and democracy' better!

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 21:57 | 5273472 stant
stant's picture

Godspeed to our guys and girls. As for the ones who got us in this mess go to hell

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:00 | 5273491 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

I am all for war, but I am against the troops. 

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:24 | 5273584 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

You'll love the Navy then.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 03:11 | 5274082 zhandax
zhandax's picture

"Godspeed to our guys and girls. As for the ones who got us in this mess go to hell"

It never seems to work out that way, though.  Therein lies the flaw...

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:22 | 5273572 BlindMonkey
BlindMonkey's picture

Well, you don't see too many neo-con spawn running the triggers do you. I wonder why that is.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:28 | 5273597 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

Sorry, but I have lost all respect for people blindly following this fuck's, or the previous fuck's, orders.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:31 | 5273607 BlindMonkey
BlindMonkey's picture

Fuck it Doc. Let's drink scotch and smoke. We will extol the virtue of being young and clueless.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:52 | 5273696 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

I'll pass on the scotch, but I'll gladly do shots of Crown with you.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:12 | 5273769 BlindMonkey
BlindMonkey's picture

Close enough. :)

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:01 | 5273493 eddiebe
eddiebe's picture

 stant:

'He's the universal soldier and he really is to blame, for without him all this fighting can't go on.'    Donovan

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:07 | 5273513 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

I forgot about the Unisols.  Jean Claude Van Damme and 6 of his cyborg clones, this could all be over.  Why didn't I think about that earlier?  Damned intelligence people always keeping me in the dark.

- Barry

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:06 | 5273500 alexcojones
alexcojones's picture

Best not to push to hard, Mr Obomber Boy

Because Mr. Putin has a Navy base in Syria and has a few of these.

The Sunburn - Iran's Awesome Nuclear Anti-Ship Missile

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 01:55 | 5274020 Quantum Nucleonics
Quantum Nucleonics's picture

Yawn.  The SS-N-22 is a 30+ year old weapon.  Western naval air defenses planned for it decades ago.  Former Soviet client states sold them to Western defense contractors after the USSR collapsed.  The Russians have developed better systems.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:04 | 5273505 stinkhammer
stinkhammer's picture

choom motherfucker choom!

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:10 | 5273526 cherry picker
cherry picker's picture

If these warships are in international waters shooting at a sovereign state, isn't that akin to piracy or breaking some kind of UN or World rule?  What makes these warships any more credible than Somali pirates, none.

I mean there is nothing stopping anyone from taking these ships out is there and all it would be is a police action.  If someone were to stop these ships from firing, there is really nothing the US could say in defense of itself.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:24 | 5273582 BlindMonkey
BlindMonkey's picture

Nobody is going to light one of those ships up. Yet, every country wants to.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:36 | 5273831 Squid Viscous
Squid Viscous's picture

but it's the US Navy, "A Global Force for Good!"

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:44 | 5273851 BlindMonkey
BlindMonkey's picture

Love the smell of Orwellian doublegoodspeak in the morning. Smells like....bullshit.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 08:10 | 5274416 Dien Bien Poo
Dien Bien Poo's picture

thats what the advert says! too funny. 

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 00:22 | 5273917 thamnosma
thamnosma's picture

Obama is claiming this is all authorized by the original UN resolutions on Iraq back in 2003 since we are bombing Syria to protect Iraq.   Completely lawless and criminal in reality.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:21 | 5273567 Duc888
Duc888's picture

 

 

Cog: The US never intends to engage in a fair fight.

Ask any US military man or woman if they want a fair fight and the answer will always be no. They want overwhelming superiority and dominance.

<And anything goes including the deliberate propagandizing of the US population to ensure they have overwhelming superiority and dominance.>

 

Asymmetrical warfare, it's what's for dinner.

Until it's turned against us that is.


Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:24 | 5273577 Duc888
Duc888's picture

 

 

Mansamusa:Aren't we still paying for the Iraq & Afghanistan wars?  Where are we getting the cash to drop bombs in the sand again?

 

Fed.

Debt.

It's what keeps Banksterz alive.  

Money is debt.   How much vig do your kids owe US governemnt (Fed)?


Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:32 | 5273611 10mm
10mm's picture

Beware of Foreign Entanglements. George Washington. 

 

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 04:42 | 5274142 Zwelgje
Zwelgje's picture

That attitude went overboard with the Monroe Doctrine (1823). Or sooner. 

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 06:43 | 5274244 Sandmann
Sandmann's picture

Monroe Doctrine was the idea of British Foreign Secretary George Canning and enforced by the Royal Navy to keep France and Spain out of South American markets

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:33 | 5273618 Quaderratic Probing
Quaderratic Probing's picture

You can't bomb an idea.

You let it age, arrogance and corruption kills it.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:34 | 5273622 Squid Viscous
Squid Viscous's picture

anyone catch Satanyahoo's Iran comments... can't he just be happy we're well on the way to taking out Assad as ordered? always pushing for more...

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 02:14 | 5274038 Otrader
Otrader's picture

They're pushing for a world govn't.  Syria/Russia/iran/China are in the way.  The media will begin pushing heavy once this Syrian conflict is resolved with bombings, etc.

 

"We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the work is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries."

David Rockefeller, founder of the Trilateral Commission, in an address to a meeting of The Trilateral Commission, in June, 1991.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:38 | 5273632 Yes_Questions
Yes_Questions's picture

 

 

ISIS: 

 

I Slay Innocent Syrians

 

 

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:52 | 5273704 anachronism
anachronism's picture

What an incredible waste of firepower - and very expensive at that! It is yet another indication that the U.S. has exhausted its military, to the point where missiles must be used to augment the too few bombers, which have to fly too far, to bomb low profile targets, which are defenseless against aerial bombardment. And to what end?

It seems that we are fighting ISIS because they had wrested control of Iraq's northern oil fields, and were undercutting the price of oil from OPEC. For what other reason would Iran and Saudi Arabia put aside their bitter rivalry to join forces against a common foe? I read in the NY Times yesterday that "mobile oil refineries" were the primary targets of US air raids during the previous night.

At some point -just as in Libya- US/NATO will find it essential to shift from saving Kurdistan's oil fields to bombing the Syrian Army and Air Force, if for no other reason but to prevent more beheadings by killing the hostages who will have become "collateral damage". Flight time to Aleppo and Damascus is at least 2 hours less than Mosul. This is all Assad's fault!!

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 01:59 | 5274021 Quantum Nucleonics
Quantum Nucleonics's picture

Well, the military was worried about the missile manufacturer staying in business, because the navy was at its maximum inventory for cruise missiles.  They were looking at a gap of several years with no orders. Problem solved.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 22:59 | 5273726 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Those are Goldman Sachs mercenary battleships. I recognize them by their US symbols.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:01 | 5273735 taggaroonie
taggaroonie's picture

Note that the British are also balls deep here.

Their Parliament voted against last year's crack at Syria and the gas attackers whoever they were (or weren't).

The media must have got the marketing right for this one.

Just a few beheadings and hey presto, thunderbirds fly out of Cyprus.

Kudos to Steve Baker for continuing le resistence.

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:31 | 5273789 Son of Captain Nemo
Son of Captain Nemo's picture

What the fuck is up with RT News ?!!!...

Did the state of Israel just make the acquisition in the MSM stable complete?... Even FOX and MSNBC have qualms about bringing this piece of maggot ridden shit on their news program!

You have to wonder how the editor of RT news introduced Ameera Davis to Satan!  Must have gone something like this...

Ameera I'd like you to meet SatanPleasure to meet you Mr. Fallen Angel...

Satan this is Ameera Davis RT News.  Hello my Dear How's By You!...

Would have figured RT would have nipped this in the bud with Liz Wahl and Abby Martin playing the politics card over there comments on Russia before Ukraine was leveled but I guess we know now who really owns it!

Gives new meaning to the logo at the top of their page about "Questioning More"?!!!

 

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 00:07 | 5273899 anachronism
anachronism's picture

Dov Zakheim is a chickenhawk Israeli with American citizenship. The interviewer was softballing prepared questions which were probably written for by Zakheim. I agree. This is not what I have come to expect from RT.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 02:28 | 5274056 smacker
smacker's picture

That interview was from RT America and wasn't shown on RT Europe as far as I know. I've never seen that presenter, so she only covers the US version of RT out of Washington.

Nevertheless, RT is probably trying its best to dispel accusations that it's a Russian propaganda channel after recently being warned in the UK by the State broadcasting regulator Ofcom that it's coverage of one or two news topics was "biased" or "unbalanced". I took this to be a shot across its bows and a warning not to broadcast too much truth or anti-Israel stuff. Or else.

In the US, how better to dispel such an accusation than to interview a Jewish ex Dep Defence mouthpiece.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 04:11 | 5274114 dreadnaught
dreadnaught's picture

yeah i see RT leaning a bit to the mainstream too. Still they are better than 99% of the MSM

 

oh. BTW lol that RT "Reporter" that quit the channel in fake outrage a few months back because of RTs "Russian bias" was what they call a "CIA stringer" they work, in all our media....they serve their purposes

Tue, 09/30/2014 - 23:59 | 5273885 lasvegaspersona
lasvegaspersona's picture

push button war...very hygenic...call the maid for clean up...

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 00:53 | 5273949 Joe Tierney
Joe Tierney's picture

Nothing the U.S. does is wrong. Even as it slides down to the end of the Empire collapse slide, it gets away with every kind of mass murder, hypocrisy, war, both economic and military, devious regime change, and anything else it wants to do.

 

When the U.S. finally carries its 'divine exceptionalism' too far, then there's going to be a concerted, fierce global backlash....

 

But when???? The Empire is rotting from the inside out, features ever-more-hapless leaders, carries on ponzi economics to the nth degree, and yet is given a pass on all of it. Or so it seems.

 

It may be several more years, or even a decade or more, but this seeming teflon empire is going to come crashing down with a deafening roar. Get ready for it.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 01:26 | 5273982 BullyBearish
BullyBearish's picture

This is Israel's fight...the coalition should simply withdraw forces, war machines and support from the region.  If Satanyahoo would only turn his breath from the UN to his enemies, we wouldn't have to continually lose sons, daughters, treasure.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 04:16 | 5274126 dreadnaught
dreadnaught's picture

Those in favor of more war should instantly be at the front of the line to volunteer at your local ARMY/NAVY recruitment center-or else straight into line to a firing squad. Man up CHICKEN HAWKS!

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 04:29 | 5274133 burocracy
burocracy's picture

This is, for Obama, a "political war" above all else. "no, I am not a whiny little guy, I can fight it out". Witness the use of the F-22 raptor, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-22_Raptor . It's the latest and greatest, but Why oh why use it there?  there is no air to air threat. radar coverage leads nowhere, why would the Syrians shoot down a plane helping them?

 

So why not use the trash haulers? check the stats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-52_Stratofortress  "Bombs: Approximately 70,000 lb (31,500 kg) mixed ordnance; bombs, mines, missiles, in various configurations". for one mission. of the best technology of the 50s.

One B52 carries as much as 30 Raptors, for less money, less tech risk (if it falls, the chinese and russians will be all over the wreck) It IS a political statement: "no I did not goof by driving ground troops off Iraq, and I'll show  you by using the best and latest for a mission they were not designed for, exposing them to public scrutiny by Iran, the only country in which they could conceivably be used in anger if a nuclear capability is proven and pinpointed.

 

Bah.

 

for the Raptor:

 

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 05:35 | 5274166 Jano
Jano's picture

Stupid Americans fight thw war for their enemy, Israel.

No, Israel is not your friend & ally in the mIddle East. Should it be, then Israel would not kill the Navy sailors on the Liberty, would not massively spy on America, would not steal your nuclear material, dear Americans

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 07:39 | 5274342 SocialismIsCancer
SocialismIsCancer's picture

Israel did not steal USA nuclear material - the USA politicians gave the USA nuclear material to Israel, along with all the technical details of bomb & warhead construction & operation, so that the Israelis would not have to conduct a nuclear test & reveal publicly irrefutably that they have nuclear bombs.

Don't blame Jews - you expect them to do anything imaginable to cling to their turf & lives - instead you must blame American Christians, who are even more Zionist than Jewish Zionists.

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 07:36 | 5274329 homiegot
homiegot's picture

There is no Khorasan group. It's madeup horseshit by the adminsitration. 

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 09:47 | 5274793 Mike Masr
Mike Masr's picture

We should send Victoria Nuland and John McCain to Syria with boxes of cookies and a soap box to egg on the crowds against Assad and ISIS. They did such a great job destroying Ukraine lets give them a whack with Syria!   

Wed, 10/01/2014 - 11:27 | 5275333 WarPony
WarPony's picture

This will end when Syria and Iran have gone under (Israel's thumb).

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