Displaced Bama Fan said:

Every time I see him I scream "Lurch!"

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I think Rocky Dennis.

Muslim Scholars Release Open Letter To Islamic State Meticulously Blasting Its Ideology

read the summary or the entire letter.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/...c-state_n_5878038.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

ore than 120 Muslim scholars from around the world joined an open letter to the “fighters and followers” of the Islamic State, denouncing them as un-Islamic by using the most Islamic of terms.
The letter’s authors include well-known religious and scholarly figures in the Muslim world, including Sheikh Shawqi Allam, the grand mufti of Egypt, and Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the mufti of Jerusalem and All Palestine.

seebell said:

Muslim Scholars Release Open Letter To Islamic State Meticulously Blasting Its Ideology

read the summary or the entire letter.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/...c-state_n_5878038.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

ore than 120 Muslim scholars from around the world joined an open letter to the “fighters and followers” of the Islamic State, denouncing them as un-Islamic by using the most Islamic of terms.
The letter’s authors include well-known religious and scholarly figures in the Muslim world, including Sheikh Shawqi Allam, the grand mufti of Egypt, and Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the mufti of Jerusalem and All Palestine.

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Well, that's a step in the right direction.
Whether it is followed to an appreciable degree remains to be seen. I hope that members of the Islamic State listen and heed this letter's opinions. It has to bring about an appreciable change in behavior. If it does, I'll applaud the effort.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/29/us-misjudged-iraqi-army-isis-threat-obama-says/

However, Obama also acknowledged that the U.S. is dealing with a conundrum in Syria, as the U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic State is helping Syrian President Bashar Assad, whom the U.N. has accused of war crimes.

"I recognize the contradiction in a contradictory land and a contradictory circumstance," Obama said. "We are not going to stabilize Syria under the rule of Assad," whose government has committed "terrible atrocities."

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Funny, I've been saying this all along. The funnier thing is that Assad is not like his dad or brother. He's a doctor. He was called home to take over the family business. I don't think he ever had any real intentions of running Syria. But, like I said, there's a reason the Assads rule they way they do. They have to.

So now we hit grain silos? Let's starve the people of Syria. You know, I've lost all faith in our government to do anything right at this point.

http://news.msn.com/world/us-led-raids-hit-grain-silos-in-syria-kill-workers-monitor

We bombed grain silos? So now we're going to starve the people of Syria? I've lost all faith in our government.

http://news.msn.com/world/us-led-raids-hit-grain-silos-in-syria-kill-workers-monitor

Displaced Bama Fan said:

Funny, I've been saying this all along. The funnier thing is that Assad is not like his dad or brother. He's a doctor. He was called home to take over the family business. I don't think he ever had any real intentions of running Syria. But, like I said, there's a reason the Assads rule they way they do. They have to.

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Bashar was an ophthalmologist. His elder brother Bassel was the heir apparent, but he crashed his car in 1994,* so Hafez called and said, "Batter up!"

* I was in Damascus in 1995 and there were posters of Bassel everywhere, labelled "Bassel the martyr." He had an Italian sports car (a Maserati, I believe) and a driver. Hafez knew his son well enough that he told the driver, "Never let my son drive this car." Well, they went for a drive, and Bassel told the driver to pull over and let him drive. The driver reminded Bassel what his father had said, but apparently Bassel reminded the driver, "You know, my father is old and when he dies, guess who will be in charge. If you refuse my orders, I will remember that when I am in charge." The driver gave the keys to Bassel, who crashed the car. Driver survived, Bassel died. Hafez was ticked off. Funny, because of the "martyr" shtick. Bassel was a martyr to driving too fast.

Displaced Bama Fan said:

So now we hit grain silos? Let's starve the people of Syria. You know, I've lost all faith in our government to do anything right at this point.

http://news.msn.com/world/us-led-raids-hit-grain-silos-in-syria-kill-workers-monitor

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A USAF friend of mine told me this story.
At the Air Command & Staff College in Montgomery, a history professor related that, in WW II, it took the Army Air Force 10,000 pounds of bombs to destroy a bridge. In Korea it was 7,500 pounds of bombs to destroy a bridge. In Vietnam, it took the Air Force only 2,000 pounds of bombs to destroy a bridge, and in the first Gulf War it was only 500 pounds of bombs.
The history professor then asked, "What can we deduce from these data?"
A smack aleck student said, "The Air Force hates bridges?"

Maybe the Air Force has now moved on to hating grain silos.

I haven't seen any video footage of grain silos being blown up. But from a couple of the buildings I saw, there were two pin ..... bombs or some type of minor ordinance that hit the roof. The buildings remained intact. Shouldn't we have destroyed the buildings and not just knocked out some windows?

And those attacks came in the middle of the night when one is to assume the good folks from ISIS were nestled away, fast asleep in a former U.S. embassy or other cozy place. Maybe we got a janitor.

ValuJet said:

I haven't seen any video footage of grain silos being blown up. But from a couple of the buildings I saw, there were two pin ..... bombs or some type of minor ordinance that hit the roof.The buildings remained intact. Shouldn't we have destroyed the buildings and not just knocked out some windows?

And those attacks came in the middle of the night when one is to assume the good folks from ISIS were nestled away, fast asleep in a former U.S. embassy or other cozy place. Maybe we got a janitor.

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They were destroyed. The missiles nowadays can focus their blast downward if needed, while often leaving the outward structure intact. 99% of the time these compounds possess sub-levels where the high value target(s) would be located, anyway.

ISIS allegedly kills 300 Iraqi soldiers in chlorine gas attack

http://basnews.com/en/News/Details/IS-Militants-Kill-300-Iraqi-Soldiers-with-Chlorine-Gas-/35013

That is horrible. Note Johnny Kerry's warning to Assad, not ISIS. ???

As a result of the $500 million training program, "four or five" Syrians are now fighting ISIS. Not four or five thousand, or four or five hundred. Four or five, as in less than half a dozen, at $10 million per soldier.
To quote that great thinker, Jimi Hendrix, "That ain't too cool."

But on the other hand, Russia, it seems, has deployed MI-24 Hind attack helicopters to Syria.


Oh, boy...

Tidewater said:

As a result of the $500 million training program, "four or five" Syrians are now fighting ISIS. Not four or five thousand, or four or five hundred. Four or five, as in less than half a dozen, at $10 million per soldier.
To quote that great thinker, Jimi Hendrix, "That ain't too cool."

But on the other hand, Russia, it seems, has deployed MI-24 Hind attack helicopters to Syria.


Oh, boy...

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And T-90 tanks...

4Q Basket Case said:

Serious question here, because I respect your perspective...Do you think the Russians are supporting the Assad government because they think he'll be an ally / Soviet equivalent after they collectively defeat ISIS?

Or do you think they're betting on ISIS for the exact same reasons?

Putin doesn't back losers. At least, not intentionally. Who is he backing? And would he switch if he saw the tide shifting?

I may be a minority of one, but I think he sees an opportunity to simultaneously skyrocket the price of oil and return to the good old days of the USSR

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He is supporting a long-time friend, primarilty.
There are a number of muslims from the north Caucasus (Chechnya and a bunch of places no one here has even herad of North Ossetia, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria) and muslims from these areas are going to ISIS to fight, learn how to fight and may come home later and fight Russia for independence for their republics. I think Putin would like to kill them while they are in Syria. Remember is was Caucasus muslims who took over the school in Beslan and killed hundreds of Russian kids.
A spike in oil prices would suit Putin quite well, but I am not sure a greater war in Syria would do enough to world supplies.