ISIS strikes, any effect?

do you think the air strikes have any effect on ISIS?? I would say yes, if they are coordinated with ground troops....

 

Sure as long you hit the right ones

 

yes!....more complicated to get right target than anyone might think, though.....

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haU_opj233U

 

sounds like the Jordanians are pissed off!!

 

I have read that the air strikes have caused ISIS some 25-30% men losses. That should help as the ISIS has many sides to fight with, but don´t know how they are getting reinforcements, as there is talk that many european muslims are joining the battle, for instance some 30-40 Finns have left to fight there and they are original Finns. If the counted figures are as wrong as usual, some 100 Finns have left to join ISIS.

 

Naturally, after Muath Al-Kasasbeh brutal murder by ISIS.

 

yes

 

25% seems like a big number for air kills.....unless they have good intel and boots on the ground with lasers

 

I think that the satellite and laser marking is great, but the robot plane has definitely changed the odds as for example loads of Al Qaida leaders have died in the last two years because the plane is pretty silent, and once you hear the rockets goings, it´s too late but to say good night.

 

yes, I was going to mention the drones....

 

No.

Without boots on the ground, and with that I mean your own, politically reliable boots on the ground, directly observing and co-ordinating, it's a pretty wasteful effort IMO.
It gives the pretense of doing something, without actually doing anything, other than wasting taxpayer money, and promoting ISIS.

What is the goal, and when does it end?

I doubt the wisdom of using solely air power to force a solution compatible to us, in a multifaceted fight as this between different factions.

But it's definitely cheaper than sending in an army of sufficient size to actually effect the change we want.

 

seems like they would do the same as in Afghanistan<>use anti ISIS locals as spotters/intel/boots??

 

I am inclined to agree with you. Not an advocate of extended and inflated hostilities by any means and the last thing I want to see is casualties. But in order to halt these activities and continuous recruiting is to go in. I feel these air strikes only prove to compound the problem. This is not just a small band of wackos murdering innocents.

 

We need to arm the Kurds. They'd be happy to wipe out ISIS on the ground.

 

The Kurd's are armed and fighting quite well.

Here's a recent video of them in Kirkuk:

http://www.funker530.com/kurdish-special-forces-in-wipe-out-isis/

You have to take some kind of action and air strikes at present are as far as we're willing to go, we do have troops on the ground and have had troops killed, on the conventional side mainly to protect key locations. Fuad Hussein, a top Kurdish official estimates that ISIS has about 200,000 fighters between Iraq and Syria, not exactly a small band of wackos.

I'm sure you really don't believe that we don't have boots on the ground, do you? I'd bet the farm that the place is crawling with Special Ops teams and CIA Special Activity types, as well as spooks from a number of countries, probably to include Jordan. I've spent a lot of time in countries where we weren't "officially" supposed to be. When the older son was in Iraq, Jordan wasn't supposed to officially have combatants in country, but IIRC it was in Trebil that there was a Jordanian medical unit that was actually a cover for Jordanian Special Forces. They, the SEALS and MARSOC Marines garrisoned there would go out, always leaving in the middle of the night, stay out for several days at a time, fuXk some bad guys up, then come back for a day or so and repeat. The Jihadis and those tribal leaders that aided them greatly feared these spooks coming in the middle of the night and eliminating problems. (BTW, Jordan had a legitimate interest in the area as Trebil is a major border crossing between Iraq and Jordan).
I know that as far back as July 2014, there was a very large and rapid expansion of the CIA/US Special Forces facility near Irbil, Iraq in the Kurdish region, and there are several thousand, admitted ground troops in Iraq for the training of Iraqi forces, force protection, support and "other" activities.

 

Thank you Kodiak. I have been working on State, Boehner, McCain, Biden, Rob Portman etc. since Kobane day 1 with some others. That was a heck of a siege they broke at Stalingrad South, Kobane, Syria. The Kurds are wonderful people as anyone from 10th SFG and Marine Expeditionary Force around Mosul in '03 can tell you. Lots of the guys are trying to get back over there to help. If so inclined join our group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/729607563784880/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/287749241418785/

Under the original plan for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S. 4th Infantry Division was to enter northern Iraq through Turkey. Turkey, however, did not authorize the United States to open a northern front through Turkish territory. As a result, northern Iraq initially lacked a large combat presence. 2,000 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) along with 1,000 U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) worked with several thousand Kurdish peshmerga forces to push south and west from their bases in the Kurdish-controlled region. The primary objectives were to secure Kirkuk and Mosul, and nearby military assets and oil infrastructure. Coalition planners were careful to keep Kurdish political parties and their peshmerga militias from provoking a Turkish invasion or inflaming Arab-Kurdish tensions. The paratroopers from the 173rd ABCT conducted Operation Option North securing Kirkuk, nearby airfields, and the northern oil fields. A few hundred SOF, along with peshmerga forces, first targeted the Ansar al Islam group along the border with Iran to prevent being attacked from behind and then turned toward Mosul in early April. Source:https://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/reports/Iraq%20Report%208.pdf

 

Yeah, the Kurds are great people! They are directing their efforts at rescuing various minority groups in Syria and Iraq. They need more than rifles and bullets. They need tanks, missiles, artillery. And we should give that to them.

 

Germany, Italy, France and Croatia are sending supplies directly to Erbil (Hawler in Kurdish). I believe other countries are sending equipment in as low profile shipments to avoid irritating the prickly Erdogan. A 30 ton shipment just arrived from Berlin with Milan missiles, RPG's, G-3's, ammo, grenades uniforms. Expect they snuck in some night vision equipment as well. Earlier they sent Milans and about 10 Dingos. Marders and Leopards would be nice.