ISIS strikes, any effect?

Yes. Why do you ask? It was by the way something of a concern early on as if the fighting from Syria had spilled over into Turkey enough they could have requested NATO aid them in their defence and it would have pretty well forced NATO to act/get involved.

Actually if anything the opposite is true.

Even if they have peoples plans with regards to that area have a tendency to come unhinged. I think the hope now is simply to keep things from getting too out of control. That may be the long term plan as well. I suspect that is of some benefit to the Kurds. Not only are they symathetic to many in the west (making support for them reasonably popular) but they provide a lever that can directily act on Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria and indirectily on other players.

From what I've read (and it's touched on in some of the links I posted above) the Turks aren't really pro ISIS indeed they don't really like them. They are however nervous about the Kurds. The current Turkish government is more fundamentalist than it's been in quite a while and over the last century or so whenever the Turks have veared too far from secularism the army has stepped in and taken control for a few years to reestablish that secularism. The Turks also worry about ISIS and such radicalizng their own people as well. As a consequence the Turkish government is doing a fairly precarious balancing act.

 

Their latest president, Erdogan, is an Islamist. He's pushing the country towards ISIS and the other whack-jobs. There is a quite a lot of resistance to this from the Turkish people, but he's cracking down on them as well.

 

In a newspaper I read a story of a returned german IS "member" (that feared for his execution as his mobile phone was detected..which is forbidden) that when you arrive as an ISIS affectionado you are immediately asked "you want to be fighter or suicide bomber ?" after which the suicide bomber wannabe gets pampered and gets all the possible luxury at hand.
Quite a monty pythian scetch ...
("no,no, you don't understand, I want to help ISIS as a desk clerk "...)

 

looks like there might be some more action...Jordan is mobilizing some troops...what a mess....

 

Not half!

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31146715

 

a mess, as usual...thanks for the link, very good...

 

An interesting piece but somewhat one sided. The UAE for instance did it play that much of a role? It has also rejoined the bombing effort from what I've heard. It also mentions a lack of progress on the ground in Syria then later mentions Kobane but ignores the fact that the battle there was a huge defeat for ISIS on the ground. Several other times they seem to take items into account when it suits them and ignore those same items when it doesn't. Of course one should question either the capability or honesty of anyone who thought that ISIS would be destroyed in short order. History shows that these things take years and not days or weeks or even mere months.

 

exactly, it's not like you're taking on a bunch of uniformed SS....they can ''disappear'' to fight another day....that's why I called it a mess...I see it somewhat like Afghanistan<>it's hard to change people/cultures/etc in a year or 5years...

 

This article is rather long and goes into both Kurdish issues and the status of ISIL.
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/iraq/articles/20150212.aspx
Not sure if this is really the correct thread for the falling but it is a rather fresh look at Al Jezeerah (and a rather positive one).
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/20150212.aspx

 

The claims that air attacks will doom ISIS is wishful-thinking,unless there were real air attacks,but ,given the PC climate in the US and elsewhere,such air attacks are out of the question:Arab civilians could be killed .

 

usually, civilians do get killed....air usually doesn't doom any group...

 

I know,but,as the "Arab lovers" are dominating the media in the US and even more in Western Europe,real air attacks as in WWII,who will result in civilian losses,are out of the question .
there are other options,but,as these will horrify even more the over-sensitives,they are even more excluded .

 

I remember a school hit in Lebanon, by the Israelis, and the bunker of civvies in Iraq....that is going to happen....remember when the US SFs and Afgan friends got hit with the ''errant'' bomb? they accidentally called it on themselves...that was a biggie too...hard to pin point the ISIS targets, no?

 

...or the two NG A-10's that killed between ten and 17 Marines in An Nasiriyah because they misidentified the AAV's as Iraqi armor.

 

A possibility would be to withdraw the US forces from the area that would be bombarded

 

An other possibility would be to to use classic air attacks,but the other options .

 

which war? I remember PG1 that happened..did it happen again? or was that army troops that got hit in PG1?

 

The one I was speaking of was in 2003. The one you're referring to was when A-10's attacked LAV's that were holding up an Iraqi armored assault. IIRC, nine of the 11 Marines killed were from when an A-10 hit a LAV with a Maverick missle. One of the Marine's killed in the Nasiriyah attack was with the unit that got whacked by the A-10's in GW1 and survivors state that he got really nervous when the two NG A-10's started circling. They attacked C/1/2 with strafing, bombs and missiles. The "official" investigation did not determine how many of the 17 Marines were killed by the A-10's. The one's officially listed as killed by the AF were the one's hit by 30mm rounds. The "possibly" killed were those killed when their tracks were destroyed. The catastrophic damage made a definative determination impossible. The official report stated they could have been destroyed by the Maverick's or possibly by RPG's. This is just smoke though, up until the A-10 attack no tracks had been destroyed by RPG's, (I think one had been damaged) but the Maverick has a 95%+ hit rate and it can kill just about any tank on the battlefield, what do you think it does to an AAV with thin aluminum armor? All Marines that testified at the investigation stated without a doubt that the A-10's destroyed the tracks. Also they somehow, "accidentally" recorded over the film from the gun camera from one of the aircraft and "lost" the film from the other one. Strange especially since when they broke off the attack it was suspected that it was a probable friendly fire incident.











Some pictures of the Nasiriyah AAV's

 

PRICE, super interesting! [ of course, horrible ] much thanks.......that's a thread by itself.....