Bombing Iraq

[SdK]

Then they would be Dionisis!

[_33]

You know what is far more dangerous to us than ISIS?  This constant bickering.  Let's agree that everyone is entitled to their own point of view, recognize the validity of their view, and agree to disagree.  Let's drone strike this bickering off the face of the earth.

[ben ji]

If there isn't already (and I think there are), there needs to be U.S. military advisers working with the Kurds at all times, intelligence assets need to be assigned full time to helping the Kurds, and we need to be supplying and arming the Kurds to the hilt so they can protect themselves against these guys.

I'm a big fan of the Kurds as they seem to be pretty reasonable, but do we really need to resort to large scale weapon shipments?

Pretty much anytime we hand out guns in the region everything goes to hell. Syria/ISIS.....Libya/Benghazi....Afghanistan/Muhjahadeen..Iraq/Iran war(Both sides).

About the only "Success" we have had handing out guns is our strong relationship with Saudi Arabia(Who also happens to be the most radical of all)

[steve dave]

We hand our shitloads of guns to Israel. That one has been pretty successful.

[ben ji]

We hand our shitloads of guns to Israel. That one has been pretty successful.

No arguing that.

I was just referring to our history of arming dissident Muslim/Arab groups in the region.

[CNS]

handing out guns to Kurds should be the first thing we do now.  Supposedly, the Kurd militia was on equal ground with ISIS both in numbers and weapons until the ISIS guys raided some weapons stash left over from us being in country and now the ISIS guys have the advantage.  Even the playing field and let Kurds do their thing, IMO.  Maybe even do more than level the playing field and just give the Kurds a eff load more and be done?  Seems reasonable to do this so that we aren't entangled for when Russia gets real(not that Russia will actually result in military stuff, but we need to have the illusion of capability for threats and stuff).

[ben ji]

handing out guns to Kurds should be the first thing we do now.  Supposedly, the Kurd militia was on equal ground with ISIS both in numbers and weapons until the ISIS guys raided some weapons stash left over from us being in country and now the ISIS guys have the advantage.  Even the playing field and let Kurds do their thing, IMO.  Maybe even do more than level the playing field and just give the Kurds a eff load more and be done?  Seems reasonable to do this so that we aren't entangled for when Russia gets real(not that Russia will actually result in military stuff, but we need to have the illusion of capability for threats and stuff).

Kurds are awesome and would definitely kick some ass with some Grade A Made In the US of A guns.

I'm just saying maybe we should sit on this Piping Hot Grade A Weaponry a little bit longer and think through every possible negative consequence that may happen if we arm the kurds.

[Emo EMAW]

They kill a few more Turks?

Sent using Tapatalk Elite on iPhone 6

[CNS]

handing out guns to Kurds should be the first thing we do now.  Supposedly, the Kurd militia was on equal ground with ISIS both in numbers and weapons until the ISIS guys raided some weapons stash left over from us being in country and now the ISIS guys have the advantage.  Even the playing field and let Kurds do their thing, IMO.  Maybe even do more than level the playing field and just give the Kurds a eff load more and be done?  Seems reasonable to do this so that we aren't entangled for when Russia gets real(not that Russia will actually result in military stuff, but we need to have the illusion of capability for threats and stuff).

Kurds are awesome and would definitely kick some ass with some Grade A Made In the US of A guns.

I'm just saying maybe we should sit on this Piping Hot Grade A Weaponry a little bit longer and think through every possible negative consequence that may happen if we arm the kurds.

OK.  What if we give them a head spinning amount of Grade B stuff, tho?

[ben ji]

handing out guns to Kurds should be the first thing we do now.  Supposedly, the Kurd militia was on equal ground with ISIS both in numbers and weapons until the ISIS guys raided some weapons stash left over from us being in country and now the ISIS guys have the advantage.  Even the playing field and let Kurds do their thing, IMO.  Maybe even do more than level the playing field and just give the Kurds a eff load more and be done?  Seems reasonable to do this so that we aren't entangled for when Russia gets real(not that Russia will actually result in military stuff, but we need to have the illusion of capability for threats and stuff).

Kurds are awesome and would definitely kick some ass with some Grade A Made In the US of A guns.

I'm just saying maybe we should sit on this Piping Hot Grade A Weaponry a little bit longer and think through every possible negative consequence that may happen if we arm the kurds.

OK.  What if we give them a head spinning amount of Grade B stuff, tho?

Soviet bloc countries have warehouses full of Grade B stuff for like free.

If ben ji's dad can buy a surplus russian rifle from WW2 for $100 I'm sure the kurds can figure something out.

Maybe instead of covertly giving them guns we covertly help them sell their oil? (I have not thought this all the way through, just spitballing on what we could do instead of just airdropping some Grade A Primo Weaponry)

[CNS]

Covertly selling oil is exactly what ISIS is doing now.

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

[ednksu]

handing out guns to Kurds should be the first thing we do now.  Supposedly, the Kurd militia was on equal ground with ISIS both in numbers and weapons until the ISIS guys raided some weapons stash left over from us being in country and now the ISIS guys have the advantage.  Even the playing field and let Kurds do their thing, IMO.  Maybe even do more than level the playing field and just give the Kurds a eff load more and be done?  Seems reasonable to do this so that we aren't entangled for when Russia gets real(not that Russia will actually result in military stuff, but we need to have the illusion of capability for threats and stuff).

Kurds are awesome and would definitely kick some ass with some Grade A Made In the US of A guns.

I'm just saying maybe we should sit on this Piping Hot Grade A Weaponry a little bit longer and think through every possible negative consequence that may happen if we arm the kurds.

OK.  What if we give them a head spinning amount of Grade B stuff, tho?

Soviet bloc countries have warehouses full of Grade B stuff for like free.

If ben ji's dad can buy a surplus russian rifle from WW2 for $100 I'm sure the kurds can figure something out.

Maybe instead of covertly giving them guns we covertly help them sell their oil? (I have not thought this all the way through, just spitballing on what we could do instead of just airdropping some Grade A Primo Weaponry)

we're overtly helping them sell oil right now
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-the-us-got-mixed-up-in-a-fight-over-kurdish-oil--with-a-unified-iraq-at-stake/2014/08/04/4a00a6e2-1900-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html

[ednksu]

And we shouldn't have too many issues arming the Kurds as long as they don't get frisky with the Turks.  But when the Kurds and Turks are working together, you know ISIS is a mumped up group which needs to be deaded. 

[ben ji]

And we shouldn't have too many issues arming the Kurds as long as they don't get frisky with the Turks.  But when the Kurds and Turks are working together, you know ISIS is a mumped up group which needs to be deaded.

There shouldn't be too many issues arming the mujahadeen, they are fighting the Russians who totally suck.

There shouldn't be too many issues arming the Iranians, they are our best ally in the region and the shah is our man.

Their shouldn't be too many issues arming the Iraqi's, they are fighting those cocksuckers from Iran.

There shouldn't be too many issues arming the Libyan rebels, they hate ghaddafi too!

There shouldn't be any issue arming the Syrian rebels, they are fighting against Assad who is a maniac who gasses his own people.

[CNS]

Consistency is important.

[ednksu]

Our alliance with the Kurds is radically different than all those groups you've listed.  We've cultivated a relationship with them for decades.  We know they are no extremists (mostly).  We are basing an alliance with them off mutual interests rather than an "enemy of my enemy" pragmatic relationship.  The Kurds have had ample opportunity to toss many wrenches in American foreign policy goals for decades and have been willing participants in may of America's longer term actions.  Key thing to show they are different, they haven't declared an independent state in northern Iraq/southern Turkey, pretty much at the behest of American interests.  If you ware willing to give up state sovereignty, you're probably a pretty good ally.

[ednksu]

And ben ji, half of your examples aren't that great.

The US did have a great ally in the Shah's Iran.  Was he a rough rider? Yes, but did Iran mostly prosper?  Well, yes, kinda.  Surely a crap load better than the Islamist regime.

The Muj and Iraqi in the 80s are clearly mistakes which were more pragmatic mistakes rather than pronounced failures in picking allies.  By that I mean we failed totally in character judgement, but it was a relationship of pragmatism IMO, rather than a failure in picking a true ally. 

The Libyan rebels is debatable since we didn't arm them or help them out as much as many other western nations did (France).  Its a little too convenient to lay that America's doorstep instead of NATO's or western Europe. 

And the test isn't really finished for Syria.  If we have worked with the moderate FSA earlier the entire region would look much different than it does today.  It just shows you how many times the US has failed to pick the right groups early and support them with the correct amount of enthusiasm. 

[ben ji]

And ben ji, half of your examples aren't that great.

The US did have a great ally in the Shah's Iran.  Was he a rough rider? Yes, but did Iran mostly prosper?  Well, yes, kinda.  Surely a crap load better than the Islamist regime.

The Muj and Iraqi in the 80s are clearly mistakes which were more pragmatic mistakes rather than pronounced failures in picking allies.  By that I mean we failed totally in character judgement, but it was a relationship of pragmatism IMO, rather than a failure in picking a true ally. 

The Libyan rebels is debatable since we didn't arm them or help them out as much as many other western nations did (France).  Its a little too convenient to lay that America's doorstep instead of NATO's or western Europe. 

And the test isn't really finished for Syria.  If we have worked with the moderate FSA earlier the entire region would look much different than it does today. It just shows you how many times the US has failed to pick the right groups early and support them with the correct amount of enthusiasm.

Agreed

Our alliance with the Kurds is radically different than all those groups you've listed.  We've cultivated a relationship with them for decades.  We know they are no extremists (mostly).  We are basing an alliance with them off mutual interests rather than an "enemy of my enemy" pragmatic relationship.  The Kurds have had ample opportunity to toss many wrenches in American foreign policy goals for decades and have been willing participants in may of America's longer term actions.  Key thing to show they are different, they haven't declared an independent state in northern Iraq/southern Turkey, pretty much at the behest of American interests.  If you ware willing to give up state sovereignty, you're probably a pretty good ally.

We never felt the need to ship the kurds some Primo Hot Guns until we both found a common enemy.

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

John McCain was right.

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

Huh, I guess even the President can have his tee time bumped by bad weather. Kinda funny that this so rare it consitutes news. Obama Spends Morning On Foreign Policy Crisis. I think the headline maybe meant to say "Obama Spends Morning in Crisis Over His Foreign Policy."

[Dugout DickStone]

Huh, I guess even the President can have his tee time bumped by bad weather. Kinda funny that this so rare it consitutes news. Obama Spends Morning On Foreign Policy Crisis. I think the headline maybe meant to say "Obama Spends Morning in Crisis Over His Foreign Policy."

Have you seriously never submitted this gold to the Onion or something?