Trump takes the fight to ISIS

[C-Mag]

Yes, we should keep an eye on the situation.
I'm all for allying with Russia to take out ISIS. I think we'd be a lot further down that road if every reporter wasn't screaming about Russia every 5 seconds.

Assisting the Free Syrian Army was a complete mess. We know that we helped supply and fund ISIS. We've had 6 years of bad policy on Syria. I'm not sure what Trumps strategy on ISIS is now or how it will develop.

As I said early on McMaster and Mattis are right when they describe the situation like jumping into the middle of a 5 sided argument.

On March 22nd the US will lead a conference of 68 nations for the purpose disassembling ISIS.
On coming to office, US President Donald Trump ordered a review of the military strategy to destroy the ISIL group, and the still-classified report was delivered to him last month.
Tillerson and his fellow foreign ministers will lead the political effort to prepare the ground for stabilizing Iraq and Syrian after the group's last military strongholds are crushed.
"Secretary Tillerson has been crystal clear that defeating ISIS is the State Department's top priority in the Middle East," acting spokesman Mark Toner told reporters on a conference call.
"Defeating ISIS is the start of a process to create...stability in Syria," he said, adding that the meeting will be the largest of the global coalition since its inauguration.
The ministers will update members on progress on the battlefield but also seek new ideas to fight the group's online propaganda, its spread beyond its heartland and recruitment of fighters.
On March 23, after the ministerial meeting, a coalition working group including military officers will meet to flesh out plans.

https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2017 ... n-march-22

[ssu]

Yes, we should keep an eye on the situation.
I'm all for allying with Russia to take out ISIS. I think we'd be a lot further down that road if every reporter wasn't screaming about Russia every 5 seconds.

Assisting the Free Syrian Army was a complete mess. We know that we helped supply and fund ISIS. We've had 6 years of bad policy on Syria. I'm not sure what Trumps strategy on ISIS is now or how it will develop.

As I said early on McMaster and Mattis are right when they describe the situation like jumping into the middle of a 5 sided argument.

I think the fundamental problem is basically that the objective of the US doesn't take (or lets say hasn't taken) into account at the objectives of the various local countries. For others it is a struggle for regional power, not just to get rid of one ISIS. The Turks want to keep the Kurds low and likely would like to create a buffer zone against the Kurds in Syria, the GCC countries are against Iran & Syria creating a Shia crescent in the Middle East. Iran doesn't want one of it's few allies, Syria, to fall. Russia wants it's foothold in the ME and has warm relations to Iran.

The US wants to destroy ISIS... yet hasn't got a clue to what to do otherwise in the situation. What is especially lacking is an answer to what then when ISIS is "destroyed", when the last cities are liberated and the organization goes back to an insurgency. Who then controls the area? Assad? FSA? The Kurds?

It's like a similar problem in Afghanistan, while the US looks at fighting Al Qaeda and Taleban, Pakistan views Afghanistan as part of the play against India.

[C-Mag]

I don't know that we are obliged to have a strategy for the region.
I'm leaning more and more to a long term strategy of just playing wack a mole.

We need to embrace the tribalism of the region and forget WWI borders. I'd hope this would have been done after the conquest of Saddams regime. If we are going to do something in the region, pushing for tribal boundaries is probably smarter.

[Speaker to Animals]

Tribal borders might be interesting, but a more immediate short-term fix could be simply to ally with Russia to restore the Syrian government.

All of this mess was created by the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton. This toppling of governments to create chaos policy should result in war crimes trials, in my opinion. Especially since they were arming and funding what would become ISIS in the first place.

[C-Mag]

Tribal borders might be interesting, but a more immediate short-term fix could be simply to ally with Russia to restore the Syrian government.

All of this mess was created by the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton. This toppling of governments to create chaos policy should result in war crimes trials, in my opinion. Especially since they were arming and funding what would become ISIS in the first place.

That's pretty much how I see it as well.
We also need to get all those idiots on the Senate Arms sub committee, like McCain.

[ssu]

I don't know that we are obliged to have a strategy for the region.
I'm leaning more and more to a long term strategy of just playing wack a mole.

Lol.

Yeah right. Have no strategy. Have no goals. Have no way of achieving those goals that you don't have in the first place.

Just fight in Afghanistan because, it might be a haven for terrorists if you would leave.

Just well, bomb something. Just hunt terrorists. That btw were not there at first.

Have worked so splendidly. Like in Afghanistan, for 15 years.

[C-Mag]

No, just walk out the door. Fuck 'em. Let someone else lead the fight if it needs to be fought so badly.

Fixing shit around the world is not the US's responsibility. Afghanistan and the Middle East was a fucking shit hole before we got deeply involved. We've spent 25 years deeply involved in the region. I'm tired of spending our blood and loot on the shithole and just getting sneers from the rest of the world.

You guys know what to do, go for it.

[SuburbanFarmer]

No, just walk out the door. Fuck 'em. Let someone else lead the fight if it needs to be fought so badly.

Fixing shit around the world is not the US's responsibility. Afghanistan and the Middle East was a fucking shit hole before we got deeply involved. We've spent 25 years deeply involved in the region. I'm tired of spending our blood and loot on the shithole and just getting sneers from the rest of the world.

You guys know what to do, go for it.

Thank you.

[C-Mag]

ISIS is surrendering in droves, they have lost their capital.

How much if any credit does Trump deserve ?

[C-Mag]

Trump Defeats ISIS In Months — After Years Of Excuses From Obama

Nine months after President Trump promised to defeat ISIS "quickly and effectively," U.S.-backed forces captured Raqqa, which until Tuesday had served as the ISIS capital. Trump, not surprisingly, claims it for himself: "It had to do with the people I put in and it had to do with rules of engagement," Trump said in a radio interview.

A former senior military commander in the region told the Washington Examiner that the Obama White House was micromanaging the war "to the degree that it was just as bad, if not worse, than during the Johnson administration." Johnson, you will recall, once bragged that "they can't bomb an outhouse in Vietnam without my permission."...........

Trump made several changes in the way the war was fought, the most important of which were to loosen the rules of engagement and give more decision-making authority to battlefield commanders..............

bottom line is that while Obama preached patience, Trump promised a swift end to ISIS, and then delivered on it.
http://www.investors.com/politics/edito ... ent=social