ISIL War in Iraq and Syria

[Lord of Nihilism]

I think it's fairly certain that we can quell the "rumours" of Assad and the ISIS rebels being allies, since this incident confirms that Syria is indeed fighting the rebels. If Assad and the rebels are indeed allies like several people claimed, then there wouldn't be conflicts between Syrian soldiers and the rebels. It's also interesting to note that despite American air strikes and "American air superiority", the rebels can still maneuvere quite well in Syria and Iraq, and that they're still capable of fighting the elite Iraqi Army and the battle hardened FSA organisation and the Syrian Army.

It's going to take a lot more than American air superiority to defeat the rebels.

[snuggans]

The western media have a terrible responsibility for the fact that they keep advertising ISIS in that way. Demonising your enemy is common. Happened in ww2. Happened in cold war. Happened in Yugoslavia where the Serbs were partrayed as the bad guys. Happened in 2003 when Saddam was portrayed as a monster. The western public doesnt know details about Iraq or Yugoslavia or why communist rebels are fighting in Vietnam. They are going to believe everything. The current "devils" are the Sunnis in Iraq and Syria(portrayed as ISIS very conveniently). But now, after one year of portraying them as beasts they are winning the war. The propaganda is a two doubled-edged sword. Nazi propaganda portrayed Soviets as monsters trying to convince Germans to stay and fight. Instead millions of them fled from areas in eastern Europe before Soviets arrived out of fear. The same can be said here. Propaganda has portrayed these people as monsters and now that they are winning this has a very demoralising effect

This is a very very dangerous situation. For one year the media sells stories about the brutality of ISIS(real or not)and now these people are winning. Western media have done a huge mistake, in my opinion. If these people win then it will be proved one more time that Islamic fanatics can prevail and that would have very serious global consequences.

you do realize that daesh releases their own videos that advertise how subhuman they are right? it's not a matter of truth or fiction or propaganda or some CNN reporter making an assumption or speculating that daesh is responsible for killing x and y village, they film it themselves. your posts make no sense.

[Facupay]

Palmyra is in IS hands.

It's gonna be Niniveh all over again.

I'm sure they don't even do it because of religious backwardeness but to troll the rest of the world.

[Mithridates II the Great]

Palmyra a couple of hours ago :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I think there is a race between terrorists to reach Damascus and ISIS seems to be winning .

What matters is not Palmyra itself but ISIS next targets , which is believed to be towards Qalamoun to rescue it's besieged forces before Hezbollah gets there .

Syria is not in good situation these days and needs it's allies like 3 years ago .

On the other hand we see 3 Iranian officials visiting Syria and Lebonan in one week and changing Shia Afghan brigade ( Fatemiyoun ) to a full Division and add Hezbollah's massive operation in Qalamoun aiming to eliminate terrorists from there forever that I believe is related to recent incidents .

[Condottiere 40K]

1538
I heard that the Syrians have the local citadel under their control, so if they continue to be supplied, they could probably hold out.

[Denny Crane!]

Palmyra is in IS hands.

It's gonna be Niniveh all over again.

I'm sure they don't even do it because of religious backwardeness but to troll the rest of the world.

Are you actually saying, actually, really, actually...that 4chan is ISIS!!!!

[Kraut and Tea]

I woke up to the news that the islamic savages of ISIS have conquered the ancient city of Palmyra. Most of the reports I have read a very conflicting, some saying that they took it and some saying that they didnt. And I remember very clearly that only a few days ago reports suggested that Syrian regime troops have succesfully repelled an attack by ISIS forces.

So does anyone know what is going on? Did ISIS take Palmyra or not? Is this marvel of the ancient world gone?

Palmyra, in case you dont know, is a marvel. If you were to make a top 100 list of the world greatest, most precious and best preserved archeological sights, Palmyra would definatly make the top 5. It`s were Assyria, Persian, Greek, Roman, Parthian, Sassanid and Islamic culture have mixed over the course of hundreds of years to create one of the worlds greatest and culturaly most unique cities on earth. Losing this place wouldnt be just a loss for Syria culture, but a loss for humanity itself.

Edit: Already a thread about it here, merged. - Aikanár

[Heinz Guderian]

Yea, excuse me if i don't believe anything Hezbollah says. I find it hard to believe with all the fighting going on they have only lost a total of 20 soldiers in this entire offensive.

i've studied Hezbollah extensively these last few years. It seems they "celebrate" martyrs and make their funerals a public spectacle. For example when they were fighting the SLA in the 80s they were quite open about their casualties as well as the 2006 flare up. Observers tallied the announced funeral processions (they are big affairs) with Hezbollah released figures of their casualties from 2006 and found them pretty much spot on. The difference in Israeli claims and Hezbollah claims was probably down to people the Israelis thought were in Hezbollah but may have belonged to a different militia or a civillian. Other claims made immediately by Hezbollah in 2006 were found to be spot on (such as hitting the Israeli ship, the drone, shooting down helicopters, keeping hold of Bint JBeil and other villages, lighting up the Golani brigade). The claims and news were often so accurate, that Israel spent an inordinate amount of time trying to silence Hezbollah's main media stream, which they could not.

Therefore, i find claims made by Hezbollah directly much more reliable than anyone else in the region such as Assad forces, ISIS, al-Nusra, Iraqi forces, Iran, IDF, etc.

[Roma_Victrix]

I remember Snuggans' reasonable argument a couple pages back about why the US shouldn't bomb ISIS forces around Tadmur and Palmyra, seeing how there is no official cooperation between the US and the Syrian Army and the US could also end up bombing the wrong people. However, given that ISIS has just taken Palmyra, I think in hindsight a little goddamn bombing would have been nice. Goodbye Nimrud, Hatra, and now Palmyra...

[Condottiere 40K]

51
Regarding the alliance between the Daeshii and Assad, that's really more of an unspoken understanding that served both their purposes, elimination of more moderate insurrectionists.

It was more of a calculate risk to see if the the Americans would eventually destroy the Daeshii before they could consolidate their position in Syria, and really threaten Assad.

[Derpy Hooves]

Are you actually saying, actually, really, actually...that 4chan is ISIS!!!!

4chan definitely doesn't support ISIS, and on pol they more or less support Assad. They share the same views on Palmyra as we do. There are even a few who share stavs POV

[Rampante-Cid]

Here a video about the current situation in Palmyra: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world...myra-1.2220931

[pajomife]

Palmira is ancient site but don't have many religious monuments ,I think,maybe they don't destroy the columns,anyway they seems to be unstoppable as RNN use to said,by the way where is he?,since the coalition start the attacks they have few set backs ,but still in charge,they chose where and when attack,they don't waste troops in a non hope batlle,I think they learn with kobane.

[Abdülmecid I]

Daesh pretends to destroy everything that reminds them of the idolatry, and I doubt that any jihadist is aware of the difference between Zenobia and Ishtar. On the other hand, Abu-Bakr is a more practical guy than the random lunatic of his army, so I expect every statue, artifica or building part of a reasonable size to be transported soemwhere safe and sold in the black market. It's not a coincidence that in their arcaeological museum of Mosul video, they destroyed only copies or too huge to be moved statues. PR victory, since they convinced a couple of salafists that they are honest at the interpetation of the Quran, while they also profited from the kaffir's cultural heritage.

[snuggans]

I remember Snuggans' reasonable argument a couple pages back about why the US shouldn't bomb ISIS forces around Tadmur and Palmyra, seeing how there is no official cooperation between the US and the Syrian Army and the US could also end up bombing the wrong people. However, given that ISIS has just taken Palmyra, I think in hindsight a little goddamn bombing would have been nice. Goodbye Nimrud, Hatra, and now Palmyra...

the Syrian people have chosen to go down their bloody and hard-headed path, the loss of a few ruins doesn't make me flinch when it's happening on top of hundreds of thousands of deaths. if not bombing Palmyra meant that there were more sorties concentrated on daesh in Ramadi then so be it. Ramadi will be retaken, Palmyra will not.

[Mary The Quene]

Destroying Syria's future is also destroying Syria's future. Destroying these ruins destroys Syria's past proudness and heritage

Daesh has already beheaded several people in Palmyra and yet some people here call them ''rebels''. How much longer untill the vermin will deserve its fate?

Julia Domna would be ashamed of today....

[Papay]

http://news.yahoo.com/islamic-state-...180835308.html

The government lines east of Ramadi have collapsed. I dont think that Baghdad will be endangered but some serious questions are raised here. Why the government of baghdad is so incapable? And how is it possible for the Sunnis to be on the offensive everywhere? Something doesnt make sense

[Mary The Quene]

You mistake the word ''Sunni'' for the word Salafist or Wahhabist here.

The entire ME is ed up. Yet people are going to cry havoc here if Napalm etc was used to stop this vermin.

[Vanoi]

Real easy to advocate the use of incendiary weapons when you are not living in the area getting bombed huh Julia?

[Mary The Quene]

Real easy to advocate the use of incendiary weapons when you are not living in the area getting bombed huh Julia?

I support ISIS getting smashed the fastest way it can. BTW before making comments on me you should know i support that only in unhabitated deserts and nothing more and nothing less. What aren't you thinking??

But again, where are you in the Yemen thread to criticize Saudi Arabia's use of cluster bombs?. Haven't seen you there btw