The US started bombing ISIS

[Are_grits_groceries]

because they were steadily gaining ground against the Peshmerga. The Kurds fighting force is disciplined and fierce but they are outgunned. Iraq just sent a cargo planeload of arms to the Kurds which is unheard of conidering their history.

The US hopes to stabilize the situation in Northern Iraq where the Kurds are. They will cede just about everything else to ISIS. I think everybody was caught off guard by the ease with which ISIS pushed the Peshmerga back.

It is an unholy hot mess and there is no 'right' solution. President Obama will be criticized no matter what he does.

I still fully believe that the US should be really pressuring Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to name 2 countries, that have been arming ISIS. They want a Sunni state as a hedge aginst a Shite region of Iraq and Iran.

They will rue the day they started supplying ISIS because they thmselves are part of the Caliphate that Isis wants to establish. ISIS will get to them at some point.

I also believe the secret squirrels and others are up to something to regain control of the damn. Gawd help them all if it's breached.

FUBAR!
SNAFU!

[politicman]

1. do you really think U.S air strikes will hurt ISIS more than all the other air strikes they endured?

Do you or anyone here really think that airstrikes from the U.S will change anything on the ground in Iraq?

Assad is Syria has his own air force and he has been using it to strike ISIS to no avail. Assad is using barrel bombs with no regard to how many civilian casualties they result in, yet his strikes are unable to stop ISIS advances.

Iraq has been using there air force to use the same kind of bombs plus hellfire missiles which the U.S has supplied to them, and cant stop ISIS advance.

Iran has forces on the ground in Iraq, and they are using their own tactics and weaponry to help the Iraqi government to stop ISIS advance and retake territory, yet they also have been unsuccessful.

The Kurds (we have been told again and again) who are some of the most organised and dedicated fighters in the region, have fallen back from many towns now and requested the U.S and other forces to help them just defend their capital of Erbil.

What damage does anyone thing the U.S can do to ISIS with its air force that all these other forces with their combined air and ground forces couldn't do?

IMO, air strikes wont accomplish anything, ISIS is not like the governments of all countries, they don't rely on government buildings to prop up their self imposed caliphate, they don't rely on modern structures to do their command and control from, they don't have all the visible targets that normal governments have.

ISIS is like a guerrilla force, able to blend into the local population at will but still be strong enough to be battling Iraq, Syria and the Kurd's at the same time, even when these 3 forces are receiving aid and help from Iran and Russia.

[ladjf]

2. IMO, the A-10 "warthog" is much better suited for dealing with

the type of weapons used by ISIS. Cheaper and more deadly to the armed pickup trucks.

[Sunlei]

3. yes, they showed one blast on a convoy traveling to another town. All I can think about is the 100s

of woman/girls ISIS men took when they pillaged/looted the last small towns they passed through. A lot of innocents were killed in that convoy

perhaps they can work something out with allowing issis men to go back to where they came from if they release the people they kidnapped. give them an out option, before they all go out in some blaze of stupid glory by blowing that major dam they hold.

[Sunlei]

4. yes, whoever arms ISIS..if it is Russia or Cheney gun-Dubai- Corp or whoever,out them!

cut off airline flights to whatever country is arming terrorists already!

[flamingdem]

5. I think Quatar is not helping Isis

they are helping Hamas, thus Shites, their leader is located there.