Well it's official. The US is bombing ISIS.

I am a huge anti Obama guy. Hate the man, hate his policies, can count the things he's done that I like on one hand. And I have only one thing to say about this. Well freaking done Obama. Great decision. Very well done and you have my full support on this. Please keep it up.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/08/obama-iraq-airsgtrike/13767377/

 

Let's hope its successful..

If you asked Bush or Clinton what THEY would do today, I am sure they would also be conflicted.

It may work and it may all go terribly wrong.

 

It's certainly a difficult decision. Hopefully it helps the Iraqi forces to get some momentum and handle this themselves. I don't see how much can really go wrong, it's not like boots will be on the ground. And as far as Iv heard they militants don't have much in the way of sophisticated anti air weapons so as long as we stick to drones and jets we won't be risking that much.

 

We'll lose in the political arena. This won't last very long.

 

Sounds like a reasonable assessment of the capabilities.. I sure hope you're right.

 

Who will lose?

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Fingers crossed.

 

Let's just hope the neanderthals in ISIS haven't figured out how to use the stinger missiles they captured along the way.

That's all we need, another Blackhawk down.

 

Let's hope that this works out. To be honest, I don't know if I like it.

 

Iraq should have been handled that way from the get-go. From 35,000 feet. No boots.

 

If we send in the Blackhawks, I've totally overestimated the intellect of the Joint Chiefs. If you miss with a 500# bomb from 35,000 feet, get another bomb.

 

I think this was the right decision too. However I think it was a decision that should have occurred about 7 months ago, when Fallujah fell. That was our wake up call, but we unfortunately hit the snooze alarm. Now the problem is many times bigger than it was then and is going to be harder to solve.

 

Were not using helicopters.

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Right?

 

I will consider it as having worked out if we just make ISIS bleed.

 

Incorrect. In 2003 the objective was not to turn back the rampagings of a militant jihadist group. It was to dispose of the former Iraqi government, particularly Saddam, and replace it with a completely new form of government. That required an actual physical presence of US personnel. What happened then and what is happening now are completely different.

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Absolutely right but better late then never is the way I'm looking at it.

 

And what then? A power vaccum for someone else to exploit?

 

Well I think we can all agree beheading children and genocide is not something we want to see play out. Obama has made the right decision for now except I disagree that he should have stated that he would not be sending troops in. You never tell your enemy what your future actions will be. As I stated before I don't know what he is thinking but this is going to keep happening as we all know shock and awe airstrikes really just waste taxpayer dollars if your enemy is entrenched into the communities.
You cant help people that drop their weapons and run. All you can do is go back to war and eliminate the enemy for them or let them all die and then deal with the enemy who will be even more powerful and lives to kill your families.
If you think the last Iraq war was a quagmire, wait until these guys understand no one is going to fight them. Oh wait they were already told that.

 

One of the few things I can agree with Obama on.

 

Wow America will save the world, any proof about that.

 

Isis is not the government of Iraq so by killing them what power vacuum would there be?

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Really? Any opportunity to smack talk the US huh?

 

Yeah. But he did say earlier there would be no airstrikes and now we have airstrikes so maybe it'll work out. I really don't think we need to have boots on the ground. Let the Iraqi ground forces go in and well just drop bombs on the militant convoys, mortar positions and barracks when we find them.

 

ISIS doesn't control just Iraq. They also control parts of Syria. If we attack ISIS, we end up helping Assad as well. And is that something the US wants to do?

 

Are we bombing ISIS in Syria? No were bombing the ones who have come into iraq. And no, ISIS does not control Iraq. They control a portion of the northwest through and they don't actually rule it. They've just recently captured it.

 

Yeah we tried that though, the Iraqi forces dropped their weapons and ran. You cant fix that. We can keep bombing but that's not going to solve anything it will just prolong the carnage.

 

They hold it, and not loosely. They are old school, they conquer, stabilize (resulting in executions and removal of undesirables) then move on. Like it or not, ISIS is a unified front, whereas that cannot be said for Iraqi forces. They are still gaining in Syria as well, so-called moderate militias there surrender their arms and flee, are just destroyed, or join them.

The Syria part is what's troubling. Even if they are expelled from Iraq they still can go back to Syria without much fear of being followed doggedly...

 

It's certainly a possibility. In my opinion the mad retreat of Iraqi forces in the north was mostly do to the shear ferocity and quickness with which the ISIS forces attacked. It's all about how ISIS has been able to be aggressive and mobil during all this. With US air strikes and the stand the Kurds are putting up eventually ISIS's momentum will run out and then it's game over for them. Yes large parts of the Iraqi military have turn and fled but that doesn't mean that ALL of them will do it. There's been a pretty big recruitment binge going on in Baghdad so obviously the people want to defend their homes. And at the very least it will help the Kurds.