The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant Megathread

[CountDeMoney]

ISIS has beheaded 700 members of a tribe that rebelled against them in Syria 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/islamic-state-group-executes-700-syria-2014816123945662121.html

Well they were following the example of Mohammeds own personal beheading of hundreds of members of the Qurayza tribe.

Kinda makes you wonder how fast Islam would've spread if Mohammed's preferred method of execution was a grapefruit spoon.

[garbon]

ISIS has beheaded 700 members of a tribe that rebelled against them in Syria 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/islamic-state-group-executes-700-syria-2014816123945662121.html

Well they were following the example of Mohammeds own personal beheading of hundreds of members of the Qurayza tribe.

Kinda makes you wonder how fast Islam would've spread if Mohammed's preferred method of execution was a grapefruit spoon.

Castration anyone?

[Martinus]

I only just saw that apparently media outlets in Egypt/Lebanon are reporting that my girl helped start up ISIS.

Look it may not be the best Temptations song but starting a murderous Jihad seems a little undeserved.

I don't know. Dating garbon must be a huge trauma.

[Martinus]

There was an interesting piece in the Telegraph precisely on the use of beheading

I don't think it was particularly insightful: "Savages use barbaric tactics and more civilised folks are shocked" is not such an original observation...

The knowledge of usefulness (and limitations) of terror tactics exists in the West - what differentiates us from these animals is not that we don't know how or why to use it, but the fact that we choose not to use it, because it is morally abhorrent to us.

[Viking]

ISIS has beheaded 700 members of a tribe that rebelled against them in Syria 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/islamic-state-group-executes-700-syria-2014816123945662121.html

Well they were following the example of Mohammeds own personal beheading of hundreds of members of the Qurayza tribe.

Kinda makes you wonder how fast Islam would've spread if Mohammed's preferred method of execution was a grapefruit spoon.

Alan Rickman called, he wants his joke back.

[Viking]

Well they were following the example of Mohammeds own personal beheading of hundreds of members of the Qurayza tribe.

No doubt that's part of it. But I can't help but feel we're playing into their own game if we just focus on the religious aspect rather than the possible strategic purpose. There was an interesting piece in the Telegraph precisely on the use of beheading:

That's not playing their own game. Thats listening to what they say about why they are doing things. Caliphatic Kremlinology is just as silly as the regular one and says more about the Kremlinologist than it does about the Kremlin.

When the prophet was betrayed by a tribe that supported his enemies he attacked it, beheaded the adult males, sold the boys and older women into slavery and took the young women as sex slaves. This is what ISIS did. Following the prophets example means asking yourself "what would mohammed do" when a tribe betrays you? Well the prophet did answer that when he dealt with the betrayal of the Banu Qurayza.

[mongers]

"We are fighting terrorist, we are fighting terrorism on behalf of the world."

Peshmerga commander Abdel Rahman Kawrini fighting ISIS. 

[mongers]

U.S. spending millions to blow up captured U.S. materiel in Iraq
By Jason Fields August 18, 2014

In the United States, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs), AR-15s and camouflage body armor all made an appearance on the streets of a suburb in the heartland, helping to give a tense situation the push needed to turn into a week of riots. American citizens in Ferguson, Missouri, feeling they were being occupied by a foreign army, rather than their friendly neighborhood cop on the beat.

MRAPs didn't get a better rap overseas, either. In what's still being called Iraq — at least for the sake of convenience — the U.S. Air Force has resumed bombing missions in the northern part of the "country." The aim of the missions is stated as being the defense of a minority group known as the Yazidis, who practice a religion unique to themselves and are under threat by the Islamic State, a jihadi group that controls a large chunk of territory in Syria and Iraq.

The extremist cadre Islamic State — which has declared itself to be the new caliphate, representing God's will on earth — has had an incredible string of military successes over the last few months. They've taken a lot of territory. They've slaughtered a lot of people, including civilians. They've imposed what they say is Islamic law — though many Islamic scholars would beg to disagree.

And Islamic State's  captured an enormous amount of U.S. weaponry, originally intended for the rebuilt Iraqi Army. You know — the one that collapsed in terror in front of the Islamic State, back when they were just ISIL? The ones who dropped their uniforms, and rifles and ran away?

They left behind the bigger equipment, too, including M1 Abrams tanks (about $6 million each), 52 M198 Howitzer cannons ($527,337), and MRAPs (about $1 million) similar to the ones in use in Ferguson.

Now, U.S. warplanes are flying sorties, at a cost somewhere between $22,000 to 30,000 per hour for the F-16s, to drop bombs that cost at least $20,000 each, to destroy this captured equipment.

That means if an F-16 were to take off from Incirclik Air Force Base in Turkey and fly two hours to Erbil, Iraq, and successfully drop both of its bombs on one target each, it costs the United States somewhere between $84,000 to $104,000 for the sortie and destroys a minimum of $1 million and a maximum of $12 million in U.S.-made equipment.

.....

rest of article here:
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/08/18/how-much-it-costs-the-u-s-to-blow-up-captured-u-s-military-hardware-in-iraq/

[Tamas]

Isn't that like the wet dream of Keynes-ism?

[CountDeMoney]

ISIS has beheaded 700 members of a tribe that rebelled against them in Syria 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/islamic-state-group-executes-700-syria-2014816123945662121.html

Well they were following the example of Mohammeds own personal beheading of hundreds of members of the Qurayza tribe.

Kinda makes you wonder how fast Islam would've spread if Mohammed's preferred method of execution was a grapefruit spoon.

Alan Rickman called, he wants his joke back.

Fine, let's go the Gilligan's Island route and use two coconut halves instead.

[garbon]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/19/world/meast/isis-james-foley/

Video shows ISIS beheading U.S. journalist James Foley

A video released by ISIS shows the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley and threatens the life of another American if President Barack Obama doesn't end military operations in Iraq.

In the video posted Tuesday on YouTube, Foley is seen kneeling next to a man dressed in black. He reads a message, presumably scripted by his captors, that his "real killer'' is America.

"I wish I had more time. I wish I could have the hope for freedom to see my family once again," Foley can be heard saying in the video.

He is then shown being beheaded.

The National Security Council is aware of the video.

"The intelligence community is working as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity. If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We will provide more information when it is available," NSC spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

Foley disappeared in November 2012 in northwest Syria, near the border with Turkey. He was reportedly forced into a vehicle by gunmen; he was not heard from again. At the time of his disappearance, he was working for the GlobalPost.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Facebook group set up to support Foley and his family, "Free James Foley," wrote, "We know that many of you are looking for confirmation or answers. Please be patient until we all have more information, and keep the Foleys in your thoughts and prayers."

The video also shows another American journalist. His life is said by the militants in the video to hang in the balance, depending on what Obama does next.

...

I never really understand things like this. Seems like beheading Americans on video isn't a good way to get the US out of your business.

[Viking]

I never really understand things like this. Seems like beheading Americans on video isn't a good way to get the US out of your business.

Like I alluded to earlier. These people are not operating with the scope of what we consider rational and intelligent behaviour. They are not doing this because they think it is smart, they are doing this because their book tells them to. They are not calculating their behaviour to manipulate american public opinion like so many terror groups which accrue useful idiots and fellow travellers in the west. They read the book, the book says behead infidels, so they behead infidels.

[garbon]

I never really understand things like this. Seems like beheading Americans on video isn't a good way to get the US out of your business.

Like I alluded to earlier. These people are not operating with the scope of what we consider rational and intelligent behaviour. They are not doing this because they think it is smart, they are doing this because their book tells them to. They are not calculating their behaviour to manipulate american public opinion like so many terror groups which accrue useful idiots and fellow travellers in the west. They read the book, the book says behead infidels, so they behead infidels.

So it seems like they just pick and choose the passages that they like?

[Josquius]

I don't think you can so easily right off everything they're doing as just mindlessly following the quaran, which as shitty as such books tend to be, isn't actually so big on ethnic cleansing what with jizya et al.
Some of their fundamentalism is hurting their ability to operate but a lot of it is well thought out to try and accomplish the goals they want.
The way I see them at the moment, as much as they are trying to set up a lasting state and are very well organised in doing that, they seem to have an awareness that the existence of their state is only down to the whim of the west. So they better hurry up and accomplish their primary goal of ethnically (well, religiously) cleansing as broad a area as possible into something more to their liking.

[mongers]

More bombing please.