generalspeaking

God Willing

"This is a message to you, O Vladimir Putin, these are the jets that you have sent to Bashar, we will send them to you, God willing, remember that."
"And we will liberate Chechnya and the entire Caucasus, God willing. The Islamic State is and will be and it is expanding God willing."
"Your throne has already teetered, it is under threat and will fall when we come to you because Allah is truly on our side."
Islamic State video

An image made available by Jihadist media outlet al-Itisam Media on June 29, 2014, allegedly shows members of the IS (Islamic state) including military leader and Georgian native, Abu Omar al-Shishani (Tarkhan Batirashvili) (C-L) and ISIL sheikh Abu Mohammed al-Adnani (C-R), whose picture was blurred from the source to protect his identity, speaking at an unknown location between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah.  Photograph by: AFP PHOTO , HO / Al-Itisam Media

So then, Vladimir Putin is named and forewarned that his chickens from Chechnya are planning to come back to roost in his backyard with disastrous results for Moscow and Russia. As if Mr. Putin will let that happen, right? He has troops to spare, with up-to-the-minute training, experience in Ukraine, and his new investments in state-of-the-art war machines will be unmatched by anything the Islamic State jihadis can throw at him.

But hey, they're prepared to throw at him Russian military equipment, isn't that a hoot? The video just released shows Islamist jihadis on top of all that equipment including a fighter jet all taken from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military forces that the Islamic State fighters persuaded to allow them to take possession of. The Syrian military was too busy making themselves scarce to really care.

Mind, the Russian military is nowhere near as mobile, as able to melt into the background, as skilled at appearing as though out of nowhere, as experienced in mounting suicide bombings, as dedicated to their heavenly cause, as the Islamists, and so it was exceedingly kind of Abu Omar al-Shisani (Omar the Chechen) to go out of his busy way to alert Mr. Putin. Who must be beside himself with gratitude over the favour.

That Russia is a stalwart ally of the Assad regime is another point in its disfavour, as well. So what are the odds its naval facility on the Mediterranean in the Syrian port of Tartus will become a target? That Russia represents President al-Assad's reliably primary source of weaponry is a double-edged sword. Displeasing the Islamic State jihadis no end, but pleasing them mightily in the end, once they've taken possession of them.

They do represent, after all, state-of-the-art war machines, that the jihadis have become adept at manipulating and using. Better at it than the ethnic Russian insurgents in Ukraine who used some of that stuff to shoot down a Malaysian airliner, under the illusion it was a Ukrainian war jet. The Islamist jihadis haven't made such an error of misjudgement yet, mostly because they judge any kind of atrocity a celebratory success.


Takva Media Center, a Turkish jihadi website, published an alleged interview with Abu Omar al-Shishani, the leader of Jeish al-Muhajireen wal Ansar and an official for the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Syria.

Russia is, of course, somewhat concerned; its thoughtfulness over the North Caucasus presenting as a potential problem during the Sochi Olympics brought out mind-numbing security, enough to dissuade the Islamists gone underground they would do better to await more appealing opportunities. That time may have come. With the Kremlin so focused on Ukraine and upping the ante on NATO by kidnapping an Estonian (NATO-affiliate) security type, chortling with the fun of it, an Islamist attack might just re-arrange Mr. Putin's plans.

He knows all about diversions and fighting on several fronts to dilute the effectiveness of an opponent. So he can look into the strategic capabilities and options of an opponent that is much better prepared, far more lethal than the one he has now produced in Ukraine.

Labels: Chechnya, Conflict, ISIS, Islamists, Russia

posted by Pieface @ Monday, September 08, 2014