Islamic State Crisis Megathread (ISIS/ISIL/IS)

[Baltenstein]

Not only are you ignoring that Bulgaria and Greece are not exactly friendly neighbors (there are issues regarding FYROM and the Slavophone minority in Northern Greece), so there would hardly be a joint effort, you are not answering the question as to why those two would want to conquer a city which has a bigger Muslim population than their entire countries.

Despite Bulgarian imperialism, they were more than once anti-Ottoman allies. For example, my people doesn't like Poles much, but if they will invade Germany one day, we would help them, of course

And do you realize what would happen to Turkish state, if Istanbul was under artillery, rocket and gunfire and millions of it's inhabitants would try escape to Anatolia?

Of course this is all theoretical talk.
Today, only few people thinks that such destructive wars, Kursk-like battles or Leningrad-like sieges are gone forever, which is kinda silly assumption.

You keep ignoring the key question: Unless some ISIS-like psychopaths come to power in Athens and Sofia, why would Greece and Bulgaria try to conquer a city with a population bigger than their countries?

[Washington Resistance Army]

Siege of Istanbul? Dude, The greater city area has almost as many citizens as Greece and Bulgaria combined. The Greeks and Bulgarians would be more busy with fortifying their borders from the flood of refugees in such a scenario.

If both states did join attack against Istanbul, I highly doubt turkish refugees would run towards artillery fire, machine guns and tank brigades

Something tells me Turkey would slap Greece and Bulgaria silly if they attacked.

[Socialist Czechia]

Despite Bulgarian imperialism, they were more than once anti-Ottoman allies. For example, my people doesn't like Poles much, but if they will invade Germany one day, we would help them, of course

And do you realize what would happen to Turkish state, if Istanbul was under artillery, rocket and gunfire and millions of it's inhabitants would try escape to Anatolia?

Of course this is all theoretical talk.
Today, only few people thinks that such destructive wars, Kursk-like battles or Leningrad-like sieges are gone forever, which is kinda silly assumption.

You keep ignoring the key question: Unless some ISIS-like psychopaths come to power in Athens and Sofia, why would Greece and Bulgaria try to conquer a city with a population bigger than their countries?

In case of Turkish irredentism, I say that such approach is probable, as much as fascist regimes in both countries, since people there would feel angry and insecure, that 'old enemy' is on march again. It's just fantasy that Europe has less nationalist issues than it had in 20th century.

[Socialist Czechia]

If both states did join attack against Istanbul, I highly doubt turkish refugees would run towards artillery fire, machine guns and tank brigades

Something tells me Turkey would slap Greece and Bulgaria silly if they attacked.

Turkish armed forces are quite powerful, but you must count long borders and coasts to strategic calculations and probability of Kurdish uprising all over eastern parts during such war, which would be totally supported by someone, at least by Armenians, who can't forget or forgive.

Istanbul's refugees all over Anatolia and occupation of European territory would alone mean defeat.

[Tule]

This is actually one of the reasons why I'm so frustrated by their Inaction. The Turkish army is probably the most potent military force in the region, second only to the IDF.

If they decided to attack ISIL right now, they would utterly destroy the organization as an effective fighting force. They would absolutely and utterly crush them in a display of force not seen since the Gulf War. They would slaughter the ISIL militants near Kobane like the pigs they are.

I take this back on second thoughts.

Not that Turkey wouldn't be able to crush ISIL forces around Kobane, or that ISIL fighters wouldn't have it coming, but I shouldn't hold it against someone if he doesn't want to risk his life for another nation.

I still think the Kurds in the region deserve aid however and I hope Turkey cooperates a little more, even if all they did was allow Kurds to enter Syria or aid wounded Kurdish fighters.

An act of compassion towards the Kurds certainly couldn't hurt their relations with Turkey.

[Australian rePublic]

You know who are the unsung victims of all of this IS crap? All of the Egyptian girls named after their goddess Isis. My mum knows somebody named Called Isis and is bullied about it

[West Aurelia]

IS training pilots to fly captured planes - Reuters.

[Socialist Czechia]

You know who are the unsung victims of all of this IS crap? All of the Egyptian girls named after their goddess Isis. My mum knows somebody named Called Isis and is bullied about it

Good point. Dudes named 'Adolph' had it worse, though.

[Herargon]

IS training pilots to fly captured planes - Reuters.

Hah, we'll bomb them into oblivion. Just bomb every captured plane down. That'll teach them.
Bomb their oil fields, bomb everything that has their flag, bomb them to oblivion, by Jingo!

[Baltenstein]

You know who are the unsung victims of all of this IS crap? All of the Egyptian girls named after their goddess Isis.

It becomes darkly funny though, once you consider that the Kurds name their female battle units the "YPG star", after the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar.

Thus, it becomes an epic fight between ancient goddesses. For this reason alone, the US should call their anti-ISIS battle strategy "Operation Pallas Athena" or something like that.

[Ainin]

IS training pilots to fly captured planes - Reuters.

In other news, the number of aircraft brought down by small-arms fire skyrockets.

[Herargon]

You know who are the unsung victims of all of this IS crap? All of the Egyptian girls named after their goddess Isis.

It becomes darkly funny though, once you consider that the Kurds name their female battle units the "YPG star", after the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar.

Thus, it becomes an epic fight between ancient goddesses. For this reason alone, the US should call their anti-ISIS battle strategy "Operation Pallas Athena" or something like that.

Better call it ''Freedom Burger''.

[Socialist Czechia]

Ottoman-empire-reborn-theory is mostly intellectual question, but what if Erdogan will fall and will be replaced by someone more islamist, who's openly friendly to ISIL? There must be factions inside Turkey, inside Erdogan's party, even more radical than him.

Islamist state of Turkey and Levant would mean total war from Albania to Iran.

[Gezi Park]

Ottoman-empire-reborn-theory is mostly intellectual question, but what if Erdogan will fall and will be replaced by someone more islamist, who's openly friendly to ISIL? There must be factions inside Turkey, inside Erdogan's party, even more radical than him.

Islamist state of Turkey and Levant would mean total war from Albania to Iran.

No, there are not such fundamentalist factions in Turkey. There's a radical islamist party that revolves around %1, but even they're not sympathetic to ISIS or something. What do you think Turkey is like? there might be social conservative politicians like Erdogan but they're not fundamentalists.

I mean can't there be social conservatives in Muslim-majority countries that are not necessarily fundamentalist? Erdogan is just the Muslim type of Christian Democrats in the European context. Its party is a member of European Conservatives.

[Baltenstein]

Ottoman-empire-reborn-theory is mostly intellectual question, but what if Erdogan will fall and will be replaced by someone more islamist, who's openly friendly to ISIL? There must be factions inside Turkey, inside Erdogan's party, even more radical than him.

Islamist state of Turkey and Levant would mean total war from Albania to Iran.

No, there are not such fundamentalist factions in Turkey. There's a radical islamist party that revolves around %1, but even they're not sympathetic to ISIS or something. What do you think Turkey is like? there might be social conservative politicians like Erdogan but they're not fundamentalists.

I mean can't there be social conservatives in Muslim-majority countries that are not necessarily fundamentalist? Erdogan is just the Muslim type of Christian Democrats in the European context. Its party is a member of European Conservatives.

Nothing wrong with that, if there wasn't this creepy intransparent truce between the AKP and ISIS. You don't see Christian Conservative European governments covertly aiding mass murderous terrorist organizations which are able to overrun whole countries, right next door.

[Gezi Park]

No, there are not such fundamentalist factions in Turkey. There's a radical islamist party that revolves around %1, but even they're not sympathetic to ISIS or something. What do you think Turkey is like? there might be social conservative politicians like Erdogan but they're not fundamentalists.

I mean can't there be social conservatives in Muslim-majority countries that are not necessarily fundamentalist? Erdogan is just the Muslim type of Christian Democrats in the European context. Its party is a member of European Conservatives.

Nothing wrong with that, if there wasn't this creepy intransparent truce between the AKP and ISIS. You don't see Christian Conservative European governments covertly aiding mass murderous terrorist organizations which are able to overrun whole countries, right next door.

AKP might have had some affinity with ISIS, not completely denying that. But that doesn't necessarily mean they sympathize with their cause. Some states can do business with terrorist groups just like how the US did with Taliban. There are even claims of relationship between the CIA and Osama Bin Laden. ISIS is fighting Turkey's natural enemies, called PKK and its factions. So, even though it might be immoral, it mustn't be so surprising for Turkey to act according to its own interests.

[Herskerstad]

If both states did join attack against Istanbul, I highly doubt turkish refugees would run towards artillery fire, machine guns and tank brigades

Something tells me Turkey would slap Greece and Bulgaria silly if they attacked.

Yup, attacked by just two alone would be akin to Poland attacking Germany. Their combined forces are not geared towards offensive operations, unlike Turkey.

That being said however, while Bulgaria would not hold out long. Greece and their military have a long history of particularly resilient defense and this as only increased. Social turmoil in the nation aside, their military is respectably placed for defensive measure, and their tradition of such while short in a modern span remains impressive. Also fantastic special obs which stands more than a match for any in the region.

But that's a very fringe hypothetical situation. At worst Turkey and Greece will start placing military installation on disputed islands and much wailing and gnashing of teeth will ensure.

[23423423423]

Rumors have surfaced that the aircraft operated by the Islamic State have just struck an US military base in southern Iraq. Anyone know about this?

[The balkens]

Rumors have surfaced that the aircraft operated by the Islamic State have just struck an US military base in southern Iraq. Anyone know about this?

I am calling bullshit, they would've spotted on radar and shot down faster then they could say "DAMN IT OMAR! THESE MIG-21's SUCK!"

[Washington Resistance Army]

Rumors have surfaced that the aircraft operated by the Islamic State have just struck an US military base in southern Iraq. Anyone know about this?

Yeah, no. Untrained pilots in MiG-21's wouldn't have a chance, you can't train for a week and then fly a fighter and expect anything good to happen.

[Germanic Templars]

Kurdistan: IS is sending reinforcements to Kobanê from Raqqa, Tall Abyad, Manbij and Sarrin, clearly suffering heavy losses.

[Socialist Czechia]

Kurdistan: IS is sending reinforcements to Kobanê from Raqqa, Tall Abyad, Manbij and Sarrin, clearly suffering heavy losses.

So they are determined to win no matter what the cost. Victory or death. Their Stalingrad.

[Washington Resistance Army]

Kurdistan: IS is sending reinforcements to Kobanê from Raqqa, Tall Abyad, Manbij and Sarrin, clearly suffering heavy losses.

Damn, hope the Kurds can hold.

[Socialist Czechia]

History showed that sieged city usually lost, if relief army didn't come. R.I.P. Kobane and it's remaining population. They should save some bullets for themselves.

[Germanic Templars]

Kurdistan: IS is sending reinforcements to Kobanê from Raqqa, Tall Abyad, Manbij and Sarrin, clearly suffering heavy losses.

Damn, hope the Kurds can hold.

Hope so too. Meantime, this would be a great opportunity to try and scout out the defenses of those cities and see their numbers.