Fighting Back With Propaganda

This is not what you think it is:

link in case the video doesn't load

It's actually pretty good anti-ISIS propaganda

My strategy...what's yours?

"On the ground these days, ISIS is engaged in a war of inches that will likely test its capacity to the limits, like its (lack of) ability to manage and operate supply lines, for example. The poor training and quality of its fighters will also now matter more. And the absence of dramatic victories, indeed the reality of setbacks and retreats, will reduce the enthusiasm and undercut the morale of current fighters, to say nothing of the impact on potential recruits.

This may be one reason why ISIS has apparently shifted to prioritize attacks like the Paris horror. It likely needs the acts of drama and violence to replace the revolutionary theater that its military advances once gave it. Running wild through the streets, gunning down the crowds in a night club: This is fantasy violence, video games brought into the real world. ISIS is again the coolest of jihadi brands, the cutting edge of the war against the real. The intent is not so much to terrorize the West as to galvanize the faithful.

Understanding ISIS’ methods can help us counter its aims. One key for us: to step up the grim war of attrition against ISIS on the ground. Life for the average ISIS fighter has to become a miserable affair of holing up, getting shot, running out of food, and putting up with bad medical care and low supplies even as the higher-ups live it up in the ruins of Raqqa. That word needs to filter out across the jihadi grapevine. To cut the flow of recruits and funds to ISIS, we must make ISIS look unattractive and weak—drab. If at the same time we work aggressively to reduce its ability to repeat the Paris attacks, ISIS will continue to fade."

http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/11/16/how-to-beat-isis-the-president-is-partly-right/

"While the U.S. and France have ramped up airstrikes against Islamic State targets, both countries have ruled out deploying ground troops in Syria in the midst of a civil war."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-16/france-widens-crackdown-at-home-as-bombs-rain-on-islamic-state

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I think this is the way to go. We've lost enough soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Besides, The Muslims do better at crazed savagery than us. Let us do supplies and air support and let the Shia and Sunni take it to the mat. If Russia wants in on the ground fight, more power to them.

US talks with regional actors about how to push IS out of Mosul

(Click map to enlarge.)

"The IS capture of al-Rutba  has given the terrorist group “a direct shot to the Saudi border and the Jordanian border,” the official said, while the Iraqi-Syrian border at al-Qaim is “basically gone. … This is a tremendous threat to everybody, and it is really sharpening the minds.” Asked if the United States had directly discussed the IS threat with the Syrian regime, the US official said “not that I’m aware of.”"

Maliki to aid Kurds against ISIS in the north

Mosul Dam

The Iraqi government has finally come to the aid of the beleaguered Kurds in their fight against ISIS. Prime Minister Maliki, alarmed by a string of ISIS victories in the north, sent his air force to support the Kurds.

The air force began by bombing targets Sinjar, the most significant town captured by ISIS in the region so far. It then expanded its operations to a broader area, before returning to Baghdad.

Apparently, fear of seeing ISIS gain control of Iraq’s largest dam spurred Maliki into action. The dam remains under the control of the Kurdish fighters for now. But these fighters still lack ammunition, thanks to the unwillingness of Baghdad and Washington to provide them with it [my emphasis].

Hydro-electricity may be one driver of Baghdad’s policy, but oil is the primary one. The Maliki government and the Kurds are embroiled in a legal war over the sale of crude oil from the Kurdish region. Until now, it seems, Maliki has been willing to use the threat of ISIS to coerce the Kurds into turning oil revenue over to Baghdad.

The Obama administration has sided with Maliki. Its position, as stated by Brett McGurk, is that the oil belongs to the entirety of Iraq and that, consistent with the Iraqi constitution, the revenue should be shared.

This position may be reasonable in the abstract. In practice, however, it gives Maliki the whip hand, even though he has shown little regard for the constitution or the rights of minority groups like the Kurds. Ironically, Maliki’s abuses towards Kurds and Sunnis generally were the Obama administration’s excuse for not doing more to help his government fight ISIS.

-Powerline

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Is there an upside to allowing Iraq to to fall to the Sunni?

 A big criticism of the Iraq War was that it unbalanced the mutual animosity between Iraq and Iran, throwing majority-Shiite Iraq into the arms of Shiite Iran. 

On the other other hand, ISIS-controlled Iraq would make Iran look like Ghandi and perhaps hasten their acquisition of nuclear weapons.

ISIS closing in on Baghdad

This video of Lindsey Graham being interviewed by Gloria Borger and Dana Bash is keyed to the eight minute mark. I like Graham a lot, and appreciate his Southern
sensibilities. He puts me in mind of Mark Twain. He is explaining to them why it is
important that the US, rather than Iran, be the one to save Baghdad. It is amazing how far the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS or IS] has gotten:

"...The fight for Jurf al-Sakhar within what U.S. forces in Iraq once called the "Triangle of Death"—a major combat zone during the American occupation—shows how Iraqi forces are struggling to stave off the insurgents encroaching on the capital.

While in the north the government has blunted the Islamic State's drive toward the capital beyond Tikrit, the militants are pushing the frontline toward Baghdad from the south.

Jurf al-Sakhar is a case in point. Iraqi military officials say majority Sunni towns in the province bordering Baghdad in the south, such as Jurf-al-Sakhar, have become command posts for the Islamic State, an al Qaeda spinoff that used to call itself the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham ['Syria'].

...Iraqi forces are focused on repelling a militant advance south from Tikrit to Samarra, which lies on the highway to Baghdad. "We are trying our best not to have civilian casualties," the official said.

The Islamic State is now targeting roads and installations in Samarra, in Salehddine province, where the bombing of a Shiite shrine in 2006 started the country's violent descent into sectarian bloodshed. The government is hitting back with airstrikes, the official said. Military officials believe Samarra is the Islamic State's next big target in their attempt to push southward toward Baghdad.

A new Islamic State [graphic] video that circulated online on Monday purportedly showed scenes of execution of Iraqi soldiers in an apparent warning to the forces of what awaits them if they press on their fight. One commander in the video tells fighters the takeover of Samarra would be part of a successful campaign at the end of which heaven in paradise awaits them.

Islamic State militants on Tuesday blew up a bridge over a Tirgris River tributary that connects Samarra to Tikrit in what a local security official described as a spectacular operation started under the cover of dark a day earlier. Militants swam up to the bridge and wove explosives all along one outer side of the bridge, the official said. When the bridge exploded, a manned army checkpoint positioned there plunged into the water."

-WSJ
-LWJ