Nothing to be concerned about. Barack “Baghdad Bob” Obama and his administration officials assure us that the Islamic State is losing. Victory is at hand! The Islamic jihadists, uh, violent extremists, are being thrown back everywhere, and soon Allah will roast their stomachs in hell! Didn’t Josh Earnest just say that?
“Islamic State fighters capture power station outside key northeastern Syrian city,” by Bassem Mroue, Associated Press, June 5, 2015:
BEIRUT — Islamic State militants fighting in Syria on Friday reached the southern gates of the predominantly Kurdish northeastern city of Hassakeh amid intense air raids and shelling, Syrian activists and the extremist group’s radio station said.
The push came as the U.N. Security Council expressed “outrage” at all the attacks against civilians in Syria, including those involving shelling and barrel bombs — bombings that have reportedly been used extensively in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and other areas in recent days, leaving many civilians dead.
The Islamic State group has been attacking Hassakeh city since May 30, facing stiff resistance from government forces. The city has been split between government forces and Kurdish fighters who have been attacking IS positions elsewhere in the province.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights said that IS fighters captured a power station and an unfinished juvenile prison building just south of Hassakeh.
IS radio station Al-Bayan said the militants were about one kilometer (mile) from the southern entrance in the city, claiming they have killed dozens of soldiers.
The Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees say government warplanes repeatedly attacked IS forces near Hassakeh on Friday. The Observatory said 71 government troops as well as 48 IS fighters were killed in Hassakeh over the past week.
Members of the Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, have not joined the battle in the city so far, but one of its commanders, Polan Jan, said in comments posted on the group’s official Facebook page that “we will not allow Daesh or others to control our Kurdish city of Hassakeh.” He used an Arabic acronym to refer to the group….
John C. Barile says
We underestimate IS’ strength, overestimate the number of IS combatants we killed, and fail to fully appreciate IS’ offensive capabilities.
Angemon says
And supported them in Syria while “combating” them in Iraq.
mortimer says
Obama and Hillary overestimated their wisdom in arming anti-Assad rebels who morphed into ISIS.
They have created one of the great debacles and killing fields in history. Bush withdrew from Iraq too soon. And Obama complicated the situation by not stopping the Shi’ite hit squads.
Then he armed the insurgents, rather than bringing them into the Iraqi army and government.
It was a huge mistake to kick the trained, professional solders out of Iraq’s military. They were needed for the transition to civilian rule. Now its a lawless mess.
Davegreybeard says
@mortimer
“Bush withdrew from Iraq too soon.”
I guess I must have missed something – and here I thought I was paying attention.
Care to expand on that comment a bit, mort?
mortimer says
One motivated soldier is worth ten unmotivated soldiers. What motivates ISIS is the certainty of Islamic belief. The answer is to undermine Islamic belief and show it is groundless nonsense.
Westman says
You are exactly right, Mortimer,
But doing so would have a social and economic cost beyond acceptance by business and the socially elite who cannot bear to give up the current Circus. Instead they deny the cause, and attempt to pass the unthinkable solution to the future generations. The West has Islamic allies in the ME that will ultimately be like savoring a sweet jawbreaker that has a poisonous center. Oil is a moral poison.
Angemon says
So… Where’s the “red line”?
Jack Holan says
The UN Security Council can’t be too “outraged”! After all 1/4mm dead, how many mil displaced, no figures for civilian dead from Coalition Air Campaign(its a miracle) but if the UN truly was outraged they would have authorized use of Force just as in Korea. Today they they are basically talk and pansies. UNIFIL don’t use your weapons UNDORF they ran for their lives after capture they too didn’t use their weapons. The Force in 2006 to keep missiles out of the hands of Hamas, stellar job, now there are 100k
Jack Holan says
The WH correspondents should bring a life-size cutout of Bagdad Bob at Monday’s briefing and put him at the podium.
Don McKellar says
What a masterpiece that would be if somebody could pull that off. It would be legendary!
Don McKellar says
If Obama’s new buzz acronym is HVE (Homegrown Violent Extremists) what does he call these people who come from other countries to join the Islamic State? Are they FVE’s? Foreign Violent Extremists? Are the ones who actually started out in Iraq and Syria NVE (Native Violent Extremists)? I guess ISIS has a mix of HVE’s and FVE’s added to their NVE’s. Or I guess in Obama speak it’s ISIL’s HVE’s and FVE’s and NVE’s. No, wait, he’s now got his stooges like Kerry calling them Daesh, as that’s more acceptable to Islamic supremacists who don’t approve of these particular Islamic supremacists. So ISIS > ISIL > Daesh has NVE’s and HVE’s and FVE’s. NONE OF WHOM HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH ISLAM. Now I’m starting to get it.
Westman says
Bingo!
Yes , Don.
Islamic extremism has nothing to do with Islam. How did Orwell see Western government so clearly?
I’m going to drink a glass of water that has nothing to do with H2O, take a nap that has nothing to do with sleep, and have a pleasant dream of the Kabba being snatched by aliens that will have nothing to do with fantasy.
Judi says
No, he’ll lump them all together and call it the JV team!
particolor says
But was Mo one of the three Stooges ? I’m all confused now ??
profitsbeard says
A marching force of inspired maniacs needs to be crushed quickly because it cascades out of control unpredictably, gaining numbers as it gains victories in a bloodthirsty feedback loop.
Lenin and Hitler began with small bands of fanatics and intimidated by terror into great (and vastly destructive and horrific) power within the lifetimes of people now watching this current Muslim madness metastasize.
While Mohammad’s example is most gruesome historical paradigm for the resurgent retrograde monstrosity of militant Islam.
Baby rattlesnakes in their nest are fairly easily killed. A landscape sown with full-grown rattlers becomes exponentially harder to stop.
Expunge ISIS now -with relatively few casualties on Civilization’s side -or lose millions later to merely do the same damned thing.
nacazo says
It’s the JV, stupid!
RonaldB says
“The push came as the U.N. Security Council expressed “outrage” at all the attacks against civilians in Syria, including those involving shelling and barrel bombs — bombings that have reportedly been used extensively in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and other areas in recent days, leaving many civilians dead.”
It’s not so clear to me if the Security Council is outraged at ISIS or at the Syrian government. Seeing as how the Syrian government was a secular government that more-or-less kept the Islamists in check and controlled it’s territory, protecting its Christians, I would guess the condemnation is for the Syrian government.
I also still think it’s problematic as to whether the US has an interest in intervening in force there. The US showed itself to be completely inept in trying to manipulate the politics of the region. The Syrian government killed thousands of its citizens who rebelled, but on the whole, it was better than any alternative.
I think the best we can hope for is to have smaller, cohesive principalities there, probably based on tribes. The Kurdish area has a good chance of staying coherent. There are Shi’ite and Sunni regions of Iraq, and they probably ought to be fighting separately for separate existences. It was crazy to try to integrate a Shi’ite army in a Sunni area, and visa versa.
We need to think through what the US interest is in that area and if it’s really in our interest to send ground troops. If ISIS is really becoming a government, they will be susceptible to diplomatic and economic pressures, the same as Iran. In fact, a strong ISIS might be just the thing to make Iran rethink it’s rampant hostility to the US. I’m not saying we should try to bring that about…just that we need to think very carefully about our self-interest in looking at a war that will drain trillions of dollars and probably tens of thousands of our soldiers.
Davegreybeard says
@RonaldB
“I also still think it’s problematic as to whether the US has an interest in intervening in force there.”
“We need to think through what the US interest is in that area and if it’s really in our interest to send ground troops.”
Problem is Ronald, they are coming HERE to attack US.
Al Qaeda was a big enough problem for us to invade Afghanistan and take them out, ISIS is more dangerous by a factor of ten, at least. See the comment above about a nest of baby rattle snakes – the problem is metastasizing. It is absolutely in our interest to cut these barbarians down, the sooner the better.
It’s not just the Americans that will be killed; we could afford to lose a million or two without a hiccup. And it’s not the infrastructure that will be destroyed; we could survive just fine without a power plant, or a dam or a refinery or two, it’s the TERROR that will destroy our economy and faith in government that’s the problem. Recall what happened to the stock market after 9/11, our transportation system and our economy in general.
And Barry probably won’t do anything, so we are about to have a BIG problem.
But that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to pretend that ISIS is not a huge and growing threat that we WILL have to deal with sooner or later.
Jay Boo says
Off topic
Saudi Arabia declares right to defend itself (like Israel did ) against those shooting SCUD missiles at its cities.
Oh My
They are going to be in real big trouble with Western leftists because Muslims are behind the missile launchers.
The Infidel says
No Robert, you must get with the politically allowed terms.
It is workplace violencers, jv team, who have grievences against the white privileged cis gendered get off your high horse Christians and irrelevant Jews.
Please turn yourself into your nearest re-education camp for retraining.
Joking of course.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
I don’t wanna criticize Prez Barack Hussein just cuz I’m a small government conservative, but how is the program going to create high paying richly rewarding jobs over there in the Levant?