Obliterating Islamic State (ISIS)

Oddly enough I don't agree, I think we are soft on terrorism.
The reality is we are not really confronting ISIS anywhere we are relying on a mixture of untrustworthy allies, borderline terrorist groups, opposition states and a small bunch of stateless fighters to take on ISIS and with the exception of the Kurds there isn't one of these groups that doesn't have an agenda that will put us at odds with them as soon as the fight with ISIS ends.

On the home front we refuse to take on hate speech and incitement due to a fear of offending someone and as soon as some one does try and confront if someone else starts bleating on about "free" speech.

Basically we are doing nothing to reduce the causes of extremism on either the foreign or domestic fronts.

And the trouble with the Kurds is their only real ally is the mountains. Turkey (our supposed ally) is again embarked on a campaign of extreme repression of it's Kurdish minority with martial law imposed in Kurdish regions and mass round ups up Kurds on going.

This being the case the 2nd strongest military in the ME will do nothing in the fight against ISIS. The loser here is as it has been for centuries the Kurds.
 
Oddly enough I don't agree, I think we are soft on terrorism.
The reality is we are not really confronting ISIS anywhere we are relying on a mixture of untrustworthy allies, borderline terrorist groups, opposition states and a small bunch of stateless fighters to take on ISIS and with the exception of the Kurds there isn't one of these groups that doesn't have an agenda that will put us at odds with them as soon as the fight with ISIS ends.

On the home front we refuse to take on hate speech and incitement due to a fear of offending someone and as soon as some one does try and confront if someone else starts bleating on about "free" speech.

Basically we are doing nothing to reduce the causes of extremism on either the foreign or domestic fronts.

There is a Facebook page on fighting terrorism softly check it out; and to quote form a post, "while hard power can address a solution militarily alone, soft power on the other hand could bring about a solution politically, diplomatically, economically, socially, culturally, religiously, and educationally....."


Combating Terrorism via Soft Power
 
There is a Facebook page on fighting terrorism softly check it out; and to quote form a post, "while hard power can address a solution militarily alone, soft power on the other hand could bring about a solution politically, diplomatically, economically, socially, culturally, religiously, and educationally....."


Combating Terrorism via Soft Power


I cannot read the FB page, I don't have FB, it's a principle. However, the concept of dealing with terrorism and using soft powers can actually work and it doesn't get som much attention from the media, but it works pretty well. It cannot convince all people with extreme ideas. I also believe the soft powers will work in the long term.
 
Oddly enough I don't agree, I think we are soft on terrorism.
The reality is we are not really confronting ISIS anywhere we are relying on a mixture of untrustworthy allies, borderline terrorist groups, opposition states and a small bunch of stateless fighters to take on ISIS and with the exception of the Kurds there isn't one of these groups that doesn't have an agenda that will put us at odds with them as soon as the fight with ISIS ends.

On the home front we refuse to take on hate speech and incitement due to a fear of offending someone and as soon as some one does try and confront if someone else starts bleating on about "free" speech.

Basically we are doing nothing to reduce the causes of extremism on either the foreign or domestic fronts.

BTW who is we New Zealand? I would hate to see the United States dragged thru the mud again by getting involved in this politically charged region with scaled up ground forces. Such a force would undoubtable win any convention war with ISIS very rapidly, but is likely to lose the peace.

The real answer to would be arm and train the very people who are being forced out of there homes and have them reclaim the lost territories. In theory anyways. With millions rotting in refugee camps, one would think this would be a prime recruitment zone for anti ISIS fighters?
 
BTW who is we New Zealand? I would hate to see the United States dragged thru the mud again by getting involved in this politically charged region with scaled up ground forces. Such a force would undoubtable win any convention war with ISIS very rapidly, but is likely to lose the peace.

The real answer to would be arm and train the very people who are being forced out of there homes and have them reclaim the lost territories. In theory anyways. With millions rotting in refugee camps, one would think this would be a prime recruitment zone for anti ISIS fighters?

"We" is the western world which includes the USA and New Zealand.

As to the real answer well you are partially right but we tried it with Iraq and at the first sign of a Toyota pickup they ran away, our so called allies in the region Saudi Arabia are busily funding ISIS and Turkey are running the ISIS oil industry which leaves the fighting to the closest group we can call allies the Kurds who we hamstring because we wont arm them properly as it may upset Iraq and Turkey.

In Syria we are more interested in installing a pro-western puppet government than fighting ISIS so we do next to nothing about solving that as we prefer ISIS to Assad but give token support to opposition groups who are little more than terror groups themselves.

At home we have our own extremists like Trump shooiting his mouth off alienating people by the truckload and in Britain they have Choudary preaching violence against the West who they let roam the streets rattling on, personally if he wants a 7th century utopia I say pack him up an drop him in Raqqah preferably from 30,000 feet.
We all have laws against hate crimes, incitement and speech it is time we used them.

There is a Facebook page on fighting terrorism softly check it out; and to quote form a post, "while hard power can address a solution militarily alone, soft power on the other hand could bring about a solution politically, diplomatically, economically, socially, culturally, religiously, and educationally....."


Combating Terrorism via Soft Power

We will not win this fight with "Soft power" alone either, the answer is a mixture of both hard and soft power.
We should stick to the freedoms that the west expouses and use the safeguards we already have in law to deal with those that want to scare us into submission or into a xenophobic utopia and at the same time blast the snot out of anyone that wants to take up arms and attack us.

As Theodore Roosevelt said "speak softly but carry a big stick" the answer to this problem is a mixture of actions it is not just a choice of nukes or surrender and we must start solving some of the festering issues that are driving people to extremism.
 
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We will not win this fight with "Soft power" alone either, the answer is a mixture of both hard and soft power.

As Theodore Roosevelt said "speak softly but carry a big stick" the answer to this problem is a mixture of actions it is not just a choice of nukes or surrender and we must start solving some of the festering issues that are driving people to extremism.

I agree! Professor Joseph Nye, who coined the term "soft power" also proposed that U.S.’s success in world politics is best achieved through the use of "smart power" – a combination of both hard and soft power.
 
Canada’s House of Commons debates anti ISIS mission.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/isis-mission-debated-in-house-after-airstrikes-end-1.2782301

The question is should we let politicians meddling with the national defence? I read, Australians for example, "figured out decades ago that national defence was too important to be left to the whims of competing political parties and their leaders...."

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/matthew-fisher-lessons-on-national-defence-from-down-under
 
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So as the story goes: American 'hard power' + Canadian 'soft power' = Worldwide 'smart power' :-|
 
Sadly though it seems we are still determined to do bugger all, as it goes the only winner in this may turn out to be Russia.
 
Sadly though it seems we are still determined to do bugger all, as it goes the only winner in this may turn out to be Russia.
Even with Russia if they win, Assad wins. However Assad's house is built on a deck of cards and he will eventually fall.

Turkey is the real winner. The ISIS crisis - war deflects attention away from Turkeys war of oppression and murder against it's own Kurdish community. Unlike when the Israeli attacks the Palestinians or the ISIS atrocities, Turkeys atrocities are sweep under the rug.


http://www.thenation.com/article/turkey-is-fighting-a-dirty-war-against-its-own-kurdish-population/
 
Not so sure about that as a lot of Turks I have spoken too in the last two years in particular are very aware of the issues and are growing more and more concerned about the accumulation of power and dirrection Erdogan is taking.

The problem that they face in this attempt to play both sides of the argument here (supporting NATO and handing oil sales for ISIS) is that they are making no friends and losing the trust of those they currently have, a large number of those I know are worried about the likelyhood of some serious unrest breaking out.

In my opinion Turkey will not be the winner as the Kurds grow stronger and more "internationally" acceptable and Erdogan leds Turkey away from a secular nation towards an Islamic one.
 
Not so sure about that as a lot of Turks I have spoken too in the last two years in particular are very aware of the issues and are growing more and more concerned about the accumulation of power and dirrection Erdogan is taking.

The problem that they face in this attempt to play both sides of the argument here (supporting NATO and handing oil sales for ISIS) is that they are making no friends and losing the trust of those they currently have, a large number of those I know are worried about the likelyhood of some serious unrest breaking out.

In my opinion Turkey will not be the winner as the Kurds grow stronger and more "internationally" acceptable and Erdogan leds Turkey away from a secular nation towards an Islamic one.


Turkey will find it hard to please NATO and the EuropeanUnion and continue a war of terror against the Kurds. A war that theinternational community largely ignores. Erdogan in particular is in favor of a heavy handed approach when dealing with the Kurds.
They could help in the war against ISIS in so many ways but won’t forthe most part because it could strengthen the Kurds.

 
Meet the man saving Yazidi slaves from ISIS
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/02/middleeast/saving-yazidi-captives-from-isis/index.html

Dileen (not her real name) is one of those rescued by Shrem and his team of smugglers.

She was separated from her husband when ISIS militants overran Sinjar province. The last time she saw him he was being marched away, hands up, with the other men from their village.

She and her children were taken to Mosul with the women and girls. "They separated the ones who were really pretty, and made us remove our headscarves to see the prettiest ones," she says.

They were moved from place to place within ISIS territory: Mosul, Tal Afar, Raqqa, and finally to Tishrin, where, she says, she was sold to an ISIS fighter, who raped her repeatedly.

"They forced me, and they threatened my children," she says, recalling the five months she spent trapped in his home.

ISIS claims the Quran justifies taking non-Muslim women and girls captive, and permits their rape -- a claim vociferously denied by Islamic scholars.

While Dileen was used as a sex slave, her daughter Aisha (not her real name), who is just seven years old, was forced to work late into the night, in the basement of their apartment building, assembling IEDs for ISIS.

"I used to make bombs," says Aisha, quietly, playing with her hair. "There was a girl my age and her mother. They threatened to kill [the girl] if I wouldn't go and work with them," she told CNN.

"They would dress us in all black and there was a yellow material and sugar and a powder, and we would weigh them on a scale and then we would heat them and pack the artillery."

An ISIS militant, she says, would then add the detonation wires.
 
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ISIS shooting civilians trying to flee Falluja, NGO says
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/06/middleeast/falluja-iraq-military-advance-isis/index.html

(CNN)ISIS is targeting civilians attempting to leave the militant-held city of Falluja, as Iraqi forces and militia attempt to wrest back control of the city, a European non-profit operating in Iraq says.

As many as 50,000 residents remain trapped in the center of Falluja as Iraqi security forces close in, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) told CNN Monday. Many of those who try to escape the clutches of ISIS are being targeted and shot by militants, it said.

"Our biggest fears are now tragically confirmed with civilians being directly targeted while trying to flee to safety," NRC Country Director in Iraq Nasr Muflahi said.

"This is the worst that we feared would happen to innocent men, women and children who have had to leave everything behind in order to save their lives."

Falluja, which lies 65 km (40 miles) from the capital Baghdad, has been held by the militant group since 2014, and is the subject of a concerted push to retake ISIS-controlled territory across Iraq and Syria.

Almost 3,000 families have safely escaped the city since late May, the NRC said. Most are being housed in displacement camps, and the NRC has warned of water shortages should the tens of thousands remaining in Falluja manage to escape.
 
ISIS-inspired board game helps Canadian military with planning
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/isis-military-gamification-national-defence-canada-1.3625142

Canada's military has been experimenting with a tabletop game inspired by the war against ISIS to help plan what tanks, planes, ships and people it needs to fight effectively in the coming decades.

The ISIS Crisis uses dice, markers and a large map of Iraq and Syria, and is the latest twist in a government-wide effort to use more games in the workplace for training and education.

"This certainly does have potential to add additional rigour to our process," said Col. Ross Ermel, in charge of a directorate that plans how the Canadian Forces must evolve.

"It does show some promise.… It's one of the things that we are certainly considering."

The ISIS Crisis game takes up to six players, includes dice and a map, and is quicker and cheaper to run than traditional war games, says the Canadian military. (PAXsims)

The ISIS Crisis is known as a matrix-type game, a concept dating from the 1980s, with minimal rules and using debates and arguments, unlike traditional war games with complex rules and drawing on probabilities.

Matrix games allow complex, multi-sided issues to be explored, often by up to six players who don't need particular expertise in the subject matter.

The ISIS Crisis was created by Rex Brynen, a political science professor at McGill University, who developed the roles and scenario rules, and by a British major, Tom Mouat, who created the map and counters. Brynen also acted as a kind of referee for the Canadian military sessions.

Outside the box

Matrix games are useful for helping military planners think creatively because the play can inspire unexpected innovations, says Brynen.

"There's a bit of a tendency to fight the previous war," he says of problems attached to traditional, rule-bound military war-gaming.

And unlike old-style war games, matrix games such as The ISIS Crisis can be set up cheaply and quickly, and played over three to four hours.

"It's quick and dirty," Brynen said. "Big war games can take months to set up and cost an awful lot of money."

The ISIS Crisis is only the latest gaming experiment in the federal government, which has been late to so-called "gamification" trends. The private sector has been using computer-based games for training for several years, recognizing their efficiency and effectiveness, especially among younger workers.

Using two suppliers, Quebec-based Ellicom and Ottawa-based Launchfire, computer-based games were used to teach workers about digital security on department networks.

"This is an effective and desired method of learning … we should embrace gamified learning as a viable alternative to traditional methods, says a November 2015 report on the results, obtained under the Access to Information Act.

"It doesn't feel like work when you're earning points, reaching new levels and getting to the top of the leaderboard."

Some government planners say gaming may also have potential for directly engaging citizens.

Ermel says his military-planning unit, which has never before played matrix-type games, is using The ISIS Crisis to "stress test" forecasting methodology rather than to predict Mideast events or any long-term Canadian role in the region.

The planners use 10 potential scenarios, from routine operations in the Arctic to all-out war, to estimate what the Canadian Forces will need to function 30 years down the road. Adding a matrix-type game to the process can help keep the military aware of potential innovations introduced by adversaries.

Other contexts

The Canadian Forces will decide in the fall whether to make the game a regular part of its planning process, Ermel said.


"It has also been used analytically in certain national security communities, so that kind of game format was used for security planning for the Vancouver Olympics," he said in an interview.

Last month, Brynen ran another board-game session for the military to explore responses to a humanitarian crisis caused by an earthquake in the fictional country of Carana.

The game, called Aftershock, is designed for up to eight players and takes about two hours to play.
 
I cant help but think people are over thinking this problem.

I am not sure I see the point to anything involving dice regarding this issue, sure it adds an element of "randomness" to the scenario but our militaries are trained to adapt to these situations anyway, I highly doubt there are people in a bunker somewhere going "oh shit IS just rolled a 5 on their D+1 Sniper we are going to need a 6 or better and the helm of invulnerability get him now", or at least I hope there isn't however given how this has gone so far maybe there is.

I think this sort of thing is just "busy work" designed to avoid the unplesant reality that to "obliterate Islamic State" they must be engaged and destroyed.

Who knows maybe this is just one giant LARPing festival that has gone on too long.
 
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"Israel is the only country in the world that Isis fears, according to the first Western journalist to enter the group’s territories and survive."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-to-survive-a6793876.html?cmpid=facebook-post


This would be the same Israel that Hamas has ground to a halt twice in the last 5 years, I would suggest that any fear of Israel is more in the knowledge that if there are a bigger more brutal bunch of parasitic thugs out there than ISIS is it Israel.

They should also take some note of the fact that if any of the world's developed military powers seriously wanted ISIS gone their "caliphate" would be a distant memory within weeks.

Personally, though I would be prepared to bet that Mr Todenhoefer was playing to his audience which in this case was Israeli (Jewish News is a British subsidiary of The Israeli Times).
 
This would be the same Israel that Hamas has ground to a halt twice in the last 5 years, I would suggest that any fear of Israel is more in the knowledge that if there are a bigger more brutal bunch of parasitic thugs out there than ISIS is it Israel

Not necessarily. I believe the reason why is that unlike USA and UK, Israel possesses enormous experience in counterterrorism, counterinsurgency and counterintelligence, as they live with its consequences on a daily basis. And most of all, they don't give a damn about rules of engagement when it comes to terrorists.
 
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With ISIS they expect to go heaven when they die, were they will be better off, now if you stop them from going there they would be less inclined to die. Now if collect their remains and bury them in a pig skin then they are unclean and can't go there.
When I was in Calais the other day I saw British lorry drivers tying pigs feet to the handles on the back of there trucks to stop the Muslims opening the doors to get on there lorry and try and make their way to the UK, Well they took one look and then tried to find another lorry.
 
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