Posted: 2/18/2015 9:41:17 PM EDT
| I was listening to Savage on the radio today and he reported that ISIS has 180,000 men. WTF ? A nice force to deal with and well armed with US materials left behind. Just fucking great. |
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I was listening to Savage on the radio today and he reported that ISIS has 180,000 men. WTF ? A nice force to deal with and well armed with US materials left behind. Just fucking great. Sounds about right. However, they tend to be spread rather thinly given the area they are trying to control. |
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Well, they have planes, airports and I'm sure a few pilots. Only a matter of time. Quoted:
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They have no air power so that number can be cut down rather quickly. FISIS Well, they have planes, airports and I'm sure a few pilots. Only a matter of time. They did manage an airstrike yesterday with 3 Libyan Mig-23s that they had commandeered. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/world/middleeast/islamist-faction-in-libya-now-strikes-from-the-sky.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1 |
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They did manage an airstrike yesterday with 3 Libyan Mig-23s that they had commandeered. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/world/middleeast/islamist-faction-in-libya-now-strikes-from-the-sky.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1 Quoted:
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They have no air power so that number can be cut down rather quickly. FISIS Well, they have planes, airports and I'm sure a few pilots. Only a matter of time. They did manage an airstrike yesterday with 3 Libyan Mig-23s that they had commandeered. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/world/middleeast/islamist-faction-in-libya-now-strikes-from-the-sky.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1 That wasn't ISIS, it was Libya Dawn, a totally different group. ISIS only has about 200 people in Libya. Reuters Article about ISIS in Libya |
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Where have you been? Its a Country with a landmass the size of Britain. http://isis.liveuamap.com/ They just need jobs.....  |
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Sounds about right. However, they tend to be spread rather thinly given the area they are trying to control. Quoted:
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I was listening to Savage on the radio today and he reported that ISIS has 180,000 men. WTF ? A nice force to deal with and well armed with US materials left behind. Just fucking great. Sounds about right. However, they tend to be spread rather thinly given the area they are trying to control. (the world) |
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The total number isn't known and it wont be possible to know it. CIA thinks they have about 20-30,000 total (everywhere). Other sources claim much higher. Iraqi govt says 50,000, Russians are saying 75,000, and Kurds are saying over 100,000; though I'd take each of those numbers with a grain of salt, as all of them have reasons to overstate the numbers, especially the Kurds who are basically begging for help, money, and allies.
To put that in perspective, at the height of the Iraqi insurgency during OIF, in 2006, there were under 30,000 total insurgents, and that includes Sunni and the far more numerous Shi'a militias. At this point, ISIS only has recruited the majority of former Iraqi Sunni Arab insurgents, so maybe 10-15,000 total, at most. Add in whatever they had in Syria, which is estimated at around another 15,000. If they start including other groups presently allied or loosely affiliated, like Nusra Front or the groups operating in Yemen and all the groups in Libya, that will raise it higher but its not accurate or honest. Savage's numbers are totally full of shit unless he is counting women, children and old men. |
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Where have you been? Its a Country with a landmass the size of Britain. http://isis.liveuamap.com/ They just need jobs.....  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7ChINWSo_E
Now compare that map to a topographical map, most of the land is unlivable desert or mountain regions, devoid of settlements. This is a more accurate map. |
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Where have you been? Its a Country with a landmass the size of Britain. http://isis.liveuamap.com/ They just need jobs..... Fuck that cunt ignorant liberal piece of shit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7ChINWSo_E
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The total number isn't known and it wont be possible to know it. CIA thinks they have about 20-30,000 total (everywhere). Other sources claim much higher. Iraqi govt says 50,000, Russians are saying 75,000, and Kurds are saying over 100,000; though I'd take each of those numbers with a grain of salt, as all of them have reasons to overstate the numbers, especially the Kurds who are basically begging for help, money, and allies. To put that in perspective, at the height of the Iraqi insurgency during OIF, in 2006, there were under 30,000 total insurgents, and that includes Sunni and the far more numerous Shi'a militias. At this point, ISIS only has recruited the majority of former Iraqi Sunni Arab insurgents, so maybe 10-15,000 total, at most. Add in whatever they had in Syria, which is estimated at around another 15,000. If they start including other groups presently allied or loosely affiliated, like Nusra Front or the groups operating in Yemen and all the groups in Libya, that will raise it higher but its not accurate or honest. Savage's numbers are totally full of shit unless he is counting women, children and old men. How many does what's his fucking name have in Sudan ? |
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How many does what's his fucking name have in Sudan ? Quoted:
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The total number isn't known and it wont be possible to know it. CIA thinks they have about 20-30,000 total (everywhere). Other sources claim much higher. Iraqi govt says 50,000, Russians are saying 75,000, and Kurds are saying over 100,000; though I'd take each of those numbers with a grain of salt, as all of them have reasons to overstate the numbers, especially the Kurds who are basically begging for help, money, and allies. To put that in perspective, at the height of the Iraqi insurgency during OIF, in 2006, there were under 30,000 total insurgents, and that includes Sunni and the far more numerous Shi'a militias. At this point, ISIS only has recruited the majority of former Iraqi Sunni Arab insurgents, so maybe 10-15,000 total, at most. Add in whatever they had in Syria, which is estimated at around another 15,000. If they start including other groups presently allied or loosely affiliated, like Nusra Front or the groups operating in Yemen and all the groups in Libya, that will raise it higher but its not accurate or honest. Savage's numbers are totally full of shit unless he is counting women, children and old men. How many does what's his fucking name have in Sudan ? Boko Haram has approx. 9,000 but they aren't affiliated with ISIS, though they are a Wahhabist terror group too. |
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Quoted: The total number isn't known and it wont be possible to know it. CIA thinks they have about 20-30,000 total (everywhere). Other sources claim much higher. Iraqi govt says 50,000, Russians are saying 75,000, and Kurds are saying over 100,000; though I'd take each of those numbers with a grain of salt, as all of them have reasons to overstate the numbers, especially the Kurds who are basically begging for help, money, and allies. To put that in perspective, at the height of the Iraqi insurgency during OIF, in 2006, there were under 30,000 total insurgents, and that includes Sunni and the far more numerous Shi'a militias. At this point, ISIS only has recruited the majority of former Iraqi Sunni Arab insurgents, so maybe 10-15,000 total, at most. Add in whatever they had in Syria, which is estimated at around another 15,000. If they start including other groups presently allied or loosely affiliated, like Nusra Front or the groups operating in Yemen and all the groups in Libya, that will raise it higher but its not accurate or honest. Savage's numbers are totally full of shit unless he is counting women, children and old men. To be fair, the CIAs numbers are from September, in June the claim was that ISIS only had 10000. Good look at it given in this article |
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How many people live in Mosul? 2 million? How many are military age young men with no jobs and can be terrified into joining up the black flag army?
I would guess more than 30,000 just from that one town. How many from all the other smaller towns and villages and smaller cities? Look, these savages roll into town, hack and rape their way through the Christians, smaller sects and Shiite Muslims, hack and rape the Sunnis they don't like and then look at all who are left and say "join us or die".... and you don't think tens of thousands of 'survivors' don't gladly "join them" out of terror if not conviction that these guys are serious? Given their religion's worship of hard and ruthless men as godly, wouldn't these guys look like modern day prophets? The conscripts might not like them, but would they feel constrained by tribal and theological duty to get with the program anyway? Look at the psych ops these guys do - public executions and slave markets... this is classic ops to get peoples' hands bloody so they have to not just pay lip service to the cause but feel themselves personally responsible and so their guilt and complicity perversely seals their allegiance with the mob. If liberation from abroad is not in the offing they may never feel safe enough to escape on their own. So how many front line radicals? 30,000 maybe. But I'd guess that the numbers of men terrorized into claiming allegiance to them is easily in the hundred thousand range if not more by now if you count all the foreigners, Syrians, etc. We tend to discount the religious, messianic angle too. Declaring a Caliphate is a BF deal to quote our resident village idiot VP. It has theological (and political) significance that they take VERY seriously. We forget that Caliphate was the preferred system of government and orderly succession for 1,000 years and was the way things were when Islam held maximum power at the gates of Vienna in the 16th century. It's their Manifest Destiny and Monroe Doctrine and Liberal Progressive Utopia all rolled into one package. Every Muslim must look at that government system as we look at the Constitution or the Bible or any of our version of "the way things ought to be". We might laugh and I do sometimes at the thought of land locked savages threatening the world. They have no military industrial complex (unlike the Iranians and Pakistanis). They have no bottomless pit of financial security like the Saudis and Emirates. But they do have a claim of Caliphate and a few oil wells and land with SOME income and a vast amount of 'enough' weaponry to threaten the locals. If this group is crushed, we might not necessarily kill the dream. It's the dream that can survive defeat. Look at all the socialists and communists who survived the collapse of the USSR! Their utopia was PROVEN a disaster and yet they still believe and cling to that religious conviction that if they destroy classic Western civilization via sex, drugs, cultural marxism etc. that somehow a superior utopia will rise from the ashes when in reality the only thing that comes is anarchy, tyranny, repression, and sorrow on an industrial scale....and yet they cling to their dreams and strive to create the revolutionary brew anew. Killing the dream is much harder then killing some men. |
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To be fair, the CIAs numbers are from September, in June the claim was that ISIS only had 10000. Good look at it given in this article http://warontherocks.com/2015/02/how-many-fighters-does-the-islamic-state-really-have/ Quoted:
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The total number isn't known and it wont be possible to know it. CIA thinks they have about 20-30,000 total (everywhere). Other sources claim much higher. Iraqi govt says 50,000, Russians are saying 75,000, and Kurds are saying over 100,000; though I'd take each of those numbers with a grain of salt, as all of them have reasons to overstate the numbers, especially the Kurds who are basically begging for help, money, and allies. To put that in perspective, at the height of the Iraqi insurgency during OIF, in 2006, there were under 30,000 total insurgents, and that includes Sunni and the far more numerous Shi'a militias. At this point, ISIS only has recruited the majority of former Iraqi Sunni Arab insurgents, so maybe 10-15,000 total, at most. Add in whatever they had in Syria, which is estimated at around another 15,000. If they start including other groups presently allied or loosely affiliated, like Nusra Front or the groups operating in Yemen and all the groups in Libya, that will raise it higher but its not accurate or honest. Savage's numbers are totally full of shit unless he is counting women, children and old men. To be fair, the CIAs numbers are from September, in June the claim was that ISIS only had 10000. Good look at it given in this article http://warontherocks.com/2015/02/how-many-fighters-does-the-islamic-state-really-have/ I read that article, it has some good info but as I mentioned, its pretty all over the place numbers wise, which goes back to "who do you believe"? I'll go with the CIA figures and add 20%. In June, ISIS was making its initial successful attacks in Mosul and Fallujah, mostly with fighters that came over from Syria. After that, various preexisting Sunni Arab insurgent groups joined them, increasing their numbers. By September, ISIS had consolidated most of the territory they occupied (which included most Sunni areas of Iraq), so they would have come close to maxing out their overall strength at that point, unless they had some major influx somewhere else. How much additional terrain did ISIS take since then? Not much, in actuality, they lost some major terrain, as well as fighters, from US and coalition air strikes and Kurdish and Shi'a counterattacks. Did any large groups join them? They were hinting that Nusra Front (15,000) in Syria joined them but right now the two groups appear to be fighting each other again. I think the AQAP in Yemen are enemies with ISIS, so I don't think they included those numbers. Libya numbers are low, under 1,000. The rest of the Gulf States are low too. In Raqqa, the "capitol" of the caliphate, there was already a coup attempt a month or so ago and ISIS has since executed over 60 deserters in a very public manner, so there must be some significant issues if they are executing that many. I'd say that with their extremist interpretation of the Sharia Law, such as banning smoking (which most Arabs do), they aren't getting very popular. I could see a lot of the locals, especially the Sheikhs, starting to get a little pissy and looking at other options. |
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Where have you been? Its a Country with a landmass the size of Britain. http://isis.liveuamap.com/ They just need jobs..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7ChINWSo_E
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How many people live in Mosul? 2 million? How many are military age young men with no jobs and can be terrified into joining up the black flag army? I would guess more than 30,000 just from that one town. How many from all the other smaller towns and villages and smaller cities? Look, these savages roll into town, hack and rape their way through the Christians, smaller sects and Shiite Muslims, hack and rape the Sunnis they don't like and then look at all who are left and say "join us or die".... and you don't think tens of thousands of 'survivors' don't gladly "join them" out of terror if not conviction that these guys are serious? Given their religion's worship of hard and ruthless men as godly, wouldn't these guys look like modern day prophets? The conscripts might not like them, but would they feel constrained by tribal and theological duty to get with the program anyway? Look at the psych ops these guys do - public executions and slave markets... this is classic ops to get peoples' hands bloody so they have to not just pay lip service to the cause but feel themselves personally responsible and so their guilt and complicity perversely seals their allegiance with the mob. If liberation from abroad is not in the offing they may never feel safe enough to escape on their own. So how many front line radicals? 30,000 maybe. But I'd guess that the numbers of men terrorized into claiming allegiance to them is easily in the hundred thousand range if not more by now if you count all the foreigners, Syrians, etc. We tend to discount the religious, messianic angle too. Declaring a Caliphate is a BF deal to quote our resident village idiot VP. It has theological (and political) significance that they take VERY seriously. We forget that Caliphate was the preferred system of government and orderly succession for 1,000 years and was the way things were when Islam held maximum power at the gates of Vienna in the 16th century. It's their Manifest Destiny and Monroe Doctrine and Liberal Progressive Utopia all rolled into one package. Every Muslim must look at that government system as we look at the Constitution or the Bible or any of our version of "the way things ought to be". We might laugh and I do sometimes at the thought of land locked savages threatening the world. They have no military industrial complex (unlike the Iranians and Pakistanis). They have no bottomless pit of financial security like the Saudis and Emirates. But they do have a claim of Caliphate and a few oil wells and land with SOME income and a vast amount of 'enough' weaponry to threaten the locals. If this group is crushed, we might not necessarily kill the dream. It's the dream that can survive defeat. Look at all the socialists and communists who survived the collapse of the USSR! Their utopia was PROVEN a disaster and yet they still believe and cling to that religious conviction that if they destroy classic Western civilization via sex, drugs, cultural marxism etc. that somehow a superior utopia will rise from the ashes when in reality the only thing that comes is anarchy, tyranny, repression, and sorrow on an industrial scale....and yet they cling to their dreams and strive to create the revolutionary brew anew. Killing the dream is much harder then killing some men. No way you're going to get 30,000 fighters out of Mosul unless they literally conscripted every able bodied military aged male. Since ISIS still functions at insurgent cell level organization, they have no real method of maintaining a proper indoctrination/training regimen to gain untrained recruits and most of all they have no way logistical tail to support them. They wouldn't even know how to control that many people under arms in one area. 30,000 fighters in one area means having to feed, cloth, maintain order. It requires a major command and staff, a headquarters, a well functioning communication network. ISIS isn't set up to do that, their strength isn't their numbers, its the manner in which they fight (unconventionally) and their ferocity. In every battle they've fought in, their numbers have been under 5,000, and those groups often operate independently from one another, barely coordinating (which is why they suck at fighting conventionally). Like I mentioned before, the top end of the insurgency in OIF in 2006 (which included Mosul, a highly contested city at the time) was around 30,000, and that included the Mahdi Army (JAM) and the Badr Brigade, two of the many Shi'a groups that altogether outnumbered the Sunnis. Sunni insurgent numbers maxed out around 10-15,000 max (these don't count the thousands that died since 2006). Most of the areas they live in have been ISIS controlled since late summer, early fall. These were contested cities with the Iraqi govt since 2012, they only fell completely when ISIS rolled in on a hot streak, with its momentum. These groups joined and swore allegiance with IS already, so they'd be included in that previously listed number. |