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Today: 48 articles and 105 comments as of 13:23.
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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Iraq and Iran compel Kurdish withdrawal from Kirkuk
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
3 21:28 Besoeker [] 
2 18:51 JohnQC [1] 
1 16:05 Seeking cure for ignorance [1] 
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5 12:18 Hellfish [] 
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 6: Politix
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6 10:56 Ptah []
Iraq
Trump defeated ISIS, Europe abandoned the Kurds
[IsraelNationalNews] There is a need for a monument (in addition to a state) for the Kurds. We need to name them on the streets, our poets (nowadays there are very few) have to pen verses in their honor and our politicians must visit them by offering them solidarity and contracts. The Kurds (with the help of the US) have just liberated Raqqa, the city where ISIS was hanging and crucifying and stoning and planning massacres of Europeans.

The Kurds opened their cities (like Erbil) to Christians displaced by Islamic fundamentalists. Only among the Kurds do you find Western volunteers who have gone to fight, not for the Caliph, but against him. The only place in the Middle East where today, apart from Israel, a Jew can show a kippah without being attacked is Kurdistan.

Nine months after Trump promised to defeat ISIS "quickly and effectively," the US armed forces and their Kurdish allies took Raqqa, which until Tuesday was the capital of the the Caliphate. After scornfully minimizing ISIS as a "JV team", Barack Obama realized his egregious misnomer, but then said that "it will take time" and "it is a long-term and complex challenge."

Joshua Keating, writing for the left-wing newspaper Slate, noted that Trump had instructed the Pentagon to loosen the rules for air strikes to the minimum required by international law by eliminating the White House surveillance procedures to protect civilians and ordering the CIA to resume targeted killing (America has just bombed in Yemen for the first time). Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a well-known Trump critic, praised this "dramatic change" over Obama's politician's management. The result is quite obvious.

In July, ISIS was expelled from Mosul and this week Raqqa was freed. Trump did in nine months what Obama did not accomplish in three years.

And Europe, the famous multilateral Europe? Angela Merkel sealed the pact with Erdogan's Turks, those who are bombing the Kurds, and Macron's France tightened the ranks around the covenant with Iran, the force that pushed the Kurds out of Kirkuk. Europe is still held prisoner by the syndrome of Munich.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/20/2017 01:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  The way you have treated the Kurds after all of this I shall always remember... Forever.

Time and Heaven will un-ravel you all for this.

I never forget so warn your kids. It's going to be a rocky ride until you all find the Rock.
Posted by: newc || 10/20/2017 2:14 Comments || Top||

#2  From your lips to God's ears, newc...
Posted by: Ptah || 10/20/2017 10:48 Comments || Top||

#3  What the Middle East needs for real peace, a two part plan:
1. Move every last mother-loving Palestinian to Kurdistan.
2. Move every Kurd to the East bank and Gaza strip (and Golan Heights perhaps).
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/20/2017 11:12 Comments || Top||

#4  rj, there are (approx) 25,000,000 Kurds.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/20/2017 11:22 Comments || Top||

#5  No plan is perfect.

8.35 million in Iraq, they are the ones we care about. That's still double the population of the Palestinians so they'll need Sinai as well.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/20/2017 13:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Sorry, RJ. But that's ours. Together with Judea & Samaria, and Transjordan, and anything else we might snap. Still, leaves plenty of space for Kurds - in their own places.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/20/2017 15:08 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Personal Defense: The 21-Foot Rule: Why Is It Important?
[NRA Shooting Illustrated] In 1983, an article written by a Salt Lake City police officer named Dennis Tueller was published in a law enforcement journal. The article was titled "How Close is too Close?" It dealt with the premise of a man armed with a holstered handgun defending against a man armed with a striking or stabbing instrument. Through experimentation, Tueller developed what became known as the "21-Foot Rule," which concluded if a bad guy armed with a knife or a club was within 21 feet of you, the reasonable conclusion would be you were within his danger zone. In other words, the bad guy could cover 21 feet in about 1.5 seconds‐before you could draw your handgun and neutralize the threat.

Two important things occurred as a result of Tueller’s observation and the resulting article. As trainers became aware of Tueller’s postulate, various drills appeared that were designed to replicate this 7-yard assault. The cumulative result of trainers and students practicing these drills, talking about them and writing about them was a tactical axiom: If an armed individual was within 21 feet of you, you would be justified in shooting to defend yourself.

According to Dave Starin, retired SWAT officer and former director of training at Gunsite Academy, "It changed many agencies use-of-force policies and training programs and has also been used for decades in use-of-force reviews and court cases."
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/20/2017 09:12 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What the police need are riot shields that can send a jolt like a tazer to anyone that grabs them or stabs them.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/20/2017 11:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Because if someone brings a knife to a gun fight, you do not want to die.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/20/2017 18:51 Comments || Top||


USS Mason 2016 encounter with missiles made naval history
[TheConversation] One year ago, the American warship USS Mason defended itself from attacking cruise missiles while patrolling the Red Sea. It was a minor affair with few shots fired and no one hurt. But it was noteworthy for its global security implications.

On Oct. 9, 2016, Mason’s radar detected two anti-ship cruise missiles launching 48 kilometres away from rebel-held areas of Yemen. They flew low over the water at about 1,100 kilometres an hour, and would reach the ship in just over two minutes.

Missile defence layers
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: badanov || 10/20/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Call me crazy, but is it okay to ask if the Aegis, or some other system, can calc the launching point?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 10/20/2017 6:20 Comments || Top||

#2  So they fired 3 interceptors for zero hits. One missile crashed on its own and the other MAY have been winged. I guess nobody noticed that in the article.
Posted by: Harcourt Angoluting9366 || 10/20/2017 6:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Why are we all pretending these were Yemeni "rebel" missles?
Posted by: Butch Grumble8675 || 10/20/2017 9:03 Comments || Top||

#4  HA9366, without visual confirmation there is no direct evidence of missile kills. So, at least give the article credit for being on the cautious side.

Actually, I think aliens used their zap guns.;-)
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 10/20/2017 10:24 Comments || Top||

#5  @Richard - unless the launch was seen on radar it isn't calculatable because cruise missiles don't follow a mathematical path such as a parabola - they are steerable or programmed to mask the launch point via movement.
Posted by: Hellfish || 10/20/2017 12:18 Comments || Top||


Government
Director Pompeo: CIA to Become ‘Much More Vicious' in Fighting Adversaries
[Free Beacon] CIA Director Mike Pompeo expressed his support for President Donald Trump's recent decision to decertify the Iran nuclear deal during an interview on Thursday before more generally discussing the agency's goal to be "more vicious" in fighting its adversaries.

BLUF:

Speaking broadly about his future actions at the CIA, Pompeo said it would "become a much more vicious agency" in fighting U.S. adversaries.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/20/2017 09:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm encouraged with the addition at the closing of "U.S. adversaries" vs simply "agency adversaries".

Subtle, but I believe there could possibly be a difference. Additional definition would of course be helpful.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/20/2017 9:58 Comments || Top||

#2  ...both Foreign and Domestic.

Well, no that doesn't add distinction.
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/20/2017 16:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Tell me Mr. Director, will Fusion-GPS be assisting with this effort ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/20/2017 21:28 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Liberals Try To Connect With Normal Americans And It Goes Poorly
h/t Instapundit
[Townhall] Key Democrats met secretly to confer about the party’s future as America approached the one-year anniversary of their stunning and hilarious humiliation by Donald Trump. The key question they sought to answer: "How can we Democrats appeal to those Jesus-loving, racist idiots who hate science and don’t live on the coast like everyone we know?"

After opening the seminar by refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance, Chuck Schumer gaveled the meeting to order, sparking widespread protests. "Hammers are violent tools of oppression that cause oppressed people to literally shake. We need a national conversation about assault gavels that use automatic high-capacity clips," sputtered the 112 year-old Senator Dianne Feinstein. "Sure, we should be able to have them, but not those, those ... little people out there. They don’t need gavels."

The assembly quickly agreed that in 2018 Democrats must prioritize sensible hammer control, including gavel background checks and ending the tool show loophole, and to enlist Lawrence O’Donnell in their campaign to stop the hammering.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/20/2017 07:02 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Took me a while to realize this is satire and not reality.

Sure seems real to me, based on the liberals I know.

Good one
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 10/20/2017 16:05 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
17[untagged]
9Islamic State
5Govt of Iraq
3Arab Spring
2Govt of Syria
1Haqqani Network
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Jamaat ul-Ahrar
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1MEND
1Narcos
1Palestinian Authority
1Taliban
1Boko Haram (ISIS)
1Commies
1Govt of Pakistan
1Hamas

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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2017-10-20
  Iraq and Iran compel Kurdish withdrawal from Kirkuk
Thu 2017-10-19
  TTP names successor to APS mastermind Umar Mansoor
Wed 2017-10-18
  US-Backed Forces Say Have Captured Raqa from IS
Tue 2017-10-17
  Terror leaders Hapilon (Abu Sayyaf), Maute (Maute Group) gunned down in Marawi
Mon 2017-10-16
  The "War after ISIS" begins in Iraq
Sun 2017-10-15
  Report: U.S. Coalition Cuts Islamic State Revenues over 90 Percent
Sat 2017-10-14
  Iraqi forces move to begin operations against Kurds
Fri 2017-10-13
  Iraq PM Denies Attack Plan as Tensions Rise with Kurds
Thu 2017-10-12
  British jihadi Sally Jones killed by US drone strike fleeing ISIS hell
Wed 2017-10-11
  Bangladesh arrests top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami
Tue 2017-10-10
  Nusra Front, Islamic State clash in Syria's Hama province
Mon 2017-10-09
  Syrian rebels capture ISIS HQ in Deir Ezzor
Sun 2017-10-08
  Two Saudi guards killed in attack on royal palace in Jeddah
Sat 2017-10-07
  Driver 'deliberately mows down pedestrians' outside London Museum
Fri 2017-10-06
  Iraqi premier claims victory against Islamic State in Hawija

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