Discussion for article #243365
Well Mr. Corbyn, what’s your “fully baked” alternative to going after Daesh strongholds with airstrikes?
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Wow, you mean the British Parliament brought up a proposal, debated it, then actually voted on utilizing force against ISIS/ISIL?! What an incredible idea! Perhaps the GOP can get off their lazy asses and actually take a vote on the authorization to use force for the US too… granted, it’s so much easier to just bitch about the President not having a detailed plan for the US to pursue, because the Pentagon never has plans.
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Or the GOP could debate the issue of gun violence in America.
Sometimes I even crack myself up.
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It’s half-baked because air campaigns are useless in asymmetrical warfare. Close coordinated air support for ground troops is a different matter and even then this is better done with helicopters and A10s. However, bombing from heights and launching missiles from stand-off distances mostly assures that we don’t lose planes and pilots. Looks tough but otherwise no one believes that this does any good in parts of Syria and Iraq that are already largely wrecked. It’s not like ISIL has factories, airfields or barracks. Further, they are in among what populace is left and so targeting ISIL often means you are targeting non-combatants.
This will not be “won” without combat troops as well as the Russians fucking off.
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It’s not Corbyn’s plan of course, but the UN should authorize an intervention force of whatever size necessary (100,000?) to clear and hold territory, provide safe zones for refugees, and this should be coupled with a no-fly zone (except UN authorized missions) and a political process leading to Assad’s departure and new, UN-supervised elections within a year or so.
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Strangely none of them will be in the front line . Pity the poor plebs who will be fighting and getting killed .
You know, if this whole thing wasn’t pretty much our fault, I could see Obama pulling together a coalition not unlike Bush the Elder did for the Gulf War if for no other reason than half the Muslim ME wouldn’t be pissed off at us for what we did to Iraq.