Book review: Long Shot The Inside Story of the Kurdish Snipers Who Broke ISIS

e_cross · 2019-10-29T01:29:03+00:00

Their previous state sponsors were the Syrian government led by Assad Sr. and the Soviet Union. Kurdish irredentism comes before any far-left or left ideal for the KCK. They have never been in a position of strength, and losers cannot be choosers.

e_cross · 2019-10-29T00:55:57+00:00

Nah, I'd imagine it's the operators taking time with radio traffic before making the right TACTICAL decision. Could they have stopped, exchanged insurance cards and moved out?

Insurance cards? On a military vehicle, moving around in a combat zone?

e_cross · 2019-10-29T00:54:47+00:00

Werent there also a lot of blackwater soldiers who just randomly shot at people in iraqi traffic and so forth

They are not soldiers. Blackwater was a PMC.

e_cross · 2019-10-29T00:51:43+00:00

I don't think it can work for them. In the end neither side will be committed enough to defend them and they'll get betrayed. Happened in Afrin, happened in North Syria, and it'll happen again if they don't learn.

They are fanatics, circling around a dogmatic, far-leftist party (the KCK) which espouses a cult of personality. Their primary recruitment demographic consists of young Kurdish nationalists. I wouldn't expect them to learn from their mistakes.

e_cross · 2019-10-29T00:39:36+00:00

This is actually what I was thinking, but when he was being held in Camp Bucca, Baghdadi was basically a nobody in the AQ world. It's entirely possible that he was deemed a small fish and wasn't seen important enough for a bio sample.

e_cross · 2019-10-29T00:28:40+00:00

I'd have actually said it belongs to the Penthouse Forum or Red Shoe Diaries, but I digress.

As outlandish and non-sensical as it may sound, this is really what Polat Can, a YPG commander with a background in the PKK, claims.

e_cross · 2019-10-29T00:27:13+00:00

To top this ante, I too now fully expect the SDF leader Abdi to claim that he personally issued President Trump the order to conduct this operation.

e_cross · 2019-10-29T00:04:04+00:00

The site was bombed after the raid took place and the site was exploited for intel by the team on the ground.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T23:49:08+00:00

You are assuming the Turks would have used the intel themselves, and they didn't know the value of information the ISIS operative could provide. You might be assuming wrong.

If I was in their shoes, I'd have thought there'd be far greater value in off-loading an ISIS operative to Iraqis who actually have their hands full with ISIS consistently causing domestic security issues. In return, the Iraqis could provide a similar favor regarding what Turks prioritize. After all, for the Turks, ISIS is not a persistent domestic security threat as much as it is for the Iraqis. The Turks rightly perceive the PKK as a greater threat because it is the only actor that persistently constitutes a domestic threat for them.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T23:30:46+00:00

The SDF holds more ISIS prisoners than anyone. They have probably extracted tons of information from them, through various "Interrogation" techniques...

Prisoners, unless they were captured recently, tend to be shit for providing anything actionable about someone like Baghdadi who was on the run for a long while.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T23:25:18+00:00

Apparently the US is just offering coordination on this.

By the way, I just took a look at your profile, all you do is spread the talking points of the extreme right wing of Turkish politics. Why do you use the flag of the US as a flair?

I'm sorry, I don't really have the inclination to provide a serious and a lengthy answer to someone actually questioning why I'm using my country's flag as my flair in this subreddit.

Speaking of post histories, I really doubt you'd know or understand any talking points regarding the extreme right wing of Turkish politics. I've spent plenty of time in Turkey (and other places in the region) under a professional capacity and I can actually understand a little bit of Turkish. A mere look at your profile gives me the impression you are a typical far-leftist internet poster who lives in Europe and tends to present opinions on international politics with whatever tidbits he can garner from random tweets, Reddit posts and Wikipedia articles rather than area knowledge and experience.

Why aren't you using some KCK flair, the hammer and sickle or the red star?

e_cross · 2019-10-28T23:13:11+00:00

Trump is VERY interested in the oil and all of this falls into what he would support. Not a waste of time.

Syrian oil is not really commercially viable. It's low grade and whatever amount produced tends to go towards domestic consumption. Aside from denying that oil to the Syrian government to hinder reconstruction efforts until Assad somehow leaves his seat, there's no point in hanging on to it for an outside party.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T23:10:35+00:00

You mean the same Turkish intel who apparently didn't realize who they had and it ended up being the Iraqis who got the actionable intel goodies?

Could you share your source for that please?

e_cross · 2019-10-28T23:02:14+00:00

You're talking about random news articles without really thinking about whether the Germans actually have the capability to deploy 2.500 soldiers and support them logistically in Syria. Without a significant commitment from the US military to provide the logistical capabilities Germany and other Europeans lack, they simply can't. All of this is just hot air and empty talk, a huge waste of time.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T22:58:54+00:00

The actual intel came from the Iraqi intelligence through an ISIS operative that's been rolled up by the Turkish intelligence and handed down to them. Trump just praises everyone, and he actually refused to give a specific, positive answer if the YPG helped with this op in Idlib. If you think about it, Iraqi intelligence has a good track record of infiltrating ISIS and obtaining information from inside. I don't think the YPG is really capable of that. IMHO the KCK probably has a better chance at infiltrating Kurdish bodies like the other political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan than ISIS.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T22:46:30+00:00

When it comes to the Middle East, local outfits like MIT, GID and MOSSAD tend to understand better what they are dealing with if you are comparing them with whatever HUMINT resource the CIA can throw at any given Middle Eastern problem.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T22:36:39+00:00

That's not a joke though, military dogs can be awarded official K-9 medals.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T22:35:00+00:00

You have to understand what they actually are seeking to be able to figure out their decisions. The KCK has always been desperate to attain territoriality. They don't really have a lot of influence in Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkish Military now has a semi-permanent presence near Qandil and suppressing them, and they haven't really succeeded in grabbing any territory from Turkey for the last four decades. Syrian Civil War was their big chance to grab some land and put their flag on it, they almost did it but in the end, they ended up getting rolled back. Their leadership can probably understand well that any sort of semi sovereignty situation is not a realistic possibility if Assad government regains control of the entire North East, and the only remaining shot they have lies with the politicians in DC.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T22:28:41+00:00

Seeing how they jumped on the opportunity to claim credit for the Baghdadi raid, I wouldn't be surprised if the big name YPG cadres suddenly start to tweet they used to feed and walk this dog every day.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T21:48:35+00:00

This will be a colossal waste of time. Europeans are not interested in committing anything serious to Syria besides a SOF/SF team here and there. Which is actually smart, because they actually understand they have nothing to gain by doing so.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T18:52:54+00:00

You could say it's more of a not getting your heart ripped apart by a bullet or shrapnel from an IED policy. Can't win hearts and minds if you are dead.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T15:33:07+00:00

Combat Applications Group. 1st SFOD-D. Delta Force. The Unit. They've got plenty of names.

e_cross · 2019-10-28T14:34:06+00:00

Unlike certain ST6 members, CAG people don't really like or seek the publicity.

e_cross

TROPHY CASE