• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria[W:354]

Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

Fine but my comparison was to islamists, not sectarin, or nationalist, etc.

If the CIA gave weapons and training to the craziest Americans and set them loose, do you think we'd be talking about radical Christians the same way we talk about radical islamists?
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

Since when is having an AK-47 considered 'well equipped'?
Any other weapons that they hold have been gained by capturing Syrian Army outposts and nothing more.

I think theres more. ISIS has deep pockets. They have some of the same stuff (modern guided anti tank missles, newest rpg's) used by Hamas in Israel. And then there is what they have plundered in Iraq. Since they defacto control the syria-iraq border those weapons could be anywhere.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

That said, I wish we still had Saddam around to deal with ISIS...

ISIS exists at its present strength and holding territory because of the vacuum created with the US withdrawal. They were able to move into and out of Syria as gains were made by Assad, and they figured out they could go wild with the place.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

Lol...touchy?

About what? What a bunch of nameless, faceless people on a chat forum think? You could all be bright 10 year olds for all I know. The day I get 'touchy' about what someone says on here is the day I should stop posting here.


AS for the rest...you post is noted.

Though it is still woefully short of details.

Now many planes did the other countries commit? What type of planes (bombers or just support aircraft)? On what targets? How much AA assets were defending these targets (in other words - were they tough targets or easy ones)?

Come on man, surely you know government-speak' by now...make a general statement that sounds rosy but give few details. And when asked for details, vclaim 'national security' or 'military secrecy' does not allow more details to be released.

That report said basically nothing.


And I will say again, ISIS is a very small army with NO air force. I am sure the entire Middle East could take it out in a few weeks if it wanted to.

So why don't they?

The answer is obvious - they do not want to badly enough OR why should they when they know America will just do it for them.


We are done here, for now.


Good day.

You think I'm bright :)

As far as everything else, I guess we'll know later one when the US does there after action press briefings. I have to admit though, using F22 Raptors, the world's first 5th generation fighter and perhaps the best fighter in the world, does seem like a bit of overkill against a group like ISIS.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

If the CIA gave weapons and training to the craziest Americans and set them loose, do you think we'd be talking about radical Christians the same way we talk about radical islamists?

Not really, because I dont see most even "radical" Christians doing this. They are doing this to their own people-they dont need the US to hate. These are bad guys, at some point you just have to say enough of the BS and take care of things.

It used to be our President was crucial at times like these. Now not so much.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

ISIS exists at its present strength and holding territory because of the vacuum created with the US withdrawal. They were able to move into and out of Syria as gains were made by Assad, and they figured out they could go wild with the place.

All I'm saying is that if Saddam were still in power, we're not having the same discussion as far as ISIS is concerned. At the very least, they wouldn't of rolled through Sunni held territory with little to no resistance as it wouldn't be a Shia government in power.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

Seeing that a number of Arab states, including Qatar participated, I have to give a lot of credit to Secretary of State Kerry. None of these states was onboard for military action during the President's speech. UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia are core Arab allies. Jordan is a strategic ally and had recently been threatened by ISIS. The one surprise for a lack of participation is Kuwait.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

If the CIA gave weapons and training to the craziest Americans and set them loose, do you think we'd be talking about radical Christians the same way we talk about radical islamists?

You do realize that the US wasn't giving the go ahead to support rebels when the Civil War started right? In fact, that was a pretty big criticism of Obama is that he's been very slow in arming the rebels.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

All I'm saying is that if Saddam were still in power, we're not having the same discussion as far as ISIS is concerned. At the very least, they wouldn't of rolled through Sunni held territory with little to no resistance as it wouldn't be a Shia government in power.

Maybe you are right, we wont ever know. But what we DO know is we have a sitting President who's made a long series of bad decisions to get us here. He lost the Peace, and clearly is STILL making very stubborn and piss-poor plans.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

Seeing that a number of Arab states, including Qatar participated, I have to give a lot of credit to Secretary of State Kerry. None of these states was onboard for military action during the President's speech. UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia are core Arab allies. Jordan is a strategic ally and had recently been threatened by ISIS. The one surprise for a lack of participation is Kuwait.

I guess, but I don't really know what role Kuwait could sever that the other countries couldn't fill already. Perhaps just a case of not needing the help?
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

Seeing that a number of Arab states, including Qatar participated, I have to give a lot of credit to Secretary of State Kerry. None of these states was onboard for military action during the President's speech. UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia are core Arab allies. Jordan is a strategic ally and had recently been threatened by ISIS. The one surprise for a lack of participation is Kuwait.

Im going to have to read up on that, Kerry hasn't exactly been stellar up to this point.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

You know, I think we are both thinking the same answer, but for different reasons, so I'll go first.

9/11, and the reason for the shift was because there was a great concern that Saddam might give over his WMDs to someone who would use it in an American city. We like to pretend that Saddam was the perfect choir boy before the Iraq War, but they also tend to forget about him kicking out the weapon inspectors. Had he of continued to cooperate, we wouldn't of gotten the impression he was hiding something, and we would of known that he didn't have any WMDs.

And you say?

No. Many other nations around the world have confirmed stockpiles of dangerous weapons. So why did the United States specifically target Iraq so soon after the Afghanistan invasion of 2001, when there was no link between Iraq and Al Qaeda?

Washington had already been preparing for a new invasion of Iraq before 9/11. The Los Angeles Times reported (U.S. Air Bases Forge Double-Edged Sword - Page 2 - Los Angeles Times) that one year prior to the attacks of 9/11, the U.S. began constructing Al Adid, a billion dollar military base in Qatar with a 15,000-foot runway, in April 2000. What was Washington’s stated justification for the new Al Adid base, and other similar ones in the Gulf region? Preparedness for renewed action against Iraq.

Here’s a Pentagon document dated March 5, 2001, entitled Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oil Field Contracts. It details how Iraq’s oil fields would be carved up and outsourced to Western oil companies two full years before the war. It would later be revealed that an invasion of Iraq was at the top of the Bush administration’s agenda only 10 days after his inauguration, which was a full eight months before 9/11.

http://ftmdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/IraqOilFrgnSuitors.pdf
Toppling Hussein a priority of Bush since early in term - Baltimore Sun
Bush Sought 'Way' To Invade Iraq? - CBS News


No. The U.S.-led invasion was inspired predominantly by Iraq’s public defiance of the petrodollar system.

On September 24, 2000, Saddam Hussein allegedly emerged from a meeting of his government and proclaimed that Iraq would soon transition its oil export transactions to the euro currency.

Not long after this meeting, Saddam Hussein began preparing to make the switch from pricing his country’s oil exports in greenbacks to euros. As renegade and newsworthy this action was on the part of Iraq, it was sparsely reported in the corporate-controlled media.

CNN ran a very short article on its website on October 30, 2000, but after this one-day news cycle, the issue of Iraq’s switch to a petroeuro essentially disappeared from all five of the corporate-owned media outlets. CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News

By 2002, Saddam had fully converted to a petroeuro – in essence, dumping the dollar.

On March 19, 2003, George W. Bush announced the commencement of a full scale invasion of Iraq.


That's your reason.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

No. Many other nations around the world have confirmed stockpiles of dangerous weapons. So why did the United States specifically target Iraq so soon after the Afghanistan invasion of 2001, when there was no link between Iraq and Al Qaeda?

Washington had already been preparing for a new invasion of Iraq before 9/11. The Los Angeles Times reported (U.S. Air Bases Forge Double-Edged Sword - Page 2 - Los Angeles Times) that one year prior to the attacks of 9/11, the U.S. began constructing Al Adid, a billion dollar military base in Qatar with a 15,000-foot runway, in April 2000. What was Washington’s stated justification for the new Al Adid base, and other similar ones in the Gulf region? Preparedness for renewed action against Iraq.

Here’s a Pentagon document dated March 5, 2001, entitled Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oil Field Contracts. It details how Iraq’s oil fields would be carved up and outsourced to Western oil companies two full years before the war. It would later be revealed that an invasion of Iraq was at the top of the Bush administration’s agenda only 10 days after his inauguration, which was a full eight months before 9/11.

http://ftmdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/IraqOilFrgnSuitors.pdf
Toppling Hussein a priority of Bush since early in term - Baltimore Sun
Bush Sought 'Way' To Invade Iraq? - CBS News


No. The U.S.-led invasion was inspired predominantly by Iraq’s public defiance of the petrodollar system.

On September 24, 2000, Saddam Hussein allegedly emerged from a meeting of his government and proclaimed that Iraq would soon transition its oil export transactions to the euro currency.

Not long after this meeting, Saddam Hussein began preparing to make the switch from pricing his country’s oil exports in greenbacks to euros. As renegade and newsworthy this action was on the part of Iraq, it was sparsely reported in the corporate-controlled media.

CNN ran a very short article on its website on October 30, 2000, but after this one-day news cycle, the issue of Iraq’s switch to a petroeuro essentially disappeared from all five of the corporate-owned media outlets. CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News

By 2002, Saddam had fully converted to a petroeuro – in essence, dumping the dollar.

On March 19, 2003, George W. Bush announced the commencement of a full scale invasion of Iraq.


That's your reason.

Oh the Petrodollar...

This is what happens when you confuse cause, for effect. And you ignore history. You wanna know the reason why we were planning before 9/11 for a war in Iraq? Because we had already been forced into airstrikes against Iraq, and it also might have been because Iraq wasn't being that cooperative. (Oh, and I'm sure the grudge between GW and Saddam had nothing to do with the attempt on his Father's life. I think something like that would probably be taken personal.) Finally, you realize that the military is planning military engagements right now for China? For Pakistan? Is this also because their running away from the Pedropound of whatever? Of course not, that's because the military is always game planning for the current Strategic threats out there. Heck, we had one for Afghanistan, and that's why only hours after the attack we already had special forces inside Afghanistan readying military operations.

Also, you realize the US doesn't even get the majority of Iraq's Exports right? Hell, we're not even getting the largest cut of Iraq's oil. But I suppose that's something you conveniently missed hmm?
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

An AK-47 is probably worth a year's salary for your average 20-something rural Syrian/Iraqi.... and that's assuming they can buy one on the open market. And that's hardly the only weapons they had. Use your head. Where did they get those guns? How did they get so organized?

Those guns aren't American so I don't see your point.
The average 20-something rural Syrian/Iraqi owns an AK-47, they're everywhere in those lands.
They gained money and funds from ransoming the people and selling the oil that they captured, and used that to train themselves and get themselves equipment.
Still, after all that, they're still less equipped and less skilled than your average Kurd militant.
There was no American training and funding of their troops.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

No. Many other nations around the world have confirmed stockpiles of dangerous weapons. So why did the United States specifically target Iraq so soon after the Afghanistan invasion of 2001, when there was no link between Iraq and Al Qaeda?

Washington had already been preparing for a new invasion of Iraq before 9/11. The Los Angeles Times reported (U.S. Air Bases Forge Double-Edged Sword - Page 2 - Los Angeles Times) that one year prior to the attacks of 9/11, the U.S. began constructing Al Adid, a billion dollar military base in Qatar with a 15,000-foot runway, in April 2000. What was Washington’s stated justification for the new Al Adid base, and other similar ones in the Gulf region? Preparedness for renewed action against Iraq.

Here’s a Pentagon document dated March 5, 2001, entitled Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oil Field Contracts. It details how Iraq’s oil fields would be carved up and outsourced to Western oil companies two full years before the war. It would later be revealed that an invasion of Iraq was at the top of the Bush administration’s agenda only 10 days after his inauguration, which was a full eight months before 9/11.

http://ftmdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/IraqOilFrgnSuitors.pdf
Toppling Hussein a priority of Bush since early in term - Baltimore Sun
Bush Sought 'Way' To Invade Iraq? - CBS News


No. The U.S.-led invasion was inspired predominantly by Iraq’s public defiance of the petrodollar system.

On September 24, 2000, Saddam Hussein allegedly emerged from a meeting of his government and proclaimed that Iraq would soon transition its oil export transactions to the euro currency.

Not long after this meeting, Saddam Hussein began preparing to make the switch from pricing his country’s oil exports in greenbacks to euros. As renegade and newsworthy this action was on the part of Iraq, it was sparsely reported in the corporate-controlled media.

CNN ran a very short article on its website on October 30, 2000, but after this one-day news cycle, the issue of Iraq’s switch to a petroeuro essentially disappeared from all five of the corporate-owned media outlets. CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News

By 2002, Saddam had fully converted to a petroeuro – in essence, dumping the dollar.

On March 19, 2003, George W. Bush announced the commencement of a full scale invasion of Iraq.


That's your reason.

 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria


Yep.....now ISIS will look to play the Hamas game and hope that the MS Media will report all those innocent deaths. The women.....oh and of course the Children. They want the MS media to keep reporting that and make that into an issue. Especially with the terrorists going underground, hiding and blending in with the civilian population.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

President Obama no longer tells the GOP politicians what he will do BEFORE the fact, public or private.
We've seen all too often when these skunks run to FOX and undercut the President in front of the world--and our enemies .

BO peep doesnt tell Democrats or his Joints Chiefs of Staff either.....so really as usual you aren't saying much with this BS.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

He's giving us the "Cheney historical narrative" which he got from some rightwing website and Fox News.

Nah not at all.....perhaps when you are checking back with the Demo Underground for some more talking points about Bush an Cheney. You can ask them to give you some info as to what is going on in Todays world. That would be known as Reality in Current time.

Lets see if you can manage to hang with that rather that getting lost in History.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

Already answered that. But you know it. You just want to indulge your low information narrative. And I just want to point out its absurdities. Carry on.

(By the way, telos -- wrong word)


Well so far with all those Demo Underground talking points.....you didn't think you were actually amazing anyone with all that so called intellect.....did you? Think first.....remember!
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

So you openly admit that Mr. Obama is not worried about his popularity and politics with how he is conducting his strategy.
This is as it should be--too bad your side doesn't see it that way .

So why is it again you can't figure out when most political pundits left and Right.....state BO goes by whats popular with the people. What did those ears selectively forget all that was said, you know the usual when it comes to the left.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

So you openly admit that Mr. Obama is not worried about his popularity and politics with how he is conducting his strategy.
This is as it should be--too bad your side doesn't see it that way .

That is an amusing outlook. Odd that you don't say that about those elected officials that disagree with your views. ;)
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

Actually your explanation is too simplistic and partisan. The American people wanted out and it was a campaign promise to get us out and partially why he was elected. The former president already had the timeline set up. We trained the Iraqis and did our best to help them get their act together for over a decade. It's not Obama's fault Al Maliki disenfranchised the sunnies and kurds and some of these people don't have the courage to fight for their country.



But it was BO's fault for not listening to Maliki when he came to BO.....in Nov of last year, asking BO to do something about the Terrorists. He did request aid and BO did deny him.

You don't think you can change that historical fact now, do you?

Bet you can guess now.....if he would have done something back then. That ISIS would not have all the ground they hold now.....huh? Oh look.....Bush Junior can't even be blamed for that failed act of leading from behind.
 
Re: US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria

US Airstrikes Under Way in Syria
Sep 22, 2014, 9:30 PM ET
By MARTHA RADDATZ, LUIS MARTINEZ and LEE FERRAN

American airstrikes against ISIS targets are under way in Syria, according to a Pentagon official.

ABC_syria_map_all_cities_jef_140922_4x3_992.jpg


"I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIL [ISIS] terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said. "Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time. The decision to conduct theses strikes was made earlier today by the U.S. Central Command commander under authorization granted him by the commander in chief. We will provide more details later as operationally appropriate."

US Airstrikes Against ISIS Targets Under Way in Syria - ABC News

Well, we'll just have to wait and see how badly this one backfires on us.
 
Back
Top Bottom