Deliciously Ironic Sanctimony
"What was done here was wrong. Why? Because some of the weapons they dropped from the C-130s were seized by the Islamic State."
"It would be wrong for the United States, with whom we are friends and allies in NATO, to talk openly and to expect us to say yes to such a support to a terrorist organization."
"I have difficulty understanding why Kobani is so strategic for them, because there are no civilians there, just around 2,000 fighters."
"It has become clear that [the airdrops are] wrong. It’s impossible to achieve results with such an operation."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
"One bundle worth of equipment is not enough equipment to give the enemy any type of advantage at all. It’s a relatively small amount of supplies. This is stuff [Isis] already has."
U.S. defence spokesman, Army Lieutenant Colonel Steve Warren
"We’re still taking a look at it and assessing the validity of it. So I honestly don’t know if that [box] was one of the ones dropped."
"[The weapons shown in the video were the kind that were dropped.] So it’s not out of the realm of the possibility in that regard."
"I do want to add, though, that we are very confident that the vast majority of the bundles did end up in the right hands. In fact, we’re only aware of one bundle that did not."
Rear Admiral John Kirby, Pentagon
Seems so from the eye-witness description of a Syrian journalist situated within Kobani and reporting from there that he had seen the drops, watched as high winds carried two of them away from where the Syrian Kurds could easily retrieve them, toward the area that was in the hands of the Islamic State jihadis. He did say, however, that despite dropping the two out of Kurdish bounds, the Kurds did manage to retrieve one of the stray bundles, and he said as well that the U.S. Command Centre had stated they had pinpoint-aerial-bombed the other to keep it out of ISIS hands.
Gee whiz, guess they bombed on that one, in the sense that their pinprick precision bombing missed its mark, and the jihadis were able to retrieve it after all. Shucks. But while it is a little embarrassing it hardly matters in the greater scheme of things since Islamic State jihadis have more than enough munitions, millions of dollars-worth of the stuff, courtesy of the Americans by proxy, left to ISIS by the terrorized Iraqi military who couldn't be bothered defending Mosul or their barracks. And what is contained in the bundle is fairly paltry.
But there lurks another truth, one quite amusing if it weren't so grim; that Turkey is now prodding the U.S. for its incalculable error in providing Islamic State, a terrorist group that Turkey made it a point of discreetly supporting, giving haven to, providing with funds and arms in the hopes it would dispel Syrian President Al-Assad of the notion he could hang on in Syria. Their cozy arrangement with ISIS, including marketing its oil for profit at both ends has been denied but is well acknowledged to be the reality of the situation.
But Turkey isn't embarrassed. Despite the reality that it doesn't really belong in NATO, is an unreliable member, and doesn't share the values and goals of either NATO or the United States, it loves to flaunt its membership and the benefits that accrue with same -- remember NATO agreeing to place anti-missile launchers at the border in Turkey to protect a NATO member from Syrian missiles?
There can be little doubt that NATO rues the day it impulsively gave membership to Turkey. On the other hand, back then it was a different Turkey.
The jihadists, on the other hand, feel pretty gleeful about the cache they were able to retrieve. The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham seem a little more cerebrally sophisticated than the Turkish authorities and deadlier as well. ISIS loyalists had fun on social media posting thank-you notes to the United States, inclusive of an image that boasted "Team USA". Now that rankles, but it doesn't do to have too thin skins over such irrelevancies, embarrassing as they tend to be.
The cache of weapons that fell into ISIS's hands were revealed to hold hand grenades, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, seen in a video uploaded by a media group loyal to ISIS. Another cause for celebration, another victory, another boost in morale. But so what, actually? They've got all that stuff in spades. And they'll soon enough have to contend with British armed drones and a spy plane that will be credited with escalating the battle against ISIS.
They can laugh at that.
Labels: Conflict, Islamic State, Kurds, NATO, Syria, Turkey, United States
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, October 23, 2014
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