The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant Megathread

[Ed Anger]

MK II Dutch Oven

To which I'm guessing Mrs. Ed has built up an immunity to by this point.

Nope.   

[mongers]

Some good news from Kobane:

Islamic State 'retreating' in key Syria town of Kobane

Islamic State militants are retreating in parts of the strategic Syrian town of Kobane, a Kurdish official has said.

Idriss Nassan told the BBC IS had lost control of more than 20% of the town in recent days.

US defence officials say hundreds of militants have been killed around Kobane as US-led air strikes intensify.

The news came as US President Barack Obama and European leaders agreed on the need to do more to stop the IS advance in Iraq and Syria.

In a video conference, Mr Obama and the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Italy agreed to step up support for an "inclusive political approach" in Iraq and training for local forces in Iraq and Syria, a statement by UK Prime Minister David Cameron's office said.
'Cleaning operations'

Mr Nassan said Kurdish YPG forces in Kobane were making progress against IS.

"Maybe in the few past days [Islamic State] was controlling about 40% of the city of Kobane, but now... less than 20% of the city is under control of [IS]...," he said.

"Today YPG started cleaning operations in the east and south-east of Kobane."

US defence department spokesman John Kirby said "several hundred" militants had been killed in and around the besieged town, though "it could very well still fall" to IS

Full article here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29629357


Ironic that some of America's most effective defacto allies turn out to be revolutionary socialists.

[Valmy]

Ironic that some of America's most effective defacto allies turn out to be revolutionary socialists.

In retrospect we should have been all for Communism in the Muslim world.  Oh well.

[Viking]

Some good news from Kobane:

Is the hammer (US Navy and Air Force) and anvil (Kurds in Kobani) smashing IS? Hope So. Recently in Norweigan Newspapers the Norwegian Police reported that no militants have returned from Syria. Is this because they all get killed? Certainly not, ISIS wouldn't be there if it didn't have a core cadre of blooded and experienced soldiers. Though one can hope that the result of the Syria was is that the nutjobs get killed as cannon fodder.

[PJL]

Ironic that some of America's most effective defacto allies turn out to be revolutionary socialists.

In retrospect we should have been all for Communism in the Muslim world.  Oh well.

In retrospect we should have let Saddam rule the peninsula. At least he would have been more hostile to the Islamists than Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States. Only real problem would have been him having the biggest control over the oil market, but we've got that problem with Saudi Arabia anyway.

[crazy canuck]

Well that was my point, and one that Viking in his inimitable style completely failed to pick up.

Hell, I actually remember seeing the TV news reports of the fighting in 1975.

I wasn't endorsing the view, just observing it exists.

It's mongers.  Just read his stuff and move on.  Don't try to understand it; that way lies madness.

It's Grumbler. He'll be dead soon and sadly the forum will just get a little bit more pleasant. 

Not likely.  If you go through recorded time you will see signs of his presence.  Some even wonder whether the stories in myths and legends of beings with the supernatural ability to cause discontent in any group can all be traced back to him.

[grumbler]

It's Grumbler. He'll be dead soon and sadly the forum will just get a little bit more pleasant. 

Sadly, you won't be alive to see my funeral, and, happily, after you die I will get a chance to see the forum get just a little bit less stupid.

In your honor we will change the title of the thread announcing your death at least seven times, each time to something even more stupid and senseless, just to get that last bit of mongerness, before we completely forget you ever existed.

[alfred russel]

It's Grumbler. He'll be dead soon and sadly the forum will just get a little bit more pleasant. 

They've been saying that since the Roman times, and it still hasn't happened.

That was funny and clever. 

[Eddie Teach]

Way to pat yourself on the back. 

It was pretty clever. "the forum didn't exist back then... Oh, right."

[Admiral Yi]

Way to pat yourself on the back. 

I get it. 

[mongers]

It's Grumbler. He'll be dead soon and sadly the forum will just get a little bit more pleasant. 

Sadly, you won't be alive to see my funeral, and, happily, after you die I will get a chance to see the forum get just a little bit less stupid.

In your honor we will change the title of the thread announcing your death at least seven times, each time to something even more stupid and senseless, just to get that last bit of mongerness, before we completely forget you ever existed.

Why would I want to see that. One day you'll just stop posting here and the place will just get a little bit more pleasant. 

Totally irrelevant whether I'm 'here' or not, I can take solace in knowing this place while losing your unpleasantness and tendency to make personal attacks, will also lose your positive and reasoned contributions here, but that's something you seem determined to undermine by your failed bullying persona. 

So have a nice time whilst you're still with us and consider in the final 'reckoning' more people might have a higher opinion or respect for you, if you'd conducted yourself better.


edit:
I'll just repost this as a reminder of your cowardice on this matter:

That's the point.  The guys on warship1 are really smart - they can argue details about armor and shells and how many hits the USS Massachusetts scored in the Battle of Casablanca citing the ship's deck logs and still end up with the last three pages of any thread just being messages calling each other idiots.  It really makes me appreciate this forum more.  We may have our idiots but they are our idiots.  I even may be one of them.  But the idiot-bashing here isn't anywhere near the norm it is elsewhere on this internet-thingy.

You say you appreciate this forum for it's well below average idiot bashing, yet say this:

That's pretty much my stance as well.  People say stupid things, and it amuses me to point out how stupid their statements are.  If people don't like it, I can live with that.  This is the place for being like that.  I can't mock my students like I can mock the adults who post here.

Ironically, I really don't post much at all on my other favorite site, Warships1.  You think people here are nasty and petty?  Those guys have an absolutely enormous amount of collective factual knowledge abut everything to do with warships (guns, armor, propulsion, design trade offs, tactic, strategy, and all from primary sources) and have been a community longer than Languish has, and yet the noise-to-signal ratio is 10:1 at least, because they bicker like old married couples.  I learn a lot just reading, but I don't dare enter the fray, because the fray is almost never about facts.  There are no idiots there, but that doesn't stop them from being The Internet Personified.

So you're actively trying to bring it up towards the norm by some of your posting behaviour here. 

Sounds like you're trying to have your cake and eat it too.

[grumbler]

Totally irrelevant whether I'm 'here' or not, I can take solace in knowing this place while losing your unpleasantness and tendency to make personal attacks, will also lose your positive and reasoned contributions here, but that's something you seem determined to undermine by your failed bullying persona. 

Actually, this exchange started with your unpleasantness and your tendency to make personal attacks.  Your bullying persona failed here, pot.

So have a nice time whilst you're still with us and consider in the final 'reckoning' more people might have a higher opinion or respect for you, if you'd conducted yourself better.

  I don't really care about your having a higher opinion of me or your respect, so I reckon I will conduct myself by my standards, and not yours.

edit:
I'll just repost this as a reminder of your cowardice on this matter:

(snip of irrelevant drivel)

"Cowardice?"  If that's your standard of "cowardice" I am happy to be a coward in your eyes.

Not sure what any of this has to do with "The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant," but I'll play the thread drift game.

[Jacob]

Sometimes the grumbler & mongers show is entertaining. This is one of those times. Thanks guys

I'd totally watch a road movie starring the two of you making driving across the US or Eastern Europe or some place like that.

[grumbler]

Sometimes the grumbler & mongers show is entertaining. This is one of those times. Thanks guys

I'd totally watch a road movie starring the two of you making driving across the US or Eastern Europe or some place like that.

That movie would be about five minutes long.  That would be the length of time it would take me to walk to the train station! 

It is an amusing exchange, though.  I am enjoying it myself, and glad you can come along for the ride.  It's pretty much exactly the sort of "they are our idiots [note the plural]" exchange I had in mind when I wrote that phrase.

[Jacob]

That movie would be about five minutes long.  That would be the length of time it would take me to walk to the train station! 

Well obviously there'd be some sort of plot reason you couldn't. Maybe you're physically handcuffed to one another; maybe each of you has some sort of goal you can only achieve by taking this road trip, a goal worthy enough to (maybe) put up with the other guy.

It is an amusing exchange, though.  I am enjoying it myself, and glad you can come along for the ride.  It's pretty much exactly the sort of "they are our idiots [note the plural]" exchange I had in mind when I wrote that phrase.

Our idiots indeed