Krauthammer: Kobane Falling to ISIS Would Be a Huge Setback for The Good Guys

Fighting continued in Kobane, Syria Tuesday as the American led coalition carried out five air strikes around Kobane.  Kurdish fighters said the help  should have come much earlier.

Via the BBC:

Air strikes took centre stage today, apparently bringing the IS advance to a juddering halt. With jets overhead for long periods, IS clearly had to spend time under cover to avoid being hit. As a result, there was nothing like the intensity of fighting seen on Monday. At times, Kobane seemed eerily quiet.

Significantly, it seems the Kurdish defenders of Kobane are now communicating directly with US-led coalition forces. But air strikes alone may not be enough to stop IS taking Kobane in the long run. The Kurdish YPG militia claims to have the upper hand in street fighting, but it is outnumbered and outgunned by IS.

Only a ground operation, or significant military assistance from Turkey could carry any guarantee of success, and the prospects for this seem remote. Turkey’s conditions are not ones the US seems ready to accommodate.

The BBC’s Diplomatic Correspondent, Jonathan Marcus writes, “if Kobane falls it will be a serious set-back for the Kurds.”

But it will inevitably also raise fundamental questions about the scope and capacity of the US air campaign to combat IS, and about the diverse goals of the anti-IS coalition that the US has assembled.

Kobane, which is a small salient of land poking into Syrian territory, is in no sense an easy place to defend.

***

Many might wonder why US air power has not done more to stem the IS advance. Well for one thing the focus of what you might call US “tactical” strikes has been largely in Iraq. The air strikes in Syria have mainly been against IS command infrastructure and economic targets like oil installations.

Brigadier Ben Barry, the land warfare analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London notes that IS offensives typically begin with significant artillery preparation – several days of barrages from artillery, mortars, tanks and so on.

Attacking IS from the air however, is not easy. Their guns may be well camouflaged when not firing, and even rudimentary spotters can identify US aircraft in the vicinity.

Brigadier Barry says that the problems around Kobane illustrate “not so much the lack of a land component but the lack of any real ability to synchronise the air effort with what is taking place on the ground”.

“There is,” he says, “a powerful argument for having Western special forces on the ground in the forward air control role to help spot and guide aircraft to their targets.”

On Fox News’ Special Report with Brett Baier, Charles Krauthammer said, “it would be a tremendous, strategic, and symbolic victory if ISIS succeeds and right now it is.”

Via NRO:

 

“If this falls it’s going to be a huge setback for the United States and for any of the good guys on the ground in Syria or in Iraq.” Krauthammer continued to explain that U.S. air strikes constituted doing “practically nothing,” and called today’s five air strikes “utterly meaningless.” He added that the unserious American air campaign will have grave consequences for the Kurds, who are fighting to hold on to Kobane.

The people of kobani feel they’ve been lied to about promises of US support against ISIS, coming up @NBCNightlyNews

— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) October 7, 2014

Oh and via White House Dossier – this is not encouraging, at all: Psaki: Let’s See, I’ve Got Those ISIS Successes Somewhere . . .

 SEE ALSO:

Weasel Zippers: CBS Poll: Only 32% Approve Of How Obama Is Handling ISIS Threat, Whopping 65% Disapprove…

Rep. Duncan Hunter: At Least 10 ISIS Fighters Have Been Caught Crossing Our Southern Border

In an appearance on Fox News’ On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) mentioned casually that ten ISIS fighters have crossed the open southern border from Mexico into America.

Wait what?

Via Gateway Pundit: 

Greta Van Susteren: You say they’re coming in the southern border which changes the dynamics. Do you have any information or any evidence that they are actually coming in the southern border now?

Rep. Hunter: Yes.

Greta: Tell me what you know?

Rep. Hunter: I know that at least ten ISIS fighters have been caught coming across the southern border in Texas.

Asked how he knows this, Hunter explained that he’s talked to the border patrol agents. What more, he notes that those are just the ones they’ve caught – just a tip of the iceberg since certainly many more have made it across.

Last month, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-UT) stated that 4 terrorists had been caught trying to cross the border on 9/10.

Obama’s feckless policies have already led to countless civilian deaths around the world. Now his policies are are about to lead to civilian deaths right here.

This Weeks’ Nominees For Weasel Of The Week!!

Hello and welcome to the Watcher’s Council’s ‘Weasel Of The Week’ nominations, where we award the golden plastic Weasel to a public figure who particularly deserves to be publicly slimed and mocked for his or her dastardly deeds during the week. Every Tuesday morning, tune in for the Weasel of the Week nominations and check back Thursday to see which Weasel gets the votes and walks off with the statuette of shame!

Here are this weeks’ nominees:

Science Fiction Writer And Self Accalimed Expert On Everything David Quammen!

The Independent Sentinel : David Quammen, alleged Ebola expert, for saying this on Anderson Cooper 360Thursday:

“You can’t isolate neighborhoods, you can’t isolate nations. It doesn’t work. And people talk about, “Well, we shouldn’t allow any flights from Liberia.” I mean, we in America, how dare we turn our backs on Liberia given the fact that this is a country that was founded in the 1820s, 1830s because of American slavery. We have a responsibility to stay connected to them and help them see this through.”

Liberia was founded in 1826 after prominent American abolitionists helped thousands of freed African-American slaves colonize a patch of western Africa. The ex-slaves set up slavery for the locals.

After a bloody coup, the Liberian-Americans left and moved back to the United States.For the most part, the people now living in Liberia have nothing to do with American slavery and live in a brutal culture.

This was – excuse me – over 200 years ago. Hello!?! This is irrational.

If we all contract Ebola over here, that will really help all those people over there.

Mr. Quammen should get his butt right over to Liberia and help everyone with Ebola. If he gets Ebola, he can consider it atonement for slavery in 1826.I can’t take this crazy talk any longer. It has to stop.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden!

The Noisy Room : I nominate with enthusiasm, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden for saying a travel ban to the countries facing an Ebola outbreak could paradoxically make the problem worse. Right… That’s insane. He is also claiming the Ebola outbreak in the US is totally under control and it is unlikely it will spread in the US, because wait for it… they know how to contain it and stop the spread of it in its tracks. Because they’ve done such a bang up job so far, you know. Nothing to see here, keep flying and just ignore the vomiting in the next aisle over. The CDC and the Obama Administration have done nothing but lie about everything concerning this pandemic from day one. But don’t panic, for heaven’s sake.

Virginia Right!: I nominate Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Thomas Frieden who is in denial of the dangers of Ebola spreading in the US. Preventing people with the disease from entering the country can only help contain the outbreak.

Obama Consigliere Valerie Jarrett!

GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD: For her role as President Obama’s behind the scenes fixer, her championing of self-identified communist Van Jones (as green jobs czar), and the die-hard advocate of wealth redistribution Cass Sunstein (as regulatory czar), and her role as the White House’s unofficial compass on  minority issues.

Vice President Joe Biden!!

The Right Planet : Like a bad case of herpes, VP Joe Biden is the “gift” that just keeps giving. The vice president recently apologized to Turkey and UAE for his recent comments linking the two nations to al-Qaeda (although I don’t necessarily disagree with that), and may or may not apologize to Saudi Arabia for similar comments. He apologized to the ADL for using the derogatory term “shylock.” He’s taken heat for using the term “Orient” to describe Asia. He praised Bob Packwood in front of a women’s group. He’s mocked the EU’s economy. And “Jumbled Joe” struck again by claiming China was part of North America. Biden recently joked to a student body vice president at Harvard that being vice president is a “bitch.” I’ll tell ya what’s a “bitch” … thinking this guy is just a heartbeat away from the presidency.

The Supreme Court Of The United States!

 Rhymes With Right : The United States Supreme Court. On Monday the nine Justices of the Highest Court in the Land abrogated their responsibility to hear a case and provide precedent on gay marriages. In declaring their refusal to hear any of the pending appeals, they in effect legalized gay marriage in every state in several judicial circuits and put their thumb on the scale in pending appellate decisions on the matter that were likely to provide contrary decisions.

Well, there it is! Are these worthy weasels or what? Check back Thursday to see which Weasel walks off with the statuette of shame!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum.

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted onFriday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

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Ralph Peters Blasts Obama’s “Phony” Air Campaign: “He Doesn’t Want Dead Terrorists” (Video)

With little to no help from the outside world,  Syrian Kurds have been locked in a desperate battle to save the key Syria-Turkey border  town of Kobane.

The BBC reported that the ISIS mutants have been besieging the town for nearly three weeks.

Since then, more than 160,000 Syrians, mainly Kurds, have fled across the border into Turkey.

As of Monday night,  ISIS had  entered Kobane and taken control of three districts after street-to-street fighting with Syrian Kurd defenders.

IS fighters entered the eastern districts on Monday, raising their black flag on buildings and hills.

Local officials said about 2,000 civilians fled to the Turkish border.

Earlier a local official in Kobane, Idriss Nassan, told the BBC that the town would “certainly fall soon”.

He confirmed IS was now in control of Mistenur, the strategic hill above the town and that there was heavy shelling. Kobane is now besieged on three sides.

There were reports Monday that a Kurdish woman fighting ISIS carried out a suicide bomb attack to slow their advance on the besieged town.

Deilar Kanj Khamis, known by the nom de guerre Arin Mirkan, blew herself up at an IS position east of the border town, killing ten jihadists.

Where was the American led air campaign that could have struck at ISIS military caravans as they traveled toward Kobane in the open desert? And where are the weapons the United States was going to supply the Kurds?  Because they’re running out of ammo.

Karwan Zebari, a representative of the Kurdish regional government in the US, told the BBC it would be catastrophic if IS seized control of the town.

“If this continues, if there’s no international aid, military aid arriving for the residents of Kobane and these Kurdish fighters that are fighting in Kobane, it could fall into the hands of IS,” he said.

He urged Turkey to take action in support of the residents of Kobane.

“I think Turkey’s interests, national security, is at stake here as well. It’s important that Turkey steps up and assists these Kurdish fighters in repelling this IS momentum.”

As Lt. Col Ralph Peters notes in the clip below, Erdigan is playing a double game. He’s letting ISIS slaughter Kurds and take over their territory, but will not allow them to come into Turkey where they practice their own form of Islam that isn’t quite as fanatical.

Asya Abdullah, a senior Kurdish politician and co-leader of the Democratic Union Party, is in Kobane and told the BBC’s Newshour programme that fighting was continuing.

She said: “There is fighting on Kobane’s streets now. There are still thousands of civilians in the city and IS is using heavy weapons. If they are not stopped now, there will be a big massacre.

“The Kurds haven’t given up, they’re fighting house to house and block to block,” Ralph Peters told Megyn Kelly, Monday night before launching into an impassioned attack on what he called the president’s “fraudulent, pretend” air campaign.

“Our president … launched this PHONY air campaign…. basically to absolve him of any blame to get his party through the November elections,” Peters seethed.

“This air campaign has been paltry from the start – he warned them we’re coming  – they hit empty buildings in the dead of night – empty camps,” Peters continued.  “We’re sending in jet fighters with low yield precision munitions – basically guided hand grenades –  to blow up individual pick up trucks. To kill three terrorists here – four there. Outside Kobane where the terrorists from the Islamic State were out in the open en masse – with their vehicles, their persons – it was the perfect target for serious air power – B-52s doing area saturation bombing. But this president will not do it! He doesn’t want casualties – not only civilian casualties – he doesn’t even want a lot dead terrorists.  This whole thing is a fraud.”

He predicted, “those people in Kabani among so many others are going to pay a price for this president’s outright cowardice.”

“It’s one travesty after another.  President Obama doesn’t act to prevent tragedy. He reacts to tragedy. He reacts weakly. He mourns and does a little bit. This tragedy is going to repeat itself again and again and again,” he lamented.

“As ISIS takes over more Kurdish territory and advances on Baghdad, we look “feckless, ineffective and cowardly,” Peters concluded sadly.