Airstrikes Begin: U.S. Navy Planes Drop Bombs on ISIS Forces

[The Straight Story]

Airstrikes Begin: U.S. Navy Planes Drop Bombs on ISIS Forces
U.S. Navy planes dropped two 500-pound bombs on ISIS forces in Iraq on Friday, U.S. officials told NBC News — the beginning of airstrikes threatened a day earlier by President Barack Obama.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/airstrikes-begin-u-s-navy-planes-drop-bombs-isis-forces-n175941

[mylye2222]

1. The beginning of another endless escalade.

[Enrique]

3. no basis for that

imho

[MineralMan]

4. We're attacking by climbing ladders?

I think you mean "escalation." "Escalade" has a military meaning, but it doesn't mean what you think it means.

[The Magistrate]

16. Thank You For That, Sir....

[MineralMan]

25. Always a Pleasure, Sir.

Language is my life.

[Orrex]

19. Maybe "escapade?"

Escargo?
Esperanto?

[MineralMan]

27. It's gotta be something. We stopped raiding castles

and attacking fortresses using ladders some time ago.

[Orrex]

35. Escondido?

It would be the dancingest siege ever!

[MineralMan]

36. Indeed. Video Below:

[EX500rider]

29. Maybe they meant one of these:

[MineralMan]

30. Looks like an APC a little, I guess.

Still, I wouldn't drop those on that ragtag bunch. They'd have a hard time getting them to a dealer for the inevitable GM recall.

[Sheepshank]

42. I was thinking SUV....but my paradigm may be different

[msanthrope]

11. Unless you mean a Caddy or a ladder, no. nt

[Dreamer Tatum]

12. I rode in an endless Escalade once

really tricked out...bar inside, neon lights. Impressive.

[Octafish]

5. $50,000 to replace.

Cha-ching.

[BrotherIvan]

10. Job Creators

[WilliamPitt]

6. My fear

is that ISIS will retaliate for these airstrikes by blowing the dam they just captured. If that happens, all hell will break loose.

[Baclava]

9. They'd have to blow up that big dam then blame US air strikes or risk pissing off their own people

shutting off all power for a long time to big cities isn't a crowd pleaser

[MineralMan]

28. Blowing up a large dam is almost certainly beyond

the capabilities of this band of terroristic hoodlums, I think.

It's not such an easy job, really.

[Baclava]

33. You're probably right - but they could just THREATEN to blow it up - then what?

or blow up the hydroelectric machinery on the way out if we mobilize forces to drive them out

who knows what they want

[MineralMan]

34. I think it would be an empty threat.

Destroying the generator turbines, on the other hand, is probably within their capabilities. An actual dam breach? I doubt it very much.

[Baclava]

38. Well, my dam blowing-up days are over, but couldn't they just shut off the water?

or open the gates? ....it's an earthen damn from what I understand

[MineralMan]

39. I don't know, actually.

It looks like a hybrid dam to me, part concrete and part earth-fill. It's not something, though, that a few hundred pounds of explosives would breach.

As for releasing water from the dam, I'm sure that's possible to some degree, but probably not enough to cause severe flooding in Mosul.

I'm not a dam engineer, though, so I'm just guessing.

[Baclava]

40. well, WilliamPitt started this idea and we just got in the middle of a dam breech scare

that's all I got to say

[msanthrope]

13. We have extremely little control over what ISIS may, or may not do. Should we not have struck for

fear of what they will do next?

[The Magistrate]

17. That Would Probably Get Them Wiped Out, Sir

Pretty much the equivalent of poking a stick in a hornets' nest....

[JackRiddler]

21. Such a consolation it will be...

to however many thousand are drowned or die as refugees or from the resulting drought and famine.

[The Magistrate]

22. Take It Up With The People Who Would Have Detonated The Charges, Sir

As they would bear full responsibility for the harm they inflicted by the act.

[JackRiddler]

23. The ones armed by the official U.S. allies?

The ones probably armed indirectly by the CIA, but certainly armed and backed and sponsored by the monarchical dictatorships of the Gulf, whom the U.S. government is in turn arming and backing and sponsoring? The ones "we" are now bombing while "our" allies continue to back them?

You mean those people, Sir?

[The Magistrate]

26. Train You Ride Is Never Late, Sir...

[JackRiddler]

32. All Can Play the Game of Avoidance-By-Meme, Sir.

[The Magistrate]

37. I Will Make This Short And Sweet, Mr. Riddler

If I personally place demolition charges on a dam, and I personally detonate them, I am responsible for all consequences, me, myself, and I, and nobody else. If I.S.I.L. should blow the dam, I.S.I.L., having placed the charges and detonated them, is responsible for all consequences, and nobody else.

You seem to like playing this 'In Search of Modern Mysteries' game, but I find it boring, and frequently inappropriate. This is one of those times. I am not inclined to indulge you, and pretend your 'hidden truths' are of any importance in discussing questions of national policy regarding peace and war in the Near East.

[Scootaloo]

51. Well, I'm glad you finally perked up and got that notion into your head

Took you long enough. Now here's your next assignment - apply the standard to nations you like as well as pseudo-nations you dislike.

[The Magistrate]

53. Your Meaning Is Unclear, Sir

I have never excused persons from responsibility for their own decisions and actions.

You may have confused one of three things with doing so, but they are quite distinct from it.

I have pointed out that a government in a democracy may face a degree of public pressure to do something that if it does not accede, it will lose its ruling majority, regardless of whether that thing is wise or right.

I have pointed out that persons who engage in deliberate provocation of another, whose intent is to make that person 'blow his top' and behave badly, contribute to the outcome of their success in the endeavor.

I have pointed out what the state of law is when combatants take up fighting positions such that, if they are engaged, harm to non-combatants nearby is likely or even certain.

None of these things excuses anyone from responsibility for what they decide and do.

The government could choose to refrain from the action urged, it just does not want to face the consequence of loss of power, which is understandable.

The person provoked still decides to respond to the provocation, just as the person who baited him made a decision to try and provoke him: either of them could have decided on another course, but chose not to.

The fact that a combatant position near non-combatants may be attacked legally, within certain guidelines, does not mean the force which attacks it does not decide freely to do, and could not have decided to forego the action. It is true that law assigns a degree of responsibility to the party attacked in such positions, if it took them up deliberately, and if the attacker hewed to the guidelines for legal actions, and that is because it is a crime to take up such positions, and of course, made a choice to do so, for which law holds the persons who make that choice responsible.

[Scootaloo]

54. My point is that I'm proud of you for having discovered basic ethics

And I expressed a wish that you would someday figure out how to apply this ethical train of thought evenly.

[The Magistrate]

55. Now You Are Just Being Silly, Sir

And no one takes silly people seriously enough to take pleasure or insult from their chatter.

[Scootaloo]

56. If you say so

I hold out hope that next time I see you talking about Israel and Palestine, you will remember to put your new sense of ethics out front. I think it'd do you well.

[chrisa]

52. Imo, if they were ever going to blow the dam, they would have already done it.

ISIS wants the dam in one piece. They want a Caliphate. Despite their extreme brutality, they do have a plan, which doesn't involve intentionally killing everyone around them.

Whether or not the dam will fail anyways due to mismanagement is another story.

[Boom Sound 416]

7. This is what mission creep looks like

[The Magistrate]

18. No, Sir, It Is Exactly The Policy Outlined By President Obama Last Night

"It's always easy to tell who was paying attention in class."

[Brigid]

20. That's what they always say.

I am skeptical that this won't escalate.

[JackRiddler]

24. The two concepts are not necessarily contradictory, sir.

[Boom Sound 416]

43. What's the objective?

[The Magistrate]

44. Feeling Dis-Inclined Just Now To Repeat Myself, Sir

I would direct you to comments posted earlier nearby:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025355179#post22

[Boom Sound 416]

46. Thin.

But I hear you

[The Magistrate]

47. Sufficient, Sir

One should not devote more effort to an objective than is necessary to secure it.

[Baclava]

8. Holy War! Holy War! ISIS ‘We Will Raise The Flag Of Allah In The White House!"

(warning - severed heads towards the end)

[Marrah_G]

14. Good luck with that ISIS

[Baclava]

48. The way I see it - they WANT a Holy War

"Convert to Islam or Die"

yeah- that will help

[Marrah_G]

50. History repeating itself - sadly

And I agree this is a very dangerous group. Not so much a danger to us, but a real danger to the people and cultures they are rolling over at a surprising rate.

[snooper2]

15. I posted that as an OP this morning and it dropped like a rock

there is a cadre here that think they are just more poor "freedom fighters" when in reality they are fucking insane fundies brainwashing children to become the next generation of fundies-


Fuck Them

[Baclava]

31. You're right - It's a sticky situation - these fuckers are crazy as shithouse rats

and of course, the Jews can't be blamed, so the "discussion" fades

[kentuck]

45. When you drop bombs...

...you are in.

[Baclava]

49. but they're precision bombs

we're just blowing up our own tanks and artillery that we left to those other guys

leveling the tribal war playing field, so to speak