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Islamic State seizes town of Palmyra in Syria

Islamic State extremists captured the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra after government defense lines there collapsed Wednesday, a stunning triumph for the group only days after it captured the strategic city of Ramadi in Iraq.

It was unclear by nightfall how close to Palmyra’s famed archaeological site the militants had advanced, activists said, adding that Syrian soldiers were seen fleeing the area.

The ruins at Palmyra are one of the world’s most renowned historic sites and there were fears the extremists would destroy them as they did major archaeological sites in Iraq. The UNESCO world heritage site is famous for its 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades and other ruins and priceless artifacts. Before the war, thousands of tourists a year visited the remote desert outpost, a cherished landmark referred to by Syrians as the “Bride of the Desert.”

The fall of the town to the Islamic State group after a week of fighting was an enormous loss to the government, not only because of its cultural significance, but because it opens the way for the extremists to advance to key government-held areas, including Damascus and the Syrian coast to the south and southwest, as well as the contested eastern city of Deir el-Zour to the east.

Next to it are also important gas and oil fields in the country’s central region.

It was not immediately clear how close the militants were to the ruins, which are just southwest of the town.

“I am terrified,” said Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s director-general of antiquities and museums. “This is a PR battle for Daesh, and they will insist on scoring victory against civilization by destroying” the ancient ruins, he said, using the Arabic acronym for the group.

The fall of Palmyra just days after Islamic State fighters seized the strategic Iraqi city of Ramadi showed the extremists’ ability to advance on multiple fronts at opposite ends of a sprawling battlefield that spans the two countries — and erased any sense that recent IS losses in Tikrit and elsewhere had dealt a major blow to the militants.

The Syrian Observatory for human rights reported that government forces collapsed in the face of IS attacks and withdrew from the town late Wednesday. Beibares Tellawi, an activist in Homs province, also confirmed IS was in control of the town.

He said the militants had reached the notorious Tadmur prison, where thousands of Syrian dissidents have been imprisoned and tortured over the years. The fate of the prisoners, believed to number around 1,000, was not immediately known.

Syrian state TV acknowledged that pro-government forces had withdrawn from Palmyra, and the IS-affiliated Aaamaq News Agency reported the town was “under the complete control of the Islamic State fighters.” IS fighters had also seized control of the Jazl oil field in the Homs countryside, the Aaamaq report said.

Earlier Wednesday, Homs governor Talal Barazzi said Islamic State militants had infiltrated overnight into some districts in the northern part of Palmyra and were engaged in fierce gun battles with government forces as snipers roamed the streets. He said at least 19 people had died by early Wednesday, including seven civilians and 12 from the pro-government militia known as the National Defense Forces. It was not immediately known how many people died as fighting continued throughout the day.

Abdulkarim said workers were able to save hundreds of statues and masterpieces from Palmyra that were transported to safe houses in Damascus. “But how do you save colonnades that weigh a ton? How do you save temples and cemeteries and, and, and?” he asked.

He appealed to the international community to declare “a red line” around Palmyra and called on the U.S.-led coalition to “at least prevent IS convoys from reaching it.”

Until now, U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria have focused on areas outside Syrian government control so as not to appear to be aiding President Bashar Assad.

Syrian antiquities expert and opposition figure Amr Al-Azm noted the irony of anti-Assad activists having to call on the U.S.-led coalition to support Assad’s forces in the city against the Islamic State militants.

“We are trapped in a sickening paradox where, to save the world heritage site of Palmyra we are forced to call on the international community and the coalition to attack ISIS forces in support of the Syrian regime, which is defending the city,” he wrote in a Facebook posting this week.

The majority of the ruins are located in Palmyra’s south, and the militants entered Wednesday from the north after seizing the state security building from government forces. But their presence has sparked concerns they would destroy the ruins as they have done with major archaeological sites in neighboring Iraq.

The Islamic State group’s advance in Syria followed a major military victory in neighboring Iraq, where the militants’ captured the strategic city of Ramadi, capital of the country’s largest Sunni province, over the weekend.

Thousands of displaced people fleeing the violence in Ramadi and western Anbar province poured into Baghdad on Wednesday after the central government waived restrictions and granted them conditional entry.

The exodus is the latest in the aftermath of the fall of Ramadi. The Shiite-led government in Baghdad is struggling to come up with a plan to reverse the astonishing loss, pledging a counter-offensive and relying on Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen to join the battle.

Athal al-Fahdawi, an Anbar councilman, said that thousands of civilians from Ramadi who were stranded on open land for days, are now being allowed to cross a bridge spanning the Euphrates River and enter Baghdad province.

On Tuesday, Anbar officials said five of the displaced residents had died from exhaustion in the Bzebiz region, where the displaced had been forced to stay while they were kept away from Baghdad.

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 40,000 people have been displaced from Anbar since Friday when the militants began their final push for Ramadi. In the past, people fleeing the Sunni province have been prevented from entering Baghdad due to fears that militants might mingle in with the crowds and sneak into the Iraqi capital.

Residents still left in Ramadi told The Associated Press by telephone Wednesday that Islamic State militants were urging them over loudspeakers not to be afraid and to stay in the city. However, they were not preventing those wanting to leave the city to go, the residents said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear for their safety.

It is still unknown when the Iraqi government’s expected wide-scale operation to recapture Ramadi and other cities will start. Baghdad officials and leaders of the so-called Popular Mobilization Units, Shiite militias who are fighting on the side of the Iraqi military and security forces, have repeatedly said they need time for a military buildup and reconnaissance.

usa today



40 Comments on "Islamic State seizes town of Palmyra in Syria"

  1. Plantagenet on Wed, 20th May 2015 7:52 pm 

    Obama’s strategy to defeat IS in Iraq and Syria isn’t working.

    Maybe Obama should reconsider his dumb idea that IS is the “JV” and get a clue about their actual capabilities.

  2. justeunperdant on Wed, 20th May 2015 8:14 pm 

    As someone as already said in one comment : natural population control

    ISIS is mainly young man actually doing the job of natural population control.

    Same thing during Baltimore events, mainly young man trying to start natural population control in USA.

    My main point is the action of young man will tell us how close we are to chaos and natural population control.

    Strength, force vitality belong to young man,they will be the ones doing the natural population control.

    Expect more violence especially ccoming from young man, as their natural biological instinct of survive command them to control the remaining natural resource and keeping them for themselves, therefore indirectly causing the death of sick, old, handicap and weak people

  3. Perk Earl on Wed, 20th May 2015 8:14 pm 

    I guess those ancient columns will get destroyed by ISIS.

  4. justeunperdant on Wed, 20th May 2015 9:04 pm 

    Legion of foreign fighters battles for Islamic State

    17,000 men and women from more than 90 countries wage Muslim holy war for ISIS.

    ww.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/05/20/legion-foreign-fighters-battles-islamic-state.html

    Just a matter of time before young man in USA and Canada decide to take control of the last natural resources available and pushed old men in position of power ( government, official, rich, oligarch out the door

  5. joe on Thu, 21st May 2015 12:59 am 

    This war fighting as a political requirement. A ‘caliph’ must make war on all non muslim countries on their border every year, if he fails to do this once, his subordinates have legal permission to overthrow him and kill him. The foreigners have to stay, but the Saudi and other Arab fighters go home after fighting season. Sunnistan is finding it’s own natural borders. The Islamic death cult is more like ancient sparta, it’s love of hard living, death and slavery (not to mention beards) is nothing new. What I can’t understand is why Turkey keeps helping them by supplying unnecessary amounts of fertiliser to farmers in the region and the recent news that the US was totally aware of weapons transfers from Libya to syria ports just before the explosion of the state and the still unexplained injection of cash from IS supposed enemies in the gulf. Bin Laden didn’t want to create an IS because he knew it would split Muslims, not unite them.
    Shouldn’t IS destroy the kana, it is a building which exists since pre islamic times and reminds us that people worshipped other gods.

  6. joe on Thu, 21st May 2015 1:00 am 

    Typo, kaba, not kana.

  7. Plantagenet on Thu, 21st May 2015 2:26 am 

    The word is spelled “KAABA”.

    ISIS is highly unlikely to destroy the Kaaba since Muhammad himself approved of worshipping the magic black stone kept in the Kaaba.

    ISIS, for those who don’t know, are Sunni Muslims and followers of Muhammad.

  8. HARM on Thu, 21st May 2015 3:30 am 

    “Obama’s strategy to defeat IS in Iraq and Syria isn’t working.”

    This wasn’t “Obama’s” war to begin with, not even close.

    The British and French defeated the Ottoman empire and carved up the ME along arbitrary borders that pretty much ignored ethnic and religious divisions and ensured these “countries” would perpetually be weak and at war with one another –classic divide and conquer.

    Then oils was discovered all over the Arabian peninsula, and British & American oil companies made the Saud family (proud sponsors of lunatic Wahabbi terrorists and anti-Western Madrassas everywhere) their new “best friend”.

    WWII cemented the ME’s role in providing (at the time) near-limitless cheap energy for the allied war effort, and when the Allies won, ensured no American government would ever cross the House of Saud.

    The Cold War era brought us Bretton-Woods, the petro-dollar and OPEC, as well as the downslope of Hubbert’s Peak (for U.S. domestic production) and a preview of things to come for the ME.

    The CIA overthrew Mossadegh and installed the Shah, which eventually led to the 1979 hostage crisis and the Ayatollah in Iran. The U.S. also backed the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan, which directly led to the rise of Al Quaeda (we helped fund and equip Bin Laden himself, when he was one of “our guys”).

    Then we had to go in and “fix” Iraq (which actually had a secular government), seeing how swimmingly well all of our other military interventions went in the ME. This –plus our aid and support for “regime change” in Syria– directly led to ISIS, since apparently Al Queda was not rabidly violent and anti-western enough for some Muslims’ taste.

    But you are so right, Plantagenet. It’s all Obama’s fault –that omnipotent evil genius!

  9. ohanian on Thu, 21st May 2015 6:07 am 

    And I thought Saddam Hussein was bad. He is practically an angel when compared to ISIS.

  10. Davy on Thu, 21st May 2015 6:37 am 

    Joe said “it’s love of hard living”. Joe, the ISIS pussy soldiers love to have their women, children, and slaves do the hard living. They are the epitome of male degeneration. I have read many are pussy soldiers who join the fight for dubious reasons or are forced to fight. It is the hardcore extremist that do the forced fighting management of the pussies. What good are some of these soldiers if their heart is not in it? Not much when all is said and done. These ISIS folks are doing OK in the Sunni areas but they will not do much in the Shia and Kurd areas as has already proven out.

  11. Steve O on Thu, 21st May 2015 8:16 am 

    “Obama’s strategy to defeat IS in Iraq and Syria isn’t working. ”

    Funny, I heard the speaker of the house say roughly the same thing yesterday. Of course, unlike you Plant, he could declare war, raise taxes to pay for it and initiate a draft to get the million men and women we’d need to pacify that area and make it a colony.

    But it is far more politically expedient to throw verbal rocks at the “other side” than to take concrete action.

  12. BobInget on Thu, 21st May 2015 8:18 am 

    Welcome aboard HARM. Post more often.

    As for the current situation, it’s difficult to imagine a diplomatic solution… Or any immediate solution for that matter.

    “He who controls the past commands the future” George Orwell

    The Thirty Years’ War was a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648 lasting for thirty years.[15] It was one of the longest, most destructive conflicts in European history.

    Initially a war between Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmenting Holy Roman Empire, it gradually developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers of Europe,[16] becoming less about religion and more a continuation of the France–Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence.[17]

    The Thirty Years’ War saw the devastation of entire regions, with famine and disease significantly decreasing the population of the German and Italian states, the Kingdom of Bohemia, and the Low Countries. The war also bankrupted most of the combatant powers. Both mercenaries and soldiers in armies were expected to fund themselves by looting or extorting tribute, which imposed severe hardships on the inhabitants of occupied territories.

    The Thirty Years’ War ended with the treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, part of the wider Peace of Westphalia.[18]
    Wikipedia

  13. BobInget on Thu, 21st May 2015 8:18 am 

    Welcome aboard HARM. Post more often.

    As for the current situation, it’s difficult to imagine a diplomatic solution… Or any immediate solution for that matter.

    “He who controls the past commands the future” George Orwell

    The Thirty Years’ War was a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648 lasting for thirty years.[15] It was one of the longest, most destructive conflicts in European history.

    Initially a war between Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmenting Holy Roman Empire, it gradually developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers of Europe,[16] becoming less about religion and more a continuation of the France–Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence.[17]

    The Thirty Years’ War saw the devastation of entire regions, with famine and disease significantly decreasing the population of the German and Italian states, the Kingdom of Bohemia, and the Low Countries. The war also bankrupted most of the combatant powers. Both mercenaries and soldiers in armies were expected to fund themselves by looting or extorting tribute, which imposed severe hardships on the inhabitants of occupied territories.

    The Thirty Years’ War ended with the treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, part of the wider Peace of Westphalia.[18]
    Wikipedia

  14. John Kintree on Thu, 21st May 2015 8:52 am 

    There was a recent article giving the figure of $2 trillion spent by the United States on the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent occupation.

    Ka ching, start the tab running again.

    Suppose we wanted to internalize the full environmental and social costs of goods and services in the selling price, for example of a barrel of oil.

    Would it be reasonable to apply the $2 trillion already spent on military action in Iraq to ten years worth of oil consumption?

    The world consumes about 30 billion barrels of oil per year. Dividing $2 trillion by 300 billion barrels would amount to less than $7 per barrel.

    Adding $7 per barrel to the price of oil would not be much of a price increase. What would happen if we added the costs of lung disease from burning all fossil fuels, the cost of climate change, the cost of water for fracking oil, the cost of depletion (for every barrel extracted from the ground, the remaining barrels are more expensive to extract), and so on?

    Would the price of gasoline, including all those currently externalized costs, be an additional $1, $2, $3 per gallon? Has someone already done a reasonable job of calculating those costs?

  15. GregT on Thu, 21st May 2015 9:53 am 

    The overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria is the next mission to be accomplished, followed by the complete destabilization of Iran. All is still going as planned.

  16. Plantagenet on Thu, 21st May 2015 11:01 am 

    @HARM

    Your suggestion that Obama’s war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria isn’t Obama’s war is silly.

    Who do you think ordered the US military to go to war with ISiS?

    I’ll give you a clue—his initials are BO.

  17. Plantagenet on Thu, 21st May 2015 11:19 am 

    @Bobinget

    It saddens me that you have misappropriated and misunderstood George Orwell’s famous quote “He who controls he past commands the future”.

    Orwell was not referring to the undeniable influence of actual events in the past—he was referring to the terrible destruction of the past by totalitarian regimes like that in the USSR who were REWRITING the past by disappearing people and events from history by doing things like rewriting textbooks and constructing an imaginary politically correct past to replace the actual past.

    Get it now?

    Cheers!

  18. apneaman on Thu, 21st May 2015 11:53 am 

    Planty, that’s a great description of what your government (and mine to a lesser degree) did after WWII. Starting with about 4000 cold war brain washing classroom “documentaries” for the boomer kiddies. Most Americans think you single handily won the war in Europe when in fact it was the USSR who broke the Germans back. We (the allies) mopped up. America did the heavy lifting in the Pacific. When you stick with the facts of history you will discover there are no good guys among great powers.

    Obama celebrates 30 million US war-kills since WW2; past Hitler to #3 on all-time list!

    http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/07/obama-celebrates-30-million-us-war-kills-since-ww2-past-hitler-to-3-on-all-time-list.html

  19. Plantagenet on Thu, 21st May 2015 12:03 pm 

    @Apneman

    Your fantasies about what Americans “believe” are silly. Everyone knows that Russian armies crushed the Wehrmacht in the east. Go visit the WWII monument in DC—it clearly acknowledges the role of the USSR as does every history book.

    What people don’t know (and perhaps you don’t know as well) is the immense scale and the huge amounts of weapons, ammunition, clothing, food, etc. that the USA sent to the USSR which allowed them to survive and fight after the Wehrmacht destroyed the USSR forces initially

  20. apneaman on Thu, 21st May 2015 12:44 pm 

    I was waiting for the “we gave them stuff” pleading. Never fails with insecure Americans who feel a need to take credit for everything. Like the space race and your 1500 Nazi scientists lead by Nazi party faithful and SS colonel Wernher Von Braun. You want to talk about rewriting history. They had colonel Braun on the cover of Time magazine as a genuine American hero. Canada sent plenty of shit too and many Canadian sailors died shipping it over to Europe. We just don’t demand worship for it 70 years later especially since no almost no one alive had anything to do with it. Get off their coat tails plant.

  21. Plantagenet on Thu, 21st May 2015 12:54 pm 

    @apnearman

    Believe it or not, the USSR wouldn’t have had much success against the Nazis if their soldiers hadn’t been equipped with US guns, ammo, planes, jeeps, etc. to fight with, US made clothes and shoes to wear, and US food to eat.

    Same thing with you Brits—-or are you also unaware of the huge amounts of US guns, ammo, planes, jeeps, US made clothes and shoes to wear, and US food to eat that were shipped to the UK?

    Cheers!

  22. Speculawyer on Thu, 21st May 2015 1:05 pm 

    I don’t want to be a jerk but much of the mid-East deserves ISIS to be running around causing mayhem. They’ve allowed very literal harsch interpretations of Islam to run rampant. Saudi Arabia pushes Wahhabism around the world.

    Blow-back hurts but sometimes it is the only way that some people will learn. And we should NOT put substantive troops on the ground. (A few special ops is fine.) If the Arabs want to defeat ISIS, they need to do the dirty work. And if they don’t want to fight then let them live with ISIS as their neighbor. Not my problem.

    If we have a substantial footprint on the ground with ground troops, then they can ramp up the ‘infidels in the holy land’ rhetoric. That would be counter-productive.

  23. Davy on Thu, 21st May 2015 1:05 pm 

    Ape Man, think how many people’s lives could have been saved if the Russians would not have been incompetent as a military power in the early days. The Russians should have stopped Hitler in his tracks in the beginning. The problem was the soldiers were mostly drunks and their good military leaders purged by the idiot Stalin. I agree with you Russia broke Germany’s back later on but it helped a great deal the Allies were on the other side bleeding resources away and bombing German infrastructure. The battle in the east was primarily lost by Hitler not the Russians winning. Hitler had victory within his grasp then he made some poor decisions and lost the war. Hitler was an incompetent military leader who got lucky taking chances in the beginning but eventually pissed away any initial gains.

  24. Apneaman on Thu, 21st May 2015 1:33 pm 

    Planty, I just told you in the other comment who shipped that stuff or died trying. Canadian merchant marines. The goods were dropped at the Canadian border and taken from there. Most Americans were opposed, so you can thank Roosevelt for breaking many laws internationally and domestically to help make it happen. 70 years later and you want to make it out as some glorious voluntary economic sacrifice on behalf of the greatest generation. They even had to draft the vast majority of them after Pearl Harbor to fight Plant. For me that takes nothing away from their sacrifices, but lets just let go of the Hollywood history for once OK? The fact they did not go blindly charging into the breach is a testament to their critical thinking skills. Not as easily manipulated as today’s patriot parrots. Planty doesn’t living vicariously feel just like you were there and made the sacrifice? That’s probably why it’s so popular with the generations since who’s only accomplishments are shopping on credit.

  25. Apneaman on Thu, 21st May 2015 1:42 pm 

    Davy, I doubt anyone on either side had any great plan. Shit happens and we react. All the while you have the 1%ers of the day playing both ends from the middle and careerists in the government and military who’s ladder climbing takes priority. Those regular guys came up with FUBAR for a very good reason. Only in the movies are militaries and government hyper efficient and super competent. You would think that since the USSR was such a basket case that would make the victory all more impressive. Of course, there too the guys needed “help” to get motivated to fight sometimes if you know what I mean.

  26. Northwest Resident on Thu, 21st May 2015 1:46 pm 

    It was the Russian weather that broke the German’s back. Without that nasty weather, the Germans would have rolled into Moscow easily, dispensed with Stalin and his henchmen, and our history would be significantly different.

  27. Apneaman on Thu, 21st May 2015 2:00 pm 

    And there was simply no way to know that the weather might be a hindrance? No historical precedence whatsoever? If there would have been a storm on D-Day our history would be significantly different. If the Spanish armada had not hit a storm our history would be significantly different.

    Everybody Talks About the Weather, But Nobody Does Anything About It.

    Mark Twain? Charles Dudley Warner?

    And if it was not for my bad knee I would have made the NHL, NFL, MLB, NBA, PGA……………………….

  28. Apneaman on Thu, 21st May 2015 2:01 pm 

    The Russian weather fought and died in the battle of Stalingrad and all the Germans there died of the common cold.

  29. BobInget on Thu, 21st May 2015 2:34 pm 

    As if situations weren’t nutty enough:

    No new comer to war crimes or proxy wars,
    Israel gets paid (for a change) to help kill Muslims.
    You bet this brilliant move will win KSA a million points on the ‘Arab Street’. (if true)

    http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-Israel-helping-Saudis-fight-Houthis-403719

    J. Post 5/21

    Saudi Arabia has hired Israeli military experts to help in their war in Yemen, sources close to the Saudi government allegedly told Iran’s Fars News Agency.

    The unconfirmed report published on Tuesday could well be false and part of Tehran’s media campaign against its Sunni opponents in the region.

    “The Zionist experts supervise the Saudi-led coalition’s operations against Yemen directly in addition to intelligence and military coordination between the two sides,” the sources told the Iranian news outlet.

    The report added that an Israeli delegation traveled to Saudi Arabia in the past few days to supervise the construction of a Defense Ministry site.

    Meanwhile, the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen is pushing for Iran’s participation in the planned UN talks, the Saudi-owned London daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Tuesday… more at link

  30. Davy on Thu, 21st May 2015 2:52 pm 

    Cat piss, Ape Man, we are doing something about the weather. We are filling the atmosphere with carbon. What a species we are able to manipulate the weather. Not since the snowball earth and the Stromatolites has a species done something so grand with the weather. Let’s all pat each other on the back.

  31. Apneaman on Thu, 21st May 2015 4:50 pm 

    Look Davy, it’s on a MSM site. I’ve seen methane stories on NBC and other dire stuff here in Canada. They often have the time line wrong, but it’s hard to say they never talk about it. I think for most people it’s just another “Oh Dear” story. Could that many people be deaf and blind? No. I think many people who are neither deniers (political) or doomers (a strange type of obsessive) are overwhelmed and trapped. I think more people know we are in serious shit than are letting on. Afraid to speak out. Such is the burden of the status seeking social ape. Social rejection is worse than death.

    Sutter: On 6 degrees of climate change

    http://www.kesq.com/news/sutter-on-6-degrees-of-climate-change/33142996

  32. Apneaman on Thu, 21st May 2015 5:00 pm 

    Adam Curtis – “Oh dear”-ism (5 min)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UstNBrmJFc

  33. Davy on Thu, 21st May 2015 5:01 pm 

    Ape Man, you do know I was sarc’ing right. We’s climate change buddies you and me. We’s goin to open a can of whipass on the deniers. Not that we can do much but at least get the bastards to quit the lying.

  34. Northwest Resident on Thu, 21st May 2015 5:14 pm 

    Davy — Most climate change deniers will die before they stop denying. When the rain stops falling, the rivers and lakes dry up, the heat raises to exceptionally hot levels, the green plants shrivel, and the melted ice caps flood the coasts of the world, the true deniers will be blaming gays, Muslims, liberal attitudes toward marijuana, illegal aliens and those damned environmentalists. And soon afterwards, they’ll all die.

  35. Apneaman on Thu, 21st May 2015 5:44 pm 

    The truth is the thing humans fear the most Davy. I fear NR is correct in that it will be one big deadly blame game as the consequences get tragic. I’m predicting that the denier/conservative/fundamentalists willingness for violent solutions will be matched by their radical counter parts on the left once their families and kids start suffering and dying from climate disruption. This will not solve anything, but it’s just the way it goes with angry apes. It was lefty idealists who ran the French revolution and they were none to gentle now were they? Interesting times a coming.

  36. Davy on Thu, 21st May 2015 6:00 pm 

    Sounds like doom justice N/R. I like it. We can hangem from the tree of truth.

  37. Apneaman on Thu, 21st May 2015 6:29 pm 

    Exclusive: The CIA Is Shuttering a Secretive Climate Research Program
    Scientists used the Medea program to study how global warming could worsen conflict. Now that project has come to an end.

    http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/05/cia-closing-its-main-climate-research-program

  38. ffkling on Thu, 21st May 2015 6:47 pm 

    Plant-

    Why are you so prone to a warped sense of history? The Soviets never crushed the Wehrmacht in so much as overwhelmed with numbers, and along the way the Soviets paid the price of 20 million military deaths.

    Further, more than 1 million former Soviet soldiers defected to the German military. An excellent case is the Cossacks whose numbers swelled to 250,000 and annihilated, particularly ,the Soviet partisans due to the Cossack’s long history of mobile warfare on horseback.

  39. joe on Fri, 22nd May 2015 7:56 am 

    Interesting point about weather. It was a massive sand storm that prevented us airstrikes that IS took advantage of to ‘seize’ Ramadi. It’s clear that the weather also played a role in palmera too. The bad part of these events is that IS now has free road access into Homs in Syria and can easily probe south of Baghdad into southern Iraq. If they get Homs they get the coast and a port. Palmera also has an airfield which Damascus was no doubt using to monitor IS and other groups movements on the road. A foreigner can now land in Istanbul and be in Baghdad fighting for ISIS within a day or two. Either I missed something or the US and r.o.w is definitely not winning in this. Toppling Assad was part of the neoconservative anti baathist agenda, because the baathist s were moderate shia Muslims (Iran wasn’t too worried that the Baathist were socialists ), the US and r.o.w needs chaos if it is to get to grips with the middle east during peak oil.

  40. Davy on Fri, 22nd May 2015 8:47 am 

    Joe said “can easily probe south of Baghdad into southern Iraq.” Sure Joe they can easily head south and get an ass kikin. I have said this many times ISIS has not ever made major inroads into Shia or Kurd dominated areas where they have no popular support. The US can bring heavy airpower to the equation. ISIS will likely not be eradicated but their ability to take over the ME is greatly exaggerated.


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