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Nobody is ... [Remainder deleted for brevity]

Tl;Dr: "I'm right, you are wrong. The truth is so obvious that if you disagree you are either an idiot or evil or both."

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How exactly do we unfuck ourselves from Syria? Just leave, like Obama tried to leave Iraq? How did that work out?

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Oh, look who's hanging out with Putin. Mr "Wagner". Far right.

https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/367483/wagner-458012.jpg

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If you consider ourselves fucked in Syria due to the inroads that ISIS has made, I think the Syrians/Russians/Iranians have done a good job of late killing ISIS, destroying their strongholds and putting them on the run. ...

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No I'm not a member of Web Brigade. You are probably one of those that think Russian bots tilted the election in favor of Trump because MSNBC and CNN told you so, right? I am a patriot. I believe in nationalism and MAGA. I believe in isolationism unless provoked. I hate globalist. I hate neocons. I hate liberals that try and take away my rights. I hate those who hide behind a globalist viewpoint to take my country away from me.

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Surprise, surprise, you're poorly informed again. This is a map of ISIS territory at it's peak:

https://i.redd.it/0cq65v2zanqz.jpg

If you take a look at a map of the situation in January:

https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/09jan_syria_war_map.jpg?x76537

You'll find that most of the territory that was once in ISIS' hands is now controlled by the SDF, our allies in Syria. In other words, Syria/Iran/Russia were getting fucked by ISIS until we stepped in.

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Isn't John Ringo a military fiction author?

Quoted:A country's leader (al-Assad) defending his own country from an outside attack by outside forces is completely different than what Hitler or Mussolini did by invading and taking over sovereign countries. If you can't see that difference, I can't help you.

Weak U.S. Response to Russian Proxies Undermines Deterrence in Middle East and Eastern Europe
By: Bradley Hanlon with the ISW Research Team

Key Takeaway: The Russian Wagner private military company and Lebanese Hezbollah attacked U.S. and partner forces in Eastern Syria on February 7, 2018. Wagner is part of the business empire belonging to Putin ally Evgeni Prigozhin, whom Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted on February 16.  The Kremlin uses proxy forces in Ukraine as well as Syria to maintain plausible deniability and avoid accountability for aggressive actions abroad. A proxy directly attacking U.S. forces is a significant escalation in the Kremlin's use of irregular forces. The U.S. responded tactically in self-defense, but Secretary of Defense James Mattis did not hold Russia accountable, questioning whether Moscow had ordered the attack. The U.S. failure to hold Russia accountable and respond strategically to this attack sets a dangerous precedent, enabling the expansion of Russian proxy warfare. The Kremlin can use deniable proxies to attack U.S. forces and partners in other theaters, such as Eastern Europe and the Baltics.

The Russo-Iranian military coalition supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used a Russian private military company to launch a coordinated attack on U.S. and partner forces in Eastern Syria. Several hundred pro-Assad regime fighters launched a coordinated attack against a base occupied by U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)  the main U.S. partner in Syria - in Eastern Deir ez-Zour province on February 7. Russian private military company (PMC) Wagner participated in the attack.

The Kremlin officially denied knowledge of the assault and employed an information operation to muddle the true narrative of the event. Russian military officials maintained contact through 'deconfliction' channels with U.S. forces throughout the attack, while denying that they knew that Wagner and its Lebanese Hezbollah partner forces had engaged. Russia thereby sought to obscure its role in the attack. The Kremlin has subsequently obfuscated the number of Russian mercenaries involved, the number killed, and the motivation for the attack using techniques common to Russia's information campaign in Ukraine.

The Kremlin nevertheless likely knew of and permitted the attack on U.S. and partner forces on February 7. The Kremlin has used proxy forces in the past to maintain plausible deniability and shed accountability for aggressive actions abroad. Wagner is a private military company with close ties to the Kremlin and Russian military forces. Dmitry Utkin  a former Russian special forces officer  founded the company. Wagner reportedly trains recruits at a shared base with Russian Special Forces near Molkino, Russia. It has played an important role supporting Russian military operations. Wagner operated as a Kremlin proxy in Ukraine, fighting alongside Russian-backed separatists and in coordination with the Armed Forces of Russia.[1] Wagner deployed to Syria in 2015 and played a key role in the Russia-backed offensives to retake oil-rich areas in Palmyra and Deir ez-Zour Province from the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS). The Russian Ministry of Defense has provided direct support to Wagner in Syria through both arms and transport.[2]

The indictments handed down by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller significantly reduce the plausibility of attempts to deny Kremlin control over Wagner's actions. Russian businessman Evgeni Prigozhin is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and a known associate of Dmitry Utkin. His business empire includes Wagner. The Kremlin leverages Prigozhin's businesses as a proxy tool to achieve various foreign policy objectives while maintaining plausible deniability. Special Counsel Mueller indicted Prigozhin for attempting to undermine the 2016 U.S. presidential election on February 16, 2018. Prigozhin served as the financier of a company that purchased private networks in the U.S. to establish fraudulent social media profiles allegedly posing as U.S. persons in order to defraud U.S. elections according to the indictment.



The Kremlin likely benefits economically from Wagner's involvement in Syria as well. Utkin commands Wagner in seizing and securing Syrian oil fields in Eastern Syria. The Prigozhin-led company Evro Polis signed a contract with the Syrian regime's state-owned petroleum company. The contract allocates 25 percent of all revenue from oil and gas facilities in Syria seized with the assistance of Russian forces to Evro Polis. These revenues are likely channeled to support the Putin regime.

The U.S. failure to hold the Kremlin accountable for its mercenaries' attack on U.S. and partner forces sets a precedent that the Kremlin will likely exploit in Syria and in Eastern Europe. The U.S. response to the pro-Assad regime attack on February 7 will not be enough to deter Russia from the future use of proxies, despite its tactical success. The U.S. has previously failed to hold the Kremlin accountable for the actions of its proxy forces against Ukraine, encouraging Moscow to expand its use of this tool. The U.S. response to the February 7 attack further signals to the Kremlin that it will not be held accountable for the actions of its proxies  beyond a tactical cost  even when those proxies directly threaten American forces.

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Nope. It was Russia/Syria that defeated ISIS in Deir Ezzor, Deir ez-Zor, Homs, Okeirbat, Palmyra....etc. It is the Syrian/Russians that have been defeating ISIS. Kurdish forces have not been that successful.

https://i.imgur.com/MbpeJSU.jpg

The U.S. failure to hold the Kremlin accountable for its mercenaries' attack on U.S. and partner forces sets a precedent that the Kremlin will likely exploit in Syria and in Eastern Europe.

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I'm gonna try to explain this reeeeeal easy like. Next step is a picture drawn with a crayon. The lesson of WWII was that we should have stomped the bad guy BEFORE HE INVADED ANYONE. I'm not saying anything about Assad. Literally zero, at least as this part of the argument. You are claiming that Hitler was bad because he invaded a bunch of people. I'm saying that if your policy is to wait until that happens, 200,000 Americans die. Again, I'm not talking about Assad. I'm applying your head in the sand approach to a historical example where we know all the facts to demonstrate what a colossal failure it has been PROVEN to be.

Now, getting back to current times, what exactly do you think Iran is doing in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Qatar, and Yemen other than invading them? The shiites are smart, I'll give them that. They don't do nearly as much suicidal rabid dog bullshit as the Sunnis. No, they are smart. Their game is to always stick to the shadows, to take advantage of the head in the sand crowd. These guys learned from WWII. You don't roll the tanks in. You sneak the clerics and Rev Guards in and conquer from within. Then one day, the head-in-sand guy wakes up to the new Persian Empire and shit, once again, gets expensive.

Your all or nothing approach won't work, not in the real world. We need to be engaged, world wide. That doesn't mean war, far from it. It means avoiding some very very bad situations. There is such a thing as nuance. Lots of it is just spying and diplomacy and forging alliances. Head in the sand guy can't do that. He's not equipped because potential allies have no faith in a country practicing that ideology. Head in the sand is how you get Red Dawn. Just keep sitting on the couch eating bon bons and pretending the rest of the world doesn't exist. All fun and games until you see the parachutes coming down.

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Why are you showing a pic from 6 months ago? The current situation doesn't fit your narrative:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qAknOwF6oLg/Wn4GH2-u-bI/AAAAAAAAJzM/OpbWwDq1fBAhSa8vynlc6qE1FpRCoM1HACLcBGAs/s1600/Syria%2BSITREP%2BJAN%2B24%2B-%2BFEB%2B7-01.png

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Your inability to fathom anything other than total war and total peace is irrelevant. I've said countless times that being engaged with the rest of the world doesn't mean we are at war with them...and yet you can't comprehend what I'm talking about. I'm not 100% sure why you do any of the "reading and research" that you claim to do, your demonstrated reading comp skills makes it a complete waste of time, unless constant misinterpretation is the objective.

Mao and Pol Pot said the same thing. That said, though he is a dictator (stop with the election nonsense. "state of emergency" since 1963? yeah, mmmmm-K), I'm not militantly opposed to Assad and see no reason to depose him. We're there to fight ISIS, however, so they don't build a new Taliban regime. States run by Sunni psychos = terrorist attacks on US citizens at home and abroad, so no thanks. I'm not sure why you think we're there to fight Assad at all. If THAT were our objective, we're doing a piss poor job of it. We should be treating Damascus like we did Baghdad....and yet we aren't. Fascinating.

There's nothing inherently wrong with being "involved". Again, you're confusing international engagement with war...for no reason whatsoever. We should be involved as a global leader. Doesn't mean we should necessarily take any specific action. We're "involved" with Tahiti. Doesn't mean we are bombing them or invading them...right? Or are the banksters secretly bombing those gorgeous beaches and then using their control over the Jewish media to lie to us about it?

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That's the beauty of our 'advanced aircraft' fighters. They don't just loiter waiting for fighters to dogfight or just run routes. The F35 is even more advanced than the F22 at linking systems, relaying that combined picture to other forces, guiding munitions, suppressing enemy defenses, etc.

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I've not yet seen any mentions of A-10's in the fight, at least in the couple reports I read.  Any better sources on this?

Also, hasn't there been a lot of talk on this board over the years criticizing the lack of AC-130 usage in AFG because of the risk of MANPADs?  I'd think a russian-backed PMC would be pretty likely to have MANPADs, but I'm just a dumb civvie.

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I'm not either, I just have a passing knowledge of them... I just meant that they were able to guide LGBs on their own without needing any other targeting, and the Sniper, to my knowledge, can operate reliably from high altitude but can only designate a single target at a time.

If designator pulse codes are preset I would think it wouldn't matter who is doing the designating since only one would be guided in at a time. I wonder if a B-52 at high altitude could possibly release bombs at longer intervals and then guide to impact, switch to a different target until impact, etc... anybody know? If the targets are clustered and the interval is long enough it should give enough time for the munitions to correct their course.

I need to read up on this stuff or play with more sims

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I would think they could get coordinates from the RPV pilots or dudes on the ground and punch them in manually while in route? I always look at it from a GFC perspective. A pilot doing it all sounds terrifying.

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Nope. It was Russia/Syria that defeated ISIS in Deir Ezzor, Deir ez-Zor, Homs, Okeirbat, Palmyra....etc. It is the Syrian/Russians that have been defeating ISIS. Kurdish forces have not been that successful.

https://i.imgur.com/MbpeJSU.jpg

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No, it doesn't.

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Lol. First off, listing Deir ez-Zor twice doesn't make your Russian buddies' accomplishments any more impressive.

Raqqa and Mosul were the heart of ISIS. Regime forces couldn't accomplish shit, even against little pissant cities like Okeirbat, until US backed forces reduced Mosul and  started turning Raqqa into a charnel house. We crushed ISIS' brightest and most dedicated fighters in their biggest cities while the regime struggled to retake mostly empty desert.

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You have to generate those GPS coordinates somehow, and if the targets are moving you're out of luck.  Laser JDAM has been in service almost a decade now just for that reason.  Ljdam can do it all I believe, ins, GPS and laser in one guidance package.

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So you are comparing al-Assad and Putin to Hitler and Mussolini? I didn't realize al-Assad and Putin invaded Poland,Czechoslovakia, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, France, Ethiopia, Greece...etc. From my understanding, Syria requested the assistance of one of their own allies (Russia) to help assist them in defeating an outside enemy (ISIS) that has tried to overthrow the Syrian government. Seems like Russia has that under control. What exactly are we doing to help assist Syria in defeating their outside enemy (ISIS)? Syria hasn't invaded any country, they are just trying to deal with the mess that the CIA/HRC/Obama/Israel sent their way in relations to ISIS.

I'm not angry, I'm actually happy. But I am sad to see how many supposedly fellow patriots have fallen for the lies of MSM and the globalist and the agenda being pushed by the neocons and neoliberals in DC. Too many have fallen for that hook, line and sinker.

No I'm not a member of Web Brigade. You are probably one of those that think Russian bots tilted the election in favor of Trump because MSNBC and CNN told you so, right? I am a patriot. I believe in nationalism and MAGA. I believe in isolationism unless provoked. I hate globalist. I hate neocons. I hate liberals that try and take away my rights. I hate those who hide behind a globalist viewpoint to take my country away from me.