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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from Iraq, Syria and Nigeria

March 10th, 2015 by MOTHAX

 

 

Some good, some bad, some ugly.

Might as well start with the good.  One of the advantages that AQ had over ISIS, the Taliban and other semi-functional militaries was that they were never really consolidated.  They worked exclusively on terror, without having to worry about logistics, or even political intrigue.  Their entire reason for living was to kill Westerners.  The Caliphate though is trying to create a sort of new theological gov't, and hold power.  They have to do it financing for one thing, and their legitamacy sort of depends on it.  Which is why this report from WaPo is good news indeed:

The Islamic State ­appears to be starting to fray from within, as dissent, defections and setbacks on the battlefield sap the group’s strength and erode its aura of invincibility among those living under its despotic rule.

Reports of rising tensions between foreign and local fighters, aggressive and increasingly unsuccessful attempts to recruit local citizens for the front lines, and a growing incidence of guerrilla attacks against Islamic State targets suggest the militants are struggling to sustain their carefully cultivated image as a fearsome fighting force drawing Muslims together under the umbrella of a utopian Islamic state. 

The anecdotal reports, drawn from activists and residents of areas under Islamic State control, don’t offer any indication that the group faces an immediate challenge to its stranglehold over the mostly Sunni provinces of eastern Syria and western Iraq that form the backbone of its self-proclaimed caliphate. Battlefield reversals have come mostly on the fringes of its territory, while organized opposition remains unlikely as long as viable alternatives are lacking and the fear of vicious retribution remains high, Syrians, Iraqis and analysts say.

As soon as you start to gather, you open yourself up to the US strengths, air power, Special Ops guys calling in targets, and all kinds of shock and awe.  Well, ISIS is now running around in a desert, where it's not safe.  So their casualties are going to be higher.  Some become disenchanted in living in the desert and not getting paid, and they desert.  And then it becomes harder to recruit.  

Of course, another way to anger the hell out of people is to destroy their treasured antiquities....

ISIS is continuing to bulldoze its way through the cultural heritage of Iraq and Syria, with the ancient Assyrian capital of Khorsabad apparently the extremist group's latest archaeological victim. Iraq's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said Monday it had received reports that Khorsabad had been destroyed.

"We have warned before and we warn again that those gangs and their sick Takfiri ideology will continue to destroy and steal artifacts as long as there is no strong deterrent," the ministry said in a statement. (A Takfiri is a Muslim who accuses another Muslim of apostasy.)

CNN then goes on to list the sites they are destroying.  I never understood why the Taliban blew up the Buddha statues and no one seemed to take major notice.  When the AQ guys in Mali started doing it, the Senegalese, the French and a host of other partners leapt in and crushed them.  And now, ISIS is doing it here.  If it takes some destruction by ISIS to galvanize everyone against them, I'd rather it happen now.  I don't get why a religious minority trapped on a mountainside being exterminated didn't already highlight how evil these people are, but I guess it's like in the movie "Independence Day" when 18 billion people are getting killed, and everyone in the theater cheered because the dog lived.  Whatever gets us going against these guys = good.

 And we better get moving, because the theater of war is expanding into Nigeria:

By joining ISIS, Nigerian-based Islamic terror group Boko Haram has likely gained unprecedented power, resources and reach, according to intelligence experts.

Boko Haram, which has driven some 3 million people from their homes in northeast Africa over the last five years, slaughtering whole villages, taking women and children slaves, and setting off lethal explosions in densely populated areas, made the announcement it was joining the Middle Eastern group on March 7 on an audio track translated into French and English. Leading terror experts in the U.S. and Africa said the announcement to become a part of ISIS, a group that has horrified the world by beheading, crucifying, stoning, pushing to their death and even burning alive innocent civilians across Syria, Iraq, Libya, Algeria, the Sinai Peninsula, and other parts of the Middle East, has far greater implications than just being a mere symbolic act.

When Boko Haram kidnapped a bunch of young girls, the State Department started some hastag campaign.  I'm not even going to pretend I understood that logic.  But with them now swearing allegiance, maybe we can do someting more direct in the form of actual military involvement.  (Or, I guess more properly, expanded DoD interest.)

And lastly, the ugly.  This makes me super angry, because I love the peshmerga almost as much as I love the Canadians, and believe me, I love me some Canadians.

A Canadian special forces soldier has been killed in a friendly-fire incident after he and others ignored an order to stay in their car and showed up at the frontline unannounced, a spokesman for Iraq’s Kurdish forces has said.

The death on Friday of Sgt Andrew Joseph Doiron marked Canada’s first casualty as part of the US-led coalition’s war on Islamic State (Isis). Canadian officials could not be immediately reached for comment on Sunday on the peshmerga claim, though Canada’s defence minister previously acknowledged Doiron’s death came as a result of “a case of mistaken identity”.

Halgurd Hekmat, a spokesman for Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga, said on Sunday that a group of Canadian soldiers showed up unannounced on Friday at the village of Bashiq, in Iraq’s Nineveh province. The area, near the Isis-held city of Mosul, had seen heavy fighting the previous day.

“When they returned, the peshmerga asked them to identify themselves,” Hekmat told Associated Press. “They answered in Arabic, that’s when peshmerga started shooting.”

Hekmat added that he did not know why the Canadians were there. “I consider it an improper action by the Canadians and illogical,” he said.

Someone needs a better PR guy than Hekmat.  This will not play well in Canada, or anywhere else.  The Peshmerga more than anything else need a bunch of bearded North Americans with radios and easy access to air assets.  Blaming a friendly fire incident on the people there helping you is never a good look.