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Arabia
Time to widen scope of anti-IS operation
2014-09-24
[ARABNEWS] I write this week safely from New York, where the focus of many meetings this year at the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
is on fighting terrorism, in particular how to defeat the so-called Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(IS). One of the main topics is how much IS is being nourished by the support it receives from the citizens of the same countries involved in the coalition to defeat it.
Posted by:Fred

#1  The U.S. went after two terrorist groups, ISIS and a new terrorist group called Khorasan. What is concerning is what is not known rather than what is known. What is largely unknown are the following:
1. Who is the group Khorasan who recently just showed up as an immediate threat to the U.S. and European countries? Just the other day, the Director of Homeland Security assured the American people that there were no immediate threats to the homeland.
2. News indicates there is a coalition of some 50 countries allied against terrorism in Syria and Iraq. Who are these 50 countries? Little has been mentioned about who these countries are.
3. Aircraft and Tomahawk missiles struck targets in Syria with the apparent blessing of Assad. This is understandable since the terrorists are also enemies of Assad. Recently, in the not too distant past, Obama wanted to bomb Assad's forces.
4. The coalition of Arab countries are Sunni: SA, UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, and Qatar. Turkey will be coming into this coalition according to Kerry. A large problem is that some of these coalition members have funded and supported the terrorists. Did these Arab members of the coalition actually participate in the air raids on terrorists? It seems that being able to mention there are Arab coalition members is more political gingerbread than anything else.
5. ISIS continues without much of a crimp in its murderous ways. They number ~ 30,000. If we really wanted to wipe out this group of terrorists, it would seem that we would be hitting them in Iraq as well as Syria. Nearly all former ranking military have said boots on the ground will be required to wipe out Isis.
6. Before and after photos were shown at a recent public briefing. “After” photos of struck targets show very minimal damage to buildings, structures. No photos were shown of destroyed equipment. It also seems that efforts were made to avoid targeting terrorists during these strikes. This can’t be a serious effort to wipe out ISIS.
7. It strikes me as more election year politics than a war on terror.
Posted by: JohnQC   2014-09-24 09:18  

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