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From IHS Janes 360
Islamic State territory shrinks by 9.4% in first six months of 2015
The Islamic State’s recent successes in Palmyra and Ramadi came at the expense of significant territorial losses elsewhere, leading to an overall reduction in the territory controlled by the Islamic State of 9.4% in the first six months of 2015. The group’s ‘Caliphate’ now spans an estimated 82,940 km2, according to IHS’s definition of territorial dominance.
Advances by rival Sunni insurgents against forces loyal to President Assad are drawing the Islamic State further into western and southern Syria, as it seeks to position itself for a power struggle in the increasingly likely event of the Alawite government withdrawing to the coast. If the Syrian government is defeated, the conflict will become focused on the battle between the Islamic State and rival Sunni factions for control of major cities, such as Damascus, Aleppo and Homs.
Within the Sunni opposition, factions that are arguably the most organised and effective – al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham – share ...
EDITORIAL COMMENT:- Is it really possible to sell a defeat of ISIS by other "radical 'Islamist' forces" - that have the same goals as ISIS - as a victory for "our side" during the Presidential election campaign? Tune in and find out.
http://www.janes.com/article/53239/islamic-state-territory-shrinks-by-9-4-in-first-six-months-of-2015?utm_campaign=[PMP]_PC5308_J360%2029.7.15_KV_Deployment&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua
Islamic State territory shrinks by 9.4% in first six months of 2015
The Islamic State’s recent successes in Palmyra and Ramadi came at the expense of significant territorial losses elsewhere, leading to an overall reduction in the territory controlled by the Islamic State of 9.4% in the first six months of 2015. The group’s ‘Caliphate’ now spans an estimated 82,940 km2, according to IHS’s definition of territorial dominance.
Advances by rival Sunni insurgents against forces loyal to President Assad are drawing the Islamic State further into western and southern Syria, as it seeks to position itself for a power struggle in the increasingly likely event of the Alawite government withdrawing to the coast. If the Syrian government is defeated, the conflict will become focused on the battle between the Islamic State and rival Sunni factions for control of major cities, such as Damascus, Aleppo and Homs.
Within the Sunni opposition, factions that are arguably the most organised and effective – al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham – share ...
EDITORIAL COMMENT:- Is it really possible to sell a defeat of ISIS by other "radical 'Islamist' forces" - that have the same goals as ISIS - as a victory for "our side" during the Presidential election campaign? Tune in and find out.
http://www.janes.com/article/53239/islamic-state-territory-shrinks-by-9-4-in-first-six-months-of-2015?utm_campaign=[PMP]_PC5308_J360%2029.7.15_KV_Deployment&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua
ISIS
Terrorism
Middle East
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 5
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I'm sure I'm not the only one when I say to kill all these scum-of-the-earth bastards. Kill every last member and wannabe. BUT, unless we kill every living soul over there, there will always be hundreds to eventually take the place of every ISIS or Al Qaeda terrorist soldier killed. i firmly believe this War on Terror will never end. Not as long as there are radical and/or fanatical Muslims.
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COL Ted Mc
SCPO (Join to see) - Senior Chief; If you "eliminate" the radical and/or fanatical Muslims then some other group of radical and/or fanatical wackos will take their place.
If you eliminate the conditions which give rise to radical and/or fanatical wackos then you have solved the problem.
Think of it as similar to attempting to "cure" alcoholism by "going dry". All that does - if you don't resolve the underlying problems which gave rise to the alcoholism in the first place - is cause the alcoholic to adopt a different set of "coping mechanisms". ["Alcoholism" IS a "coping mechanism" - it just isn't a very productive one - because it gives the alcoholic an excuse not to actually deal with their real problem(s).]
If you eliminate the conditions which give rise to radical and/or fanatical wackos then you have solved the problem.
Think of it as similar to attempting to "cure" alcoholism by "going dry". All that does - if you don't resolve the underlying problems which gave rise to the alcoholism in the first place - is cause the alcoholic to adopt a different set of "coping mechanisms". ["Alcoholism" IS a "coping mechanism" - it just isn't a very productive one - because it gives the alcoholic an excuse not to actually deal with their real problem(s).]
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SCPO (Join to see)
COL Ted Mc - Your point is well taken. Your analogy might have one fatal flaw in it, though. AA firmly states that "once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic." A tried and true boozer can go dry for years, and then "fall off the wagon" with one drink. I understand coping mechanisms and underlying problems in your example. However, in this case, we are dealing with millennia-old mind sets formed around religious and cultural traditions, mores, folkways, and fundamental AND fanatical beliefs that have literally created the people, not vice versa. Not in a hundred additional lifetimes will that genetic and hereditary DNA be "cleansed" from people whose world revolves around stones, and rocks, and caves, and deserts, et al. Kill every ISIS, or Taliban, or Al Qaeda member now, and one, just one, of the children we "think" we will have reached with our schools, our clothes, our food, and our 21st Century culturalization, will avenge the death of his great-grandfather OBL, and we are right back in the "shitter." The Russians lost for the same reasons. That's why I say this "war" will never have an end. We cannot nor will anyone ever be able to eradicate centuries-old religious fanaticism. I wish it were not so.
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COL Ted Mc
SCPO (Join to see) - Senior Chief; I am aware of what the AA "doctrine" is on alcoholism - I just happen to think that it's a load of crap.
Not counting the extremely small number of people whose metabolism makes then susceptible to an actual "addiction" to alcohol, the majority of alcoholics become alcoholics because there is something in their lives that they cannot cope with and alcohol gives them the illusion that they are coping with it (even if that coping consists of "I can't do that because I'm an alcoholic.").
Teach those people to ACTUALLY cope with their problems and they don't need the self-destructive coping mechanism any longer.
True, this does mean fewer repeat customers for the therapeutic institutions, but it does result in healthier people.
As to your second point, I think that you are mis-characterizing.
When one of my friends was on assignment in Iraq he had to go to a specific place and he instructed his Iraqi driver on what route he wanted to take. The Iraqi driver refused to take that route because "my family has enemies along that route". On being asked what had happened to create those enemies, my friend learned that the causative incident happened about 500 years ago.
In the Middle East (and much of the "non-European" world) you are dealing with a mindset that has absolutely no difficulty contemplating wars that span multiple generations. If you aren't prepared to engage in a war that is still going to be fought by your Great-great-great Grandchildren, you should think seriously before starting a war in those areas.
Not counting the extremely small number of people whose metabolism makes then susceptible to an actual "addiction" to alcohol, the majority of alcoholics become alcoholics because there is something in their lives that they cannot cope with and alcohol gives them the illusion that they are coping with it (even if that coping consists of "I can't do that because I'm an alcoholic.").
Teach those people to ACTUALLY cope with their problems and they don't need the self-destructive coping mechanism any longer.
True, this does mean fewer repeat customers for the therapeutic institutions, but it does result in healthier people.
As to your second point, I think that you are mis-characterizing.
When one of my friends was on assignment in Iraq he had to go to a specific place and he instructed his Iraqi driver on what route he wanted to take. The Iraqi driver refused to take that route because "my family has enemies along that route". On being asked what had happened to create those enemies, my friend learned that the causative incident happened about 500 years ago.
In the Middle East (and much of the "non-European" world) you are dealing with a mindset that has absolutely no difficulty contemplating wars that span multiple generations. If you aren't prepared to engage in a war that is still going to be fought by your Great-great-great Grandchildren, you should think seriously before starting a war in those areas.
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SCPO (Join to see)
COL Ted Mc - I'm having a real hard time understanding why YOU can't see that we are singing from the same sheet of music on the wars in the Mideast and the War on Terrorism. As for your comments on alcoholism, your dead wrong. One out of twenty people in the US who take their first drink WILL become an alcoholic, per Department of HHS. Your "coping" sermon is falling on deaf ears. But I'm through debating this anymore. Take your arguments elsewhere.
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COL Ted Mc
My question is, what strategic significance does the land that they gave up have? Did they release land that doesn't hold strategic purpose in order to gain land that does? Are they doing this to suck opposing forces in in order to surround & destroy them as they have done in other areas?
I'm still waiting for the chess game to play out. I think their strategists are better than many in the world are giving them credit for.
My question is, what strategic significance does the land that they gave up have? Did they release land that doesn't hold strategic purpose in order to gain land that does? Are they doing this to suck opposing forces in in order to surround & destroy them as they have done in other areas?
I'm still waiting for the chess game to play out. I think their strategists are better than many in the world are giving them credit for.
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