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What is Kurdish for ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ? The BBC is reporting something that made the hair on the back on my neck stand up.
Islamic State ‘being driven out of Syria’s Kobane’
If this proves to be correct, then the Syrian Kurds of the YPG and their FSA allies have pulled off a breathtaking feat of arms worthy of being likened to Thermopylae, but with hopefully an altogether better ending. I am hesitant to start breaking out the champagne just yet, but I really really hope this proves to be the case.
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The USAF turning up to pound the Persians would have rather spoilt the narrative at Thermopylae, but made a whole new interesting story in the process.
Isn’t it a bit more like the Glorious Glosters?
This is being decided by bloody house to house infantry fighting, not the USAF. I’m sure the yanks had helped shedloads by interdicting the nutters on the way there and around the edge, but speaking as a former squadie, i’ve been glued the tube on this and believe me those gezzers are holding that place the old fashioned way. Makes my time in Ulster look like a day out in Blackpool 😛
Just when it couldn’t get anymore surprising: even the dutch are appearing to grow a pair:
link
http://nypost.com/2014/10/15/outlaw-bikers-join-with-kurds-to-fight-isis-in-iraq/
Rather than Thermopylae, perhaps Bastogne or Rorke’s Drift?
Sure Rich but sorry, “what is Kurdish for Nuts?” just doesn’t have the same classicist ring to it as “what is Kurdish for Molon Labe?” 😀
I think Obama wants to know what the Greek is for “go away.”
Good comments.
And I hope you are right Perry.
Great, I thought this might be a likely prospect, remember the battle of Fallujah, the US marines had a tough time taking that town and they are real soldiers, not so the ISIS tossers. So long as the Kurds have ammunition they are a chance to hold. What they also need is reinforcements. So far the Turks have stopped Kurdish refugees from returning to take up the fight. Hopefully that situation will change.
even more importantly, does ‘Molon Labe’ have a meaning in Kurdish? If not, they could use the original Greek words, just like we use Geronimo (Whatever that means) when attacking people at random in the street. (Or is that just me?)
The USAF seems basically irrelevant here, except possibly as a morale-booster. 14 sorties in a day by a major power would have been embarrassing a century ago.
Props to the Kurds. Anyone who murders these scum is good in my books.
“14 sorties in a day by a major power would have been embarrassing a century ago. ”
Odd.
It’s around the centenary of the entire Royal Flying Corps, all four squadrons of it, flying off from Dover to Amiens.
So true.
A victory against Islamic terror. A victory for Marxism. Not a giant improvement.
Nah a vast improvement as not all the defenders are Marxist at all. Many are FSA or non-PYG Kurds
Has such a thing ever existed?
If not a century ago, at least as far back as 1968. The B52 missions in support of Khe Sanh are the benchmark for air support. If the Community Organiser had authorised even a fraction of that level of support, the IS forces around Kobane would have been tucking into their 72 raisins weeks ago.
JohnK: in truth the lack of FACs on the ground make close air support difficult, and once the Islamic State actually got into Kobane proper, extremely difficult, even with the best will in the world.
I have no doubt striking visible targets near Kobane and interdicting the approaches can and probably has helped, but there are limits. I think Ockham’s Spoon has this right.
If FACs are needed, the Community Organiser should have made it happen. Lacking that, if IS are known to have taken a particular district, a B52 strike is a good way of removing them, albeit at the cost of radical urban redevelopment. I imagine that Kobane will resemble Dresden at the end of this anyway, so you may as well smash up IS at the same time.
“It’s around the centenary of the entire Royal Flying Corps, all four squadrons of it, flying off from Dover to Amiens.
So true.”
Yup, that time frame was chosen with malice aforethought. I had drafted a different version of the comment, and then realized that the above was better.
The massive air war against Germany only killed 650,000, say 200,000 a year. Considering that Germany had a population of say 70 million and life expectancy was 70 years, one seventieth of the population die each year, that’s one million people die of old age each year.
Currently Germany has a population of 80 million and a death rate of 11.29/1000, which means about 900,000 people die of old age each year. Life expectancy has increased to about 80 years and the German elderly dependency ratio is 32.3%.
The Grim Reaper makes bombing campaigns look like a Nancy effort.
JohnK,
The Luftwaffe conducted a fairly successful slum clearance program which allowed Britain to replace old damp dark cramped housing with modern healthy housing, did they get any thanks?
The USAF might have been acting a bit like a fleet-in-being, preventing ISIL from reinforcing its forces rather than destroying them, i.e. the mere existence of the USAF threat prevented ISIL from deploying as it might have wished, and that may have helped.
The RAF seems to have destroyed, was it 3 Toyota trucks? And only in Iraq.
And don’t forget that in WW2 masses of German troops were deployed along with 88mm cannons, great tank busters, away from the Eastern Front to defence of the air.
Mister Ed,
May I suggest the Americans don’t want to win for obvious reasons.
Regional,
Sorry for any ambiguity, I should have made clear that I was referring to the effect, not the intent, as I doubt that ISIL regard the US government in the same light as, say, a well-informed Western non-Leftist might.
So despite himself, Mr Obama’s token efforts, like those of a faded rock star who loathes his record company coming to the end of a multi-album deal and producing the bare minimum out of a vague concern for appearances’ sake, might have had an effect beyond the simple material damage.
Mister Ed,
You have nothing to apologise for. The Wun has reduced the will to fight and the West is being defeated by it’s newsrooms and courts. It’s the mindset within that defeated Rome.
Regional:
I think you will find that Britain’s post war town planners destroyed more of our towns and cities than the Luftwaffe could have dreamed of doing.
I am no fan of the RAF’s belief that strategic bombing could have won World War II. However, if you happen to have an enemy army pinned down in a small area such as Kobane, then a thorough pounding by B52s will kill a lot of them, and leave the survivors mental wrecks, and that is what should be done if you actually plan to take the war to those bastards.
JohnK,
My view on combat is Cruise Missiles topped with a neutron warhead, get ’em all and let god sort ’em out.