Islamic State vs. The World (except Canada)

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I agree that something had to be done about ISIS. But unfortunately once ISIS is weakened we can expect some violence against Sunnis.

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It seems like the Kurds quickly are quickly retaking the areas they lost to ISIS.
With the air strikes and some reorganization of the army, I think ISIS can be kicked out of Iraq in a few months (or weeks?).
Unfortunately, they will be able to take refuge in Syria and nothing can be done there, except watching horrible people killing each others, and thousands of innocent civilians with them.

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Yeah you have many people with chaotic lives hoping for redemption by fighting for God. Unfortunately, it's been a quite common thing through the history of religions. Needless to say, they are as deluded about the concept of God than the crusaders were a thousand years ago. There is not much to do about it. Well if you believe in God you can always try to pray for them.

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It's good to support the kurds, but they don't really care of what happens far from Kurdistan, so they will secure their area, help a bit further is there is something in return for them, and that's all. It's not like they're going run after ISIS all over Iraq and Syria.

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"We have no clue about what to do, so let's drop a few bombs randomly and think after." I always wonder how a guy like that somehow manages to get responsibilities.

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Many of them will come back disappointed and will try to go back to their normal life, when they realize the utopia they are looking for does not exist... They should be allowed to do so, if they accept to remain under surveillance for a while.

After all there are foreign fighters fighting for both sides of the conflict in Ukraine and no one talks about removing their citizenship or stuff like that.

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If some of you have 4 hours a week that may be interesting: https://www.edx.org/course/bux/bux-intl301x-war-greater-middle-east-1556#.VCJ3QPmSyAU

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So, Turkey has now allowed its army to enter Syria and Iraq if necessary. Do you think it's going to happen?

Turkey has no friends in the Syrian conflict: ISIL, Assad and the Kurds - they are all Turkish foes, and any of them could it the country badly. There is no doubt than the Turks do not want to be involved, but unfortunately for them, it seems like they cannot avoid trouble indefinitely, and they are walking on an extremely thin line...

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Did they make any distinction between ground forces and air forces?

If they are talking about air forces, it looks like the US air force is doing the job without that, but that may come handy for others like UK or France who so far do not have enough air forces in the area to go beyond symbolic action.

If they are talking about ground forces, and Turkey seems keen on the idea since they are talking for example of creating a buffer zone inside Syrian territory along the border, I don't think anyone else will send troops, they may have to do it themselves. Except in case of a UN mandate?

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12 killed during Kurds/police clashes in Turkey.

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Hollande now officially supports the idea of a bufferzone at the Syrian-Turkish border. I think we are going to hear more about this in the next days.

Turkey was already under heavy international pressure, after yesterday's riots they are now under heavy internal pressure too. If I am not wrong Erdogan's idea was to create a 25km bufferzone within Syrian territory that could also be used by refugees. Of course it serves Turkish interests: most of the border is controlled by the Kurds and Turkey would be really happy to retake it from them.
For Westerners, it's a very thin line where two of the main key-players against ISIS are also basically at war against each other. We like the Kurds, but Turkey remains a more valuable ally than them...

With Turkish troops on the ground + Western air strikes, it would be fairly easy to take this territory. But I guess that Turkey cannot simply invade Syria. A UN mandate would be great, but would Russia support it? A few months ago, they were still supporting Assad, but they have not been very vocal on the subject since then (they have obviously been busy with other things).

A weird agreement would have to be found; the Syrian Kurds and the PKK can work together, the Syrian Kurds and Turkey would have to work together, but the PKK and Turkey just hate each other.



On a more self-centered topic, French-Turkish relations have been quite bad during the last years, there is here a good opportunity to fix that. I think both countries have very similar positions in this conflict, differing slightly from the US position.



On a side note, besides the deadly riots in Turkey, there have been some clashes between Kurds and Islamists in Germany, with several injured. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pviV4-F825w
It reminds me of the pro-Palestinian vs pro-Israelis clashes in France a few weeks ago.

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So why doesn't Turkey want to help this Kurd village?

Because they don't want to choose between ISIS and the Kurds; they are equal evils for them. And Turkey cannot just invade Syria like that. A few weeks ago in Ukrain everyone considered this kind of behaviour unacceptable.

You could equally ask why doesn't the US or the UK or France want to help this Kurd village?  If it's going to take ground forces to save it, then why is it Turkey's responsibility alone to take care of it?

The Turkish army is literally few hundreds meter away from the town. At least they could allow volunteers to cross the border from Turkey to Syria.


The US is helping with air strikes, but they cannot achieve much in this urban environment.

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Shiite militias committing war crimes against Sunni civilians in their fight against ISIL in Iraq... http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/state-backed-iraq-shiite-militias-commit-war-crimes-amnesty.aspx?pageID=238&nID=72935&NewsCatID=352 This is endless.

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The rumors that ISIS is training pilots is great news for the proponents of a no-fly zone, and those who want to get rid of Assad... We will see whether the US are tricked into enforcing this no-fly zone.

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The US military dropped weapons to the PYD last Sunday in Kobane. Some weapons were also dropped to ISIL by mistake.

Meanwhile, Turkey is allowing Iraqi Kurds to cross its territory to reach Kobane. Syrian and Turkish Kurds are not allowed.

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It does not seem like the guy was in any way related to ISIS. Apparently he never left Canada and was a drug addict living in a homeless shelter.

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I read this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/magazine/theo-padnos-american-journalist-on-being-kidnapped-tortured-and-released-in-syria.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0 and I found funny the part where the naive foreigner hopes several times that the Free Syrian Army are the good guys who are going to save him, only to find out that every time, they casually hand him over to the Al-Nusra front. He is genuinely puzzled.

I also like the very casual character of this:

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The Islamic State vs Lebanon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvil3E3QgMY#t=1233

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Significant nuances between Turkey and US fine-tuned: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/significant-nuances-between-turkey-and-us-fine-tuned.aspx?pageID=238&nID=74392&NewsCatID=359