ISIS attacks Kurds, gets its ass handed to it.

[Recursion]

That's pretty much my summary of the latest Iraq/Syria news.

Teachable moment: do not attack the Kurds if staying alive is something you value.

I'm sure the US and NATO want to take credit for this, but frankly this was a clear ground combat defeat of ISIS, at the hands of the Kurdish defense militias.

[MoonRiver]

1. Excellent news!

[SkyDaddy7]

8. YES, it is!!

This is not only excellent news for the Kurds but also for the idea that we can work with forces ALREADY ON THE GROUND rather than fall for the idea that the US has to send in ground troops.

[Cha]

2. "I'm sure the US and NATO want to take credit for this.." Not necessarily..

Mutlu Civiroglu @mutludc
Follow
Spksmn of #YPG Polat Can: YPG cn be a major prtner on the ground & play an essential role in fight agnst ISIS #Kobani

5:21 PM - 15 Oct 2014

http://theobamadiary.com/2014/10/15/fantrum/

"ISIS attacks Kurds, gets its ass handed to it."

[Recursion]

3. Fair enough

My point was the ISIS advance was stopped dead the second it entered into Kurdish territory.

[Cha]

4. And, a good point it is, Recursion.. I posted these tweets because it shows how brave the

Kurds are.. and inspiring! I want them to keep safe!

[Tweedy]

30. The Kurds are brave

... And we dropped a ton of bombs. Give some credit to our bombers.

[aquart]

9. Hopefully they were waiting for a Kurdish woman

to strangle him with his own entrails.

Seen any Yazidi women lately? Any Yazidi men?

[Turborama]

11. That was a good read. Thanks for sharing.

[Cha]

42. You're Welcome, Turbo!

Nice to see ya!

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. Good news.

The Iraqi army should be embarrassed for its cowardice.

[belzabubba333]

7. yes this

The Iraqi army should be embarrassed for its cowardice

[aquart]

6. YAAYYYYYYYY!

I am, as always, pro Kurd.

[Turborama]

10. Thanks for the heads up

Off to LBN to see if there's any updates there...

[ReRe]

12. I totally agree, recursion

Of that whole God-forsaken bunch over there in Iraq, the Kurds stick out as the good guys, the brave ones, the most civilized.

[s-cubed]

13. But, but, the YPG is a terrorist organization!

And they have women in combat roles!

[Fred Sanders]

15. They are only terrorizing in Turkey, so it is all good with them and us now, ya see....

And since when did ?Americans give a shit about the Kurds and some dusty border town being taken over?

Oh, yeah, since the media demanded we think that.

[Fred Sanders]

14. But WE were losing...WE needed ground troops...it was demanded by the media....now what?

Where we lied to again? And the folks keep coming back for more....how the media moguls must laugh.....

[Recursion]

16. Are you asking me? (nt)

[Fred Sanders]

17. No, just asking, rhetorically.

[LittleBlue]

18. With the help of 39 airstrikes in 48 hours

Without the US/NATO the ISIS fighters had taken half the city from the Kurds. The airstrikes killed hundreds of ISIS reinforcements and stopped supplies.

This victory goes to the US more than anything.

[Recursion]

19. Maybe. But we've been airstriking in favor of southern Iraq for years now

Whereas these guys are actually delivering the goods.

[Fred Sanders]

24. Give me 20 air strikes a day and I could kick anybodies ass. Without them the Kurds lose the town.

Which is in Syria, by the way, there is no Kurdistan, it is a Syrian town.

[tabasco]

43. Really? You've been in the infantry?

You sound pretty tough.

[Kaleva]

40. Air superiority working with effective ground forces makes for a winning combination.

[meow2u3]

20. The Iraqi Army can sure use the Kurds to fight IS

They don't take shit from anyone!

The women are just as tough as the men, if not tougher. ISIS has really met its match.

[Bosonic]

21. Also thanks to Turkey for unhelpfully just blocking/watching/teargassing

[Recursion]

22. I've been reading Sun Tzu for twenty years now

I started when I was a PFC because reading it helped you get Lance Corporal. I've read it ever since because it deserves revisiting. Great writer.

[Fred Sanders]

23. The Kurds have killed and kidnapped many Turks over the years near the border, you knew that?

[Bosonic]

28. Kobani Syrian Kurds?

[The Magistrate]

29. I Doubt Many Here Are Unaware Of That, Sir

That there has been a revolution against rule from Istanbul underway among the Kurds of Anatolia at varying levels of intensity for several decades is pretty much general knowledge, and one would at least hope anyone commenting here on the general subject would be aware of that, and aware as well that insurrections and civil wars are general quite vicious in character.

[Sognefjord]

46. The Kurds of Anatolia were also helpful in eliminating the Armenians who once lived there.

A genocide to remember which is lurking in the background largely unrecalled.

[The Magistrate]

47. Let Me Know When You Have A Point Of Some Sort, Sir

Because I suspect the role the Kurds played in that is also something just about everyone commenting here is aware of, too....

[Sognefjord]

48. Not necessarily.

Hitler was right on that point. He once asked some his close associates sometime around The Wahnfried Conference, "Who nowadays remembers the Armenians?"

[The Magistrate]

49. So In Short, Sir, You Have No Point

I would have a hard time thinking off-hand of any identifiable ethnic group against which some charge of past slaughter might not be laid....

[Sognefjord]

50. I suppose my point is more of a question.

And it is: Why are we still involved in any of this? It's something like getting deeper and deeper into the briar patch. Surely you can see my concern since you appear to be a reasonable individual.

[Recursion]

35. Yeah, getting your own country is rarely pretty

I'm not unaware of that.

[msanthrope]

25. The Kurds are a force to be reckoned with, and good allies for us. nt

[louis-t]

26. And they did it with limited resources and

they were outnumbered.

[Recursion]

27. Yep

They did more with the pittance we give them than the Iraqi army did with $billions.

First rule of warfare: reinforce success.

[The Magistrate]

33. They May Run Up Against 'Murphy's Laws Of Combat' Soon, Sir

"If you take more than your fair share of objectives, you will be given more than your fair share of objectives to take."

[Recursion]

34. Possibly, but they've been pretty good about that. The Kurds are in this for the Kurds

And, frankly, given the way every single other country has treated them, I can't blame them one bit.

We are allies of convenience for them, but as long as we are, I'm more than glad they're with us rather than against us.

[Chathamization]

31. Weren’t the Peshmerga supposedly helpless confronting unstoppable ISIS (1/8 their size)?

The YPG is ~1/4 of the size of the Peshmerga, and I doubt as well funded.

[Recursion]

32. "Funny", isn't it?

Yeah, AFAIK those numbers are still right. The YPG defend themselves at a pretty basic and brutal level, and they do it well.

[Chathamization]

37. Seems to fit with the idea that “ISIS” is a collection of militant groups that operate in Sunni Arab

areas, with little strength to take much territory from other groups besides some small border towns here and there. At the moment, it appears that concerns over the fall of Irbil or the fall of Baghdad were overblown (though I wouldn’t be surprised if some militants had a presence in the Sunni Arab parts of the city).

[underpants]

36. Was this against ISIS's Chechnyens?

If so that is even a bigger win.

Forgive my spelling

[rollin74]

38. K & R. I have great respect for the Kurds

and many of the Kurdish fighters are women which must really bother the daeshbag pigs

p.s. Turkey can fuck off

[Blue_In_AK]

39. I've admired the Kurds for a long time.

I have a Kurdish on line photojournalist friend living in Northern Iraq. He's been keeping me posted on their resistance, although he has recently decided to stop posting his own photos on FB for safety reasons. I can fully understand. I always have to ask him what's going on in the photos he shares because I can't read Arabic, Turkish or Kurdish, which all the comments are written in. I'm glad he knows English.

[deaniac21]

41. Whey?

[undergroundpanther]

44. good for the kurds

The claws of Melek Taus . Hooray Kurds!

[Dirty Socialist]

45. We should give Kurdish Commanders Two Way Radios

So they can call in tactical air support.