ISIS

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deucalion
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Re: ISIS

Post by deucalion »

GreenGoo wrote:Don't worry, we'll pick up the tab for a bunch of refugees.

For the record, meeting our international obligations have been at an all time low during the last ten years.

THAT has been embarrassing.
I agree - I thought we might go in a positive way under the new government - I guess not.
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GreenGoo
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Re: ISIS

Post by GreenGoo »

deucalion wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:Don't worry, we'll pick up the tab for a bunch of refugees.

For the record, meeting our international obligations have been at an all time low during the last ten years.

THAT has been embarrassing.
I agree - I thought we might go in a positive way under the new government - I guess not.
I'll just be happy if we're not blamed for the next drowned child that washes ashore.
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Max Peck
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Re: ISIS

Post by Max Peck »

deucalion wrote:I am not sure what the correct path to dealing with a threat like ISIS but I sure wish that Canada would not pull out of the area and abrogate it's international responsibilities in this situation. I think it is kind of embarrassing that (as a Canadian) we are walking away from helping the US try and contain the situation in a combat role. Not that we were a big contributor but I think it is a good idea to support the US and international community in efforts like this as much as we can.

Anyway thanks to the US OO members that pay taxes and / or contribute otherwise to combating / addressing this terrible situation. Hope we contribute more again someday ourselves.
You know what's an embarrassment? Ignorant chickenhawks that don't bother with things like learning the facts before blathering on about being embarrassed by their country. At this point, all we know is that Canada will be withdrawing the 6 CF-18s that have been participating in air strikes against IS. However, other elements contributing to the effort will be remaining, such as the advisors we have on the ground in Iraq. Try showing a little fucking pride in what they are doing for the world, and the sacrifices they make on your behalf -- even though you can't be bothered to notice that they even exist.

If you really give a shit what the Canadian Forces have actually been doing, you can start reading here.
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deucalion
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Re: ISIS

Post by deucalion »

Max Peck wrote:
deucalion wrote: If you really give a shit what the Canadian Forces have actually been doing, you can start reading here.
Wow... sorry didn't mean to bring out such a spirited reaction.

I am actually very proud of what the Canadian Armed Forces have done with limited resources under the Harper government and I think it has been very suspect and sometimes shameful the way that the Conservatives have treated the serving military and our veterans.

I get that you think that withdrawing our CF-18's from a combat role is good thing but I am not sure why? Other than railing at me for being a redneck ignorant chickenhawk - I guess that puts me in my place and all is fine from there. Must be because I live in Saskatchewan :-)

I believe that we should put more money in the military and expand our combat role where there is an international effort to contain bad situations like ISIS but I guess you perhaps disagree. I feel that Canada should pull its weight internationally in military situations and peace-keeping situations.

I guess I feel that that I am taking more pride in what we have done for the world historically than what you are acknowledging because I want Canada to continue playing an active military role and do it better in the future with more resources while it seems like you want to take a step back. And that is fine but there is no need for all the extreme rhetoric.
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Re: ISIS

Post by GreenGoo »

deucalion wrote:
Max Peck wrote:
deucalion wrote: If you really give a shit what the Canadian Forces have actually been doing, you can start reading here.
Wow... sorry didn't mean to bring out such a spirited reaction.
Lol. Who knew calling the actions of the new liberal government an embarrassment approx. 1 week after it came into power would cause an emotional response? Actions that were part of it's campaign platform of promises. A campaign that resulted in a significant portion of the population voting for said party.

Shocked. I'm shocked that anyone would take umbrage at such reasoned criticism.
deucalion
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Re: ISIS

Post by deucalion »

GreenGoo wrote:
deucalion wrote:
Max Peck wrote:
deucalion wrote: If you really give a shit what the Canadian Forces have actually been doing, you can start reading here.
Wow... sorry didn't mean to bring out such a spirited reaction.
Lol. Who knew calling the actions of the new liberal government an embarrassment approx. 1 week after it came into power would cause an emotional response? Actions that were part of it's campaign platform of promises. A campaign that resulted in a significant portion of the population voting for said party.

Shocked. I'm shocked that anyone would take umbrage at such reasoned criticism.
Well yes but a majority of Canadian's do support extending the military action against ISIS - so it is not like you should be surprised at our reaction - yet apparently you are shocked ;-). And if you think that withdrawing active military support against ISIS is one of the main reasons that the Liberals got elected well I guess I would beg to differ.

Anyway I just hope that Canada does its best to fulfill its admittedly small role on the international stage by active supporting our allies and making it hard for groups like ISIS to operate. I also hope that the current government increases funding for the military and makes it easier for them to fulfill the missions we expect them to complete. Withdrawing our CF-18's for political purposes does not bode well IMHO for the near future. We shall see I guess.
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Re: ISIS

Post by hepcat »

deucalion wrote:
Max Peck wrote:
deucalion wrote: If you really give a shit what the Canadian Forces have actually been doing, you can start reading here.
Wow... sorry didn't mean to bring out such a spirited reaction.
If it's any consolation, I thought your post was fairly innocuous. :wink:
Covfefe!
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GreenGoo
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Re: ISIS

Post by GreenGoo »

deucalion wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:
deucalion wrote:
Max Peck wrote:
deucalion wrote: If you really give a shit what the Canadian Forces have actually been doing, you can start reading here.
Wow... sorry didn't mean to bring out such a spirited reaction.
Lol. Who knew calling the actions of the new liberal government an embarrassment approx. 1 week after it came into power would cause an emotional response? Actions that were part of it's campaign platform of promises. A campaign that resulted in a significant portion of the population voting for said party.

Shocked. I'm shocked that anyone would take umbrage at such reasoned criticism.
Well yes but a majority of Canadian's do support extending the military action against ISIS - so it is not like you should be surprised at our reaction - yet apparently you are shocked ;-).
If you read more closely, you'll see that I was shocked in the same way that you were surprised that anyone would take umbrage to your fact based criticism of the actions of our week old government. My reference to the campaign promise was to illustrate that this shouldn't be news to anyone as concerned about Syria as you seem to be, and given your concerns, you'd probably already understand why the Liberals promised to do this, and why they did it.
Last edited by GreenGoo on Thu Nov 12, 2015 12:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: ISIS

Post by Carpet_pissr »

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Also, Canada has rednecks? Who knew??!
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Re: ISIS

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Re: ISIS

Post by GreenGoo »

26 years ago I witnessed several students kicked out of college for hanging rape jokes outside their windows. That was nearly 3 decades ago.

There is no question in my mind that rape and more frequently date rape occurs. That it is institutional and systemic seems...unlikely.
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Re: ISIS

Post by Defiant »

I would believe there are cases where it is institutional (that college football coach scandal from a few years back where there were those that covered up or avoided investigating allegations because FOOTBALL! certainly suggests that to me). But even if were true in every single school, trying to tie them in with ISIS is absurd.

(BTW, I would consider it institutional even if it's only limited to a part of the school, like the athletic department or something)
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Re: ISIS

Post by Max Peck »

deucalion wrote:
Max Peck wrote:
deucalion wrote: If you really give a shit what the Canadian Forces have actually been doing, you can start reading here.
Wow... sorry didn't mean to bring out such a spirited reaction.

I am actually very proud of what the Canadian Armed Forces have done with limited resources under the Harper government and I think it has been very suspect and sometimes shameful the way that the Conservatives have treated the serving military and our veterans.

I get that you think that withdrawing our CF-18's from a combat role is good thing but I am not sure why? Other than railing at me for being a redneck ignorant chickenhawk - I guess that puts me in my place and all is fine from there. Must be because I live in Saskatchewan :-)

I believe that we should put more money in the military and expand our combat role where there is an international effort to contain bad situations like ISIS but I guess you perhaps disagree. I feel that Canada should pull its weight internationally in military situations and peace-keeping situations.

I guess I feel that that I am taking more pride in what we have done for the world historically than what you are acknowledging because I want Canada to continue playing an active military role and do it better in the future with more resources while it seems like you want to take a step back. And that is fine but there is no need for all the extreme rhetoric.
As a matter of policy, I don't strongly care one way or the other about the CF-18s being withdrawn. They were deployed as a symbolic gesture by Harper so that he could play the part of being an international tough guy, not because it made any real sense from a strategic or tactical perspective. A half dozen planes conducting airstrikes without an accompanying ground force is never going to defeat IS, but it is a drain on operational resources. To the extent that I actively support the withdrawal, it would be because I approve of politicians actually doing what they said they would do when they ran for the office. The advisors on the ground are far more valuable in achieving the goal of pushing back IS than the CF-18s were ever going to be on their own, and so far as I know Trudeau has stated that the advisors will remain. What I objected to was your claim that we were completely pulling out when the truth is that we are not, we're just not going to continue pouring resources into the portion of the operation that is a token effort, for show rather than for effect.

I didn't call you a redneck, although I do think you're ignorant -- not stupid, just not well informed on the issues you've been raising. I've been providing you with reference citations specifically so that you can acquaint yourself with some verifiable facts. When I stop doing that, you'll know that I've written you off as a troll. Also, "chickenhawk" probably doesn't mean whatever you think it means (given that you extrapolated it to imply "redneck"), although you are correct in assuming it is not complimentary. It most commonly refers to someone who is keen to send troops off to war but doesn't care to go themselves (Marion Morrison is one of my go-to examples), but in this case I was stretching the metaphor to convey my opinion of someone taking a strong position on military action without demonstrating a grasp of the actual situation. There are undoubtedly better words to get my point across, but that is the one that appealed to me at that moment. And I didn't use it because you're from Saskatchewan because -- Surprise! -- I'm a Saskatchewan boy myself, born and raised (Moosomin represent, yo!). Every province has its share of rednecks, but I wouldn't characterize any of them as being full of rednecks by default. Well, maybe with the exception of Alberta... :ninja:

As I've stated previously here on this forum, I agree that Canada should be spending more on national defense than we have been in the last few decades. We have a NATO obligation to devote 2% GDP to defense spending, and under Harper we fell to half of that. We have an obligation to the men and women in the Canadian Forces to provide proper training, equipment and support, and that hasn't been happening despite having ground down our manpower and materiel during a decade of fighting in Afghanistan. I'm no dove, but we need to deploy our limited military resources in ways that are actually effective, not just to put on a show. Pretending to be able to project force on the global stage might have made Harper feel like a big player, but it isn't really an effective option with the resources that Canada can muster.

You're right about one thing. I do want to take step back from pretending that we can globally project offensive military force, when we simply lack the ability to do so except for pointless theatrics. I want to go back to using the Canadian Forces for tasks that can actually be accomplished with the resources that are actually available. You know, the sort of things that we have historically done, and in which you take so much pride.
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GreenGoo
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Re: ISIS

Post by GreenGoo »

I can even believe that systemic and institutional rape exists, but at this stage I can't imagine it's anything more than rare pockets at certain schools. The idea that American colleges are rape factories is a decidedly skewed one.

That said, rape cultural includes a lot more than actual rape, so who freaking knows. The definition is one of those variables that moves depending on who is defining it and what their agenda is.

The rape jokes I mentioned earlier could definitely be considered part of rape cultural, but again, those guys were literally expelled, not condoned and covered up.
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Re: ISIS

Post by GreenGoo »

Max Peck wrote:
As a matter of policy, I don't strongly care one way or the other about the CF-18s being withdrawn. They were deployed as a symbolic gesture by Harper so that he could play the part of being an international tough guy, not because it made any real sense from a strategic or tactical perspective. A half dozen planes conducting airstrikes without an accompanying ground force is never going to defeat IS, but it is a drain on operational resources.
Just to touch on this a bit. Our use of CF-18's is almost always a show of solidarity and support for whatever operation they are sent on. We don't have enough of them, and few of them work any more, to make a "significant" impact on the operation. Particularly when they are rarely (ever?) used outside of joint operations with the American air force. Meaning, if the Americans need more planes in the air they'll just put more planes in the air, not rely on Canada's small cadre of modern (ish) planes. So the use of our CF-18's is almost always political. It helps that they are great planes that can do a lot, well.

Our military in general on the other hand, while small (tiny, really) is highly trained and capable. They are often used (or have been in the past) in important tasks that require skill/ability, technology and will. Whether that is standard stuff like UN Peacekeeping, or more specialized, vital missions as part of a larger coalition operation, they are often used in a practical way.

Don't get me wrong, I love our CF-18s. I fell in love with them in the late 80's and they are a source of pride for me in our military. but they are not vital, they are expensive, they are suffering maintenance issues and for every one we can get flying the Americans can get 20+ (I don't know the exact number, it's rhetoric).

The politics and practicality of bombing in Syria aside, If we pull the planes but provide support in other substantial ways, I'm good with that.

edit: Amusingly, I began writing to address the paragraph I quoted, but as it turned out I pretty much echo'd your other thoughts as well, prior to having read them.
Last edited by GreenGoo on Thu Nov 12, 2015 2:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: ISIS

Post by Max Peck »

tjg_marantz wrote:American Colleges are as bad as ISIS at promoting rape culture.

Thanks MsMagazine! LOL

Douchebags.
Great, leave it to Quebecer living in Saskatchewan to derail a perfectly good thread on IS with a college rape culture link... ;)

Although, to be fair, Islamic State literally is a rape culture.
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Re: ISIS

Post by tjg_marantz »

Max Peck wrote:
tjg_marantz wrote:American Colleges are as bad as ISIS at promoting rape culture.

Thanks MsMagazine! LOL

Douchebags.
Great, leave it to Quebecer living in Saskatchewan to derail a perfectly good thread on IS with a college rape culture link... ;)

Although, to be fair, Islamic State literally is a rape culture.
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Re: ISIS

Post by Isgrimnur »

Max Peck wrote:(Moosomin represent, yo!).
I love that when I googled Moosomin to see if that was an actual place or a slang term, it showed me a map of the town with four elements on it: the city name, the two major roads running through town, and the Tim Hortons location.

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Re: ISIS

Post by Isgrimnur »

GreenGoo wrote:Don't get me wrong, I love our CF-18s. I fell in love with them in the late 80's and they are a source of pride for me in our military. but they are not vital, they are expensive, they are suffering maintenance issues and for every one we can get flying the Americans can get 20+ (I don't know the exact number, it's rhetoric).
Per the RCAF page (under tech Specs), you have 77 CF-188s.

It looks like we've gone down to 80 Hornets in favor of 348 Super Hornets.

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GreenGoo
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Re: ISIS

Post by GreenGoo »

News article from 2011 claimed the US had ~1000 hornets of various denominations (about 1/3 super hornets, 2/3 hornets).

And that's assuming the US only uses F-18 variants, and ignores the zillions of other similarly capable craft. We have CF 18's. Nothing else.

I will say that 77 CF 18's is more than I thought we had still mission capable. We don't actually send that many on any particular operation of course.

For Syria/Iraq, we sent 6.
As part of Joint Task Force-Iraq, Air Task Force-Iraq (ATF-I) contributes to coalition air operations against the so-called ISIS.This mission extension and expansion allows the CAF to strike the so-called ISIS targets in both Iraq and Syria. The use of air power contributes to the destruction of the so-called ISIS infrastructure and equipment, denying them the military means to attack Iraqi security forces or coalition assets.

The ATF-I includes:

six CF-18 Hornet fighter aircraft;
one CC-150T Polaris aerial refueller to support coalition air operations;
two CP-140M Aurora surveillance aircraft to contribute to coalition intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities; and
aircrew support elements.
I'll also admit that the CF 18s were in far heavier use than I originally thought.
Attention: Latest News - Air operations

As of 10 November 2015, Air Task Force-Iraq conducted 1726 sorties:

CF-188 Hornet fighters conducted 1105 sorties;
CC-150T Polaris aerial refueller conducted 301 sorties, delivering some 17,860,000 pounds of fuel to coalition aircraft; and
CP-140 Aurora aircraft conducted 320 reconnaissance missions.
That's a butt load of sorties considering that the CF 18s only became active in this mission during November 2014.
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Re: ISIS

Post by deucalion »

Max Peck wrote: I didn't call you a redneck, although I do think you're ignorant -- not stupid, just not well informed on the issues you've been raising. I've been providing you with reference citations specifically so that you can acquaint yourself with some verifiable facts. When I stop doing that, you'll know that I've written you off as a troll.
Fair enough.

I guess I see posting on this forum as being akin to a casual conversation between friends or acquaintances while having a beer. I enjoy discussing different issues in the world and I will be first to admit that I am not always as well informed as others on this forum but I do try and learn from other people's perspectives. However when it stops being fun and more like work or a debate / competition that needs to be won for whatever reason then I guess I will move on to converse with someone else or change the subject. It seems like this is the case here. So I will move onto other threads - but credit to you in that I will not be as casual about what I post in the future :D
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Re: ISIS

Post by Kraken »

Canadian flame wars. :lol:
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Re: ISIS

Post by Moliere »

"The world is suffering more today from the good people who want to mind other men's business than it is from the bad people who are willing to let everybody look after their own individual affairs." - Clarence Darrow
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Re: ISIS

Post by GreenGoo »

I didn't find any of the questions particularly difficult, although some were asking what kind of horse I should buy before I knew what my cart was going to be and what it was going to carry.

But debates aren't about actually following through on the answers, they are about saying the right things that people want to hear so that they'll vote for you. Some of my answers would almost certainly be unpopular so they couldn't be uttered in public. Some of the questions have answers that should probably be answered behind closed doors.
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Max Peck
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Re: ISIS

Post by Max Peck »

Kraken wrote:Canadian flame wars. :lol:
Nah, in an actual Canadian flame war everyone apologizes, shakes hands and hugs it out at the end.
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Re: ISIS

Post by Max Peck »

Terry Milewski shares some thoughts about the CF mission against IS, and whether Trudeau may be rethinking his position after the Paris attacks.

Trudeau and ISIS: Is the bombing still a bad idea?
On Thursday, eight days after Justin Trudeau took office, two CF-18 fighters with laser-guided bombs screamed above the desert city of Sinjar, in northern Iraq. Below lay a crucial artery for the so-called Islamic State: Highway 47, the main east-west route between ISIS headquarters in Raqqah, Syria, and the ISIS-held city of Mosul, Iraq. On the ground, Kurdish forces were mounting an assault on the ISIS garrison at Sinjar in a bid to cut its supply line. The Canadian pilots' task was to take out an obstacle to the Kurdish advance: an Islamic State unit dug in to the east of Sinjar at Tal Afar. A second target was an ISIS ammunition store close to Sinjar itself. Both targets were hit. The counteroffensive worked. With the aid of the Canadian, as well as U.S., pilots, plus Canadian special forces trainers on the ground, the Kurdish forces drove ISIS out of Sinjar. It was hailed as a "liberation" by the remaining Yazidi community, who had been massacred and enslaved by the Islamic State.

But... what happened to Justin Trudeau's pledge to bring the CF-18s home and end their participation in the war on ISIS? And will that pledge survive the massacre in Paris?
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Re: ISIS

Post by GreenGoo »

6 CF 18's couldn't and didn't prevent Paris and won't prevent the next one. I fail to see how Paris changes anything with regard to policy in Syria.
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Re: ISIS

Post by Kraken »

GreenGoo wrote:6 CF 18's couldn't and didn't prevent Paris and won't prevent the next one. I fail to see how Paris changes anything with regard to policy in Syria.
ISIS targeted Paris because it is bombing them. If Canada withdraws, the terrorists win. At least in Canada they do.
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Re: ISIS

Post by Max Peck »

Kraken wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:6 CF 18's couldn't and didn't prevent Paris and won't prevent the next one. I fail to see how Paris changes anything with regard to policy in Syria.
ISIS targeted Paris because it is bombing them. If Canada withdraws, the terrorists win. At least in Canada they do.
That would be the political spin, from some quarters at least. (For those who don't know Mr. Kenney, he's one of the likely picks as Harper's replacement.)
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Re: ISIS

Post by El Guapo »

GreenGoo wrote:6 CF 18's couldn't and didn't prevent Paris and won't prevent the next one. I fail to see how Paris changes anything with regard to policy in Syria.
At least according to the CBC article that Max Peck posted, Canadian CF-18s apparently played an important role in helping the Kurds drive ISIS out of Sinjar, Iraq. The potential way in which Canadian bombers could help prevent further attacks by Paris is by helping additional anti-ISIS offensives, eventually destroying the Islamic State. That would both destroy operational bases for further attacks and destroy the underlying rationale for such attacks (because there would be no Caliphate to attack on behalf of).

Of course, that wouldn't end terrorism, or even Islamist terrorism, but it's a plausible way in which Canadian military action could end ISIS terrorism. With the usual caveats about the risks and unpredictability of war, naturally.

Though to be clear, continued anti-ISIS action probably increases the odds that ISIS terrorism will happen in Canada, at least in the short term.
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Re: ISIS

Post by Max Peck »

El Guapo wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:6 CF 18's couldn't and didn't prevent Paris and won't prevent the next one. I fail to see how Paris changes anything with regard to policy in Syria.
At least according to the CBC article that Max Peck posted, Canadian CF-18s apparently played an important role in helping the Kurds drive ISIS out of Sinjar, Iraq. The potential way in which Canadian bombers could help prevent further attacks by Paris is by helping additional anti-ISIS offensives, eventually destroying the Islamic State. That would both destroy operational bases for further attacks and destroy the underlying rationale for such attacks (because there would be no Caliphate to attack on behalf of).

Of course, that wouldn't end terrorism, or even Islamist terrorism, but it's a plausible way in which Canadian military action could end ISIS terrorism. With the usual caveats about the risks and unpredictability of war, naturally.

Though to be clear, continued anti-ISIS action probably increases the odds that ISIS terrorism will happen in Canada, at least in the short term.
CF-18s struck 2 targets in support of the assault on Sinjar, out of possibly 250 air strikes in support of the operation. This was an example of how air strikes can be used to good effect (i.e. in support of ground forces), but Canadian air power per se was a very modest factor in the overall success of the endeavour.

It appears that Canadian special forces advisors may have also been involved on the ground.
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Re: ISIS

Post by Pyperkub »

An excellent look at Islam and how ISIS is (should be) perceived by the Muslim world:
's not enough for Muslims to condemn terrorism, such as what occurred Friday in Paris, a brutal ISIS assault that left 129 dead and many more injured.

We must build communities in which extremists cannot find a foothold, let alone a launching pad, to take their terror to the ends of the Earth. I don't mean to say Muslims are collectively or personally responsible. But I also can't tolerate the idea that we don't have a problem.

ISIS believes itself to be Islamic. The group is Muslim, after all. Members quote from our scripture. They claim to act in our name. They kill in the name of our faith. And they seek to recruit their murderers from our communities, even and perhaps especially in the West...

...The Islamic State is at war with how Muslims understand Islam.

And let me be clear here: They represent a mortal danger to Islam.

Whenever I teach on Islam, inevitably someone asks, "Well, what about such-and-such verse of the Quran?" The fact is, the people who argue about Islam using isolated verses of the Quran alone are usually Islamophobes or Islamic extremists.

I'm more concerned by the latter...

...The reason there are schools of Islamic law, no centralized authority in Islam, and so much debate and discussion between Muslims is because the premise where traditional Muslim scholars regularly begin is one that jihadists, and many Islamists, cannot abide:

The Quran contradicts itself. The Prophet Mohammed said conflicting things.

Merely citing what the Quran says, or what Mohammed taught, say doesn't mean much, since the Quran and Mohammed often appear to offer conflicting advice.

How you make sense of a vast corpus of texts -- intended for different situations and different contexts, anchored to different points in Mohammed's life, reflecting the circumstances of a small, 7th-century Arabian city -- requires years of deep learning, debate and a willingness to admit that we might be wrong.None of which ISIS is interested in...

...In ISIS' Islam, there's only black and white. Every text has just one meaning, and it's the meaning they prefer. In fact, in the terrorist group's reading, religion itself can only have one form, which is why ISIS might frequently invoke the Quran, but only the parts of it that support their extremist views.

Don't misunderstand my saying so: There's violence in the Quran, in the Islamic tradition, and in Islamic history. To deny that would be ridiculous.

But there are many more passages in the Quran that condemn violence, that note that God gives people the freedom to choose their faith, that it is not our job to impose religion on others, that killing a single innocent person is the same as killing every person. These verses are, however, nowhere to be found in ISIS propaganda. The group reads Islam selectively...

...Mohammed warned his followers that a people would arise "who read Quran," who would be more religiously observant than any around, but that "nothing of Islam would go past their throats" -- that is, they would talk the talk, but never walk the walk. In fact Mohammed described them not only as "the worst of all people, but the worst of all creation."
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!

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Re: ISIS

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Russia plane crash: 'Terror act' downed A321 over Egypt's Sinai
Russia's security chief says an act of terror brought down the Russian A321 airliner in Egypt last month, killing all 224 people on board. "Traces of foreign explosives" were found on debris from the Airbus plane, FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov told Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr Putin vowed to "find and punish" those behind the attack over the Sinai peninsula. A branch of so-called Islamic State said it downed the plane. Nearly all the dead were Russians.

Mr Bortnikov said a bomb had been planted on board the Metrojet plane, equivalent to up to 1kg of TNT. The Kremlin website carried a transcript of the meeting. The bomb shattered the plane mid-air on 31 October, he said, "which explains the wide dispersal of fuselage pieces".
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Re: ISIS

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Frontline piece on ISIS in Afghanistan. A must watch.
ISIS is on the rise in Afghanistan -- and they say they're getting young kids to join the jihad. In a special report, FRONTLINE correspondent Najibullah Quraishi reveals on film the degree to which ISIS is gaining a foothold in the country, and how they're focusing their efforts on training a new generation of jihadists. Then in Pt. 2, how one police unit in Pakistan is fighting the Taliban.
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Re: ISIS

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I was just thinking this morning that we've been talking about Syria and Iraq but not Afghanistan.

Spoke Thought too soon. :(
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Re: ISIS

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GreenGoo wrote:I was just thinking this morning that we've been talking about Syria and Iraq but not Afghanistan.

Spoke Thought too soon. :(
You might want to add Egypt and Libya to the mix too.
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Re: ISIS

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Islamic State Says It Has Executed Chinese and Norwegian Hostages

Uniting the world against a common enemy? It's like ISIS is secretly out to create world peace.
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Re: ISIS

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If they were from space, I'd say The Watchmen was actually a documentary.
Covfefe!
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Re: ISIS

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Moliere wrote:Islamic State Says It Has Executed Chinese and Norwegian Hostages

Uniting the world against a common enemy? It's like ISIS is secretly out to create world peace.
It shows their total disconnect from reality. On the one hand they seem to be astute in terms of recruitment/PR and to some degree tactical operations. But on the other, they are a disparate collection of various sects living in a fantasyland.

One thing that struck me in that Frontline piece is how they are educating children. Educating probably isn't the right word though, more like training. 5-year-olds are taught how to fire handguns. They can field strip all the common small arms by 9 or so. Their lessons include how to take hostages and how to maximize civilian casualties when blowing yourself up.

The "first generation", those in their teens are well trained for guerilla fighting and suicide bombing. Martyrs are already earmarked and looking forward to their chance. It is brainwashing in the worst possible and most dangerous way.

But most of these kids are probably functionally illiterate and have absolutely no idea about the broader world in general. It makes for great foot soldiers and terrorists but is a disaster in terms of leadership and a productive society. I assume that leadership comes from the educated, privileged classes, those who are destined to teach and lead and never strap a bomb to themselves. The problem I see for them is that it's impossible to sustain a movement of that sort against the rest of the world. They have no place in any society except their own. No one wants ISIS at their border. Almost no one will trade with them. The only question is how much damage they do before they're wiped out.
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Re: ISIS

Post by Moliere »

If they have made enemies of the Russians (blowing up their plane) and the Chinese (killing their hostage) along with various other countries where are they getting supplies? It's not like they have an industrial base to build munitions. I know they were selling museum and other historical artifacts to make money, but that's a dead end road. If North Korea supports them then NK loses Chinese support. Maybe some African dictators?
"The world is suffering more today from the good people who want to mind other men's business than it is from the bad people who are willing to let everybody look after their own individual affairs." - Clarence Darrow
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