Rikurzhen
Gold Member
- Jul 24, 2014
- 6,145
- 1,292
- 185
Iraqi's are pretty useless and undisciplined. The Kurdish Peshmerga will take it to them. They are some bad ass fierce troopers who will be unstoppable with US air support. I have some spec ops friends who fought alongside with these guys and they have nothing but great things to say about them.BTW, I hold no desire to see American Troopers once again clearing Tikrit and Fallujah of IS dirtbags. Our presence should only involve air-cover for Iraqi and Kurd fighters and some wet-work boys to take out IS communication capacity. And of course enough helo presence to pick up pilots who get bounced by shoulder-fired missles. Watch the Iraqis stand up on their back legs once they know the Americans are watching again....they ain't cowards....their commanders abandoned them.
When a people are unified by both blood and culture, they will fight fiercely to protect both. It's an open question as to whether the Peshmerga will go to Syria to fight ISIS and lay down their lives for a cause that is not directly intersectign with Kurdish interests. If we pay high enough to attract them as soldiers of fortune, they might do the minimum needed just for the paycheck, but the quality of fighting will be different "over there" compared to what is seen on their own beloved land.
and give up control of all that oil? Certainly you jest
No one sells their oil just to be a nice guy or because they are friends with America. We need their oil on the world market and they need our cash in order to keep their people eating and driving their cars with subsidized gas prices. None of these countries can really just shut off the oil spigots and continue existing - like a junkie, they need oil revenues to function.
Have you ever been in a combat theatre? If not, why are you lecturing about the will to fight "fiercely" or otherwise? Neither I or anybody else has suggested the Kurds fight in Syria...they have limited numbers and resources. And again, if you know or have known mercs, enlighten us about what they cost.
I've seen the aftermath of combat in Africa. The wounded, the butchered, the dead. Does that put me close enough to war to understand it? I've seen and talked with tribal fighters. Most importantly though, I understand how cultures and people work. I'm extrapolating what I know from my experiences in Africa to similar tribal-based societies in the Middle East. The leap here is not as large as the leap between Western-based social models and Middle-East based tribal models.
Nope, you can see the aftermath of combat in any big city ER on a Saturday night. The sunni tribal traditions are much different than Africans. They hate shia for their differences in philosophy resulting in pretty much unabated warfare for centuries. In fact, it was the fear of shia militias that led to the sunni tribes welcoming in ISIL earlier this year. But the sunnis are more tolerant in their versions of sharia law than al-Qaida or ISIL and will again rise up and throw them out when they've had enough of it, same as they did for Gen. Petreus ie "The Awakening" Sons of Iraq.
You asked about combat, not where I've lived. I've seen the aftermath of war, and no it was not anything close to what is seen in a big city ER. You don't see fucking machete attacks, disembowelments, amputations of children's hands, beheadings in Chicago streets or ERs. It makes me wonder if you've actually seen combat for I doubt that anyone who has seen the effect of an IED on the human body would claim that this is also regularly seen in any big city ER on a Saturday night.
Thanks for the primer on sunni and shia differences, but I don't need it. When I write of tribal experiences, I'm not talking about religious doctrinal differences, I'm talking about mindset and social and power relationships. You telling me that the traditions are different is you totally misreading what I wrote.