The Levant crisis.(Israel,SYRIA,Lebanon,etc) - II

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 10 Mar 2016 09:19

delete

Kati · Post by **Kati** » 10 Mar 2016 10:08

Turkish first lady says harem was 'school' for women

https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkish-firs ... 58334.html

uddu · Post by **uddu** » 10 Mar 2016 10:43

snahata wrote:japan atleast did not suffer that much damage to its homeland and did not have so many casualties.

Singha over 6 million Japanese died in the war, that is quite a lot.

How can one forget the nuclear attack on Japan by the US.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Mar 2016 10:57

well if the planned allied invasion of japan phase1 in shikoku and phase2 in honshu had gone ahead the whole 1000km island chain would have been a smoking ruin. plus the inherent hatred and hysteria against the "japs" vs the more tfta nordics in europe.

japan did not have to face 500,000 shells in 30 mins which zhukov's army group unleashed on the oder front and konieves ukrainian front further south similarly. actually zhukov had smacked them earlier in mongolia somewhere in a place called khalkin-gol back when he was a obscure commander in far east mil district. it was only after stalinist purges of many senior generals that people like him got a chance to move into key positions. later he and koniev worked with stalin to depose laventi beria. the whole "at a hidden signal, a general and guards rushed into the meeting room after a sudden denunciation of the culprit was launched"

must have been a nerve wracking time serving under stalin.

stalin was toying with idea of launching a invasion of hokkaido when the war ended.

Bhurishrava · Post by **Bhurishrava** » 10 Mar 2016 11:07

Incendiary bombs were used to burn women and children alive in Japan long before the use of nuclear bombs. Half a million civilians were burnt to death according to a conservative estimate.
The japanese werent acting very nice in the occupied territories either, but like one genius says,

when you have to put one side down in order to praise the other side, it generally means BS is being spread......you should then don your chest waders......

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 10 Mar 2016 12:33

Al Qaeda #3 deja vu 2:ISIS commander still alive, badly wounded: Syria Observatory

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Mar 2016 12:36

SyAF has showered the deir azzor countryside calling upon IS cadres to surrender or prepare to die

perhaps an effort to sow fear and engineer desertions in the ranks to make the eventual task of breaking the siege easier.

Deans · Post by **Deans** » 10 Mar 2016 12:38

duplicate post deleted.

Deans · Post by **Deans** » 10 Mar 2016 12:38

Lalmohan wrote:of nearly 400,000 german pows on the eastern front, only about 5,000 made it back home, and that too in the mid 50's

Not quite correct. At the end of the war there were 2.8 Million German POW's in Soviet hands. About 360,000 died in captivity.
It was a far higher survival rate than that of Soviet prisoners in Germany
Most were released in 1946. Those that came back in the 50's were from units investigated for war crimes.

The figure of 5000 returnees is for the Stalingrad POW's. Most of the 90,000 Germans captured at Stalingrad were on the brink
of starving to death which is why their survival rate was so lot. Conditions for German POW's at that time were also worse than
1945, since the Soviet population themselves were barely subsisting on `starvation rations', as the grain producing areas were
occupied by the Germans.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 10 Mar 2016 12:40

Elsewhere we read that SAA just routed sh1theads' "stronghold" near Damascus. Wow! The place is really messed up, even near Damascus the govt doesn't have full control. This is like West Bengal, except with tanks and VBIEDs and TOWs. A real lesson here for India on the dangers of allowing too much "democracy".

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 10 Mar 2016 12:45

How does a nation as small as Germany raise - what? 5 million? 10 million? soldiers? Amazing. Plus all that weaponry. Wonder what is the conscription rate in Syria - on all sides. So far a "fierce battle" is one where, say, 30 are killed. Not 3000, or 30,000 as in WW1 or WW2. Each of the 4 Battles of Kharkov had several hundred thousands killed on each side, I can't understand where the Germans got all those soldiers.

manjgu · Post by **manjgu** » 10 Mar 2016 13:15

there were germans, austrians, polish, italian, small % of turks as well in the german army... though by the end of WWII, there was a fair number of 14/15 yr olds. also the german woman were doing all the back end work as men went away...

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Mar 2016 13:16

the kurds are making up for manpower by training up pretty much all their able bodied womanpower. this frees up the men for more assault roles and women guard the lower threat lines...something which basic trained conscripts of the NDF do for SAA.

i took a loo via mapquest at hasakah and deir azzor countryside. conclusion - google maps is a complete dodo in labelling the villages and towns in both provinces. there are 100s of villages on all sides of shaddadi upto the iraq border and down two parallel roads to deir azor. the euphrates valley itself is thickly populated with 100s of villages in and around deir itself in a unbroken chain.

so all those so called vacant areas east of euphrates is BS, the place is well settled.

palmyra region east homs is indeed a desert and no settlements marked.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Mar 2016 13:20

UlanBatori wrote:How does a nation as small as Germany raise - what? 5 million? 10 million? soldiers? Amazing. Plus all that weaponry. Wonder what is the conscription rate in Syria - on all sides. So far a "fierce battle" is one where, say, 30 are killed. Not 3000, or 30,000 as in WW1 or WW2. Each of the 4 Battles of Kharkov had several hundred thousands killed on each side, I can't understand where the Germans got all those soldiers.

i believe at its peak the germans had 200 divisions on eastern front - from leningrad to sevastopol-grozny , 50 on the western side norway,low countries,france and who knows maybe 10-15 in italy , greece, crete and yugoslavia and perhaps 3-5 in afrika korps.
italians, rumanians, hungarians contributed some divisions. then some random enthusiasts like cetniks, ukrainians, nordic ubermensh militias who mostly acted as hunting dogs of the SS in atrocities on civilians and pows.

this, for a country of only 50 million. the population of NCR+mumbai+kolkata is easily 50 mil. even blr is north of 12 mil now - alone.

given a lead time of 2 yrs and some conscription, India could easily raise and give basic infantry training to some 200 rifle divisions. supplying and equipping them beyond a simple gun is another matter though.

big boys need production scale. "500,000 shell barrages" need unheard of production capacities and transport networks. the entire economy has to reorient into war production mode - instead of civilian cars, our auto plants will need to produce artillery, trucks, tanks....at its peak flow rate, sherman tanks were rolling out of many many production lines every 30 mins.....so perhaps 250-500 tanks a day for sure.

tanks and planes were produced in LAKHS, artillery in millions, ammo in billions, ships in 100s, aircraft carriers in 10s.....zuckerberg would be so proud of the web scale.

Gyan · Post by **Gyan** » 10 Mar 2016 13:23

I think that as a thumb rule 10% of the Population can act as active duty soldiers in full scale/complete mobilization war.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Mar 2016 13:30

^^ that means our total mobilization could be 100 mil across the 3 services incase of a sunni kabila vs india kind of mahabharata.

however given the highly armed and militarized nature of middle east / TSP societies their conversion ratio could be 20%..... I am sure they could put 50 million riflemen into the field. indonesia itself has some 200 mil pop, TSP some 250 mil, turkey and egypt are large pop, so is nigeria.

member_29190 · Post by **member_29190** » 10 Mar 2016 14:50

For numbers on German vs Russian "fight" in WW2

Truely a civilisation level conflict. 12 million German solidiers KIA

The Americans showed no mercy towards Asian "Japs". The Asian "Siberian divisions" showed no mercy to TFTA German divisions.

End of WW2 the Red Army was 6 million strong. Truely a killing machine.

habal · Post by **habal** » 10 Mar 2016 15:35

Syria would be fully under ISIS control if not for Russia – Serbian president

Published time: 8 Mar, 2016 06:46
Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic © Lintao Zhang / Reuters
Serbia’s president has praised Russian efforts in fighting terrorists in Syria, saying that if Moscow hadn’t intervened, the Middle Eastern country would have ceased to exist as a sovereign state. The statement comes in stark contrast to NATO’s assessment of the situation.
Tomislav Nikolic emphasized the need for Russian military involvement in Syria, stating that “If it [Russia] didn’t intervene, Syria would be a country of the so-called Islamic State [IS, ISIS/ISIL],” in an interview with TASS on Tuesday.
The Serbian leader was quoted as saying that the Russian military is essential to protecting peace in Syria and countering the jihadist threat, which might spread globally and affect other countries, including Russia, if not contained at this stage.
“Russia should be in the military aspect involved in the protection of Syria at the request from Syria, as it would mean protection from terrorism, and it is much better to be protected from it in Syria than in Russia,” he added, pointing out that the strategy employed by the Russian government is in fact akin to that of the US, which on numerous occasions has used its forces to fight terror overseas.
Click here for the full story

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Mar 2016 15:43

SAA is exploiting a soft area of ISIS east of the al jabboul lake in khanasser to make a beeline for the euphrates a place called Jirah airbase around 20km away. it is SE of Deir hafr

https://www.google.co.in/maps/@36.09806 ... !1e3?hl=en

they might get to this objective relatively quicker than Tabqah to setup a double block on the road

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Mar 2016 16:50

Most of the way is uninhabited salt flats and a river of sorts connecting lake jabboul to Euphrates. Only near the aleppo raqqa highway where this alg jirah is located, there will be resistance

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Mar 2016 16:51

They r returning the khanasser stab in the soft underbelly thing

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 10 Mar 2016 19:24

Looking forward, do u think the ISIS are stupid enough to sit inside Raqqa and get surrounded? They have hajaar-hajaar tanks and VBIED Fords and toyotas and HumVees generously supplied by Texas Truck Dealers and the US State Dept. If the organization's head is indeed inside Raqqa, then the fall of (all the buildings in) Raqqa will be celebrated with leaflets and loudspeakers all over ISISdom. Wouldn't all the unspent resources then melt away or surrender? Why fight on when there is no prospect of a Caliphate?

So I think there is nothing in Raqqa except tortured civilians, hostages, IEDs galore, and some soosai rearguard. Probably not in Mosul either, though Mosul is a resource center - but again, what's the point if they can't ship the oil?

I think all the ISIS netaship will have melted back into Turkey.IOW, there is **NO** way to end this war except by total regime change and 'reconstruction' of Turkey and KSA, and the Finlandization (check the meaning of that term if u don't know) of Qatar and Bahrain. Don't invest in oil stocks that are heavily invested in KSA-Qatar. I hope my pennies in Natural Gas are invested in the Siberian Steppe and New Zealand valleys where there's unlimited supply. Continuing that line of thought, expect a lot of soosai attacks/attempts on US/Canadian oil/fracking operations.

And clearly Gen. Vodkov is waay ahead of me. Read about that pest-e-sha'eed in Ankara that I posted above. It becomes clear WHY they didn't blow up the car with the little girl inside, even with the IMMENSELY greater risk of not doing so: they wanted to convey in absolutely unmistakeable terms that the executi(ves) were professionals working for a State Agency, not some mercenaries. Code of Honor, National Pride, Chivalry In Da Best Traditionskis and all.

U can run but V will track u down wherever U r, including inside the belly of the serpent.

Brilliant and heroic.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 10 Mar 2016 19:40

Ww2 was ultimately total war with full mobilisation of the mil eng complex
And the Americans built the most effective one
The Germans fought efficiently and the Japanese ferociously but their industry could not keep up

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Mar 2016 21:47

Iran has called on #KRG to export oil though #Iran (means not to export though #Turkey).

^^ big move on chessboard if peshmerga govt accepts.

member_29190 · Post by **member_29190** » 10 Mar 2016 21:56

Lalmohan wrote:Ww2 was ultimately total war with full mobilisation of the mil eng complex
And the Americans built the most effective one
The Germans fought efficiently and the Japanese ferociously but their industry could not keep up

The Atlantic saved the Americans.

If there was a "Asian NATO" of just countries of India, China, Russia, Japan & Indonesia, it will have almost 50% of world population, mostly nuke armed, massive number of fighting men, the required tech and "web scale" production if required. Imagine the world domination of such a alliance....

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 10 Mar 2016 22:04

nit, you need to read chanakya's mandala theory of diplomatic relations.

neighbours dont tend to be best of friends. barring some soexceptions.

member_23370 · Post by **member_23370** » 10 Mar 2016 22:05

There is no asian nato and there will never be. US was saved by a big ocean but they did keep supplying the europeans despite the u-boats.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 10 Mar 2016 22:33

How about we stick to the thread topic? and stop this stream of consciousness posts on long gone wars?

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 10 Mar 2016 22:36

Singha wrote:Iran has called on #KRG to export oil though #Iran (means not to export though #Turkey).^^ big move on chessboard if peshmerga govt accepts.

Turkey is taking more than 50% cut in oil revenue of KRG. Erdogan made fool of Barzani who has lost much of his credibility at home by shaking hand with this evil man. KRG might accept f Iran offer better deal. This also means present Iraq is now for sure be divided and independent Kurdistan become reality.
In the meantime,

Does Erdogan believe he's on a mission from God?
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/origina ... z42WStYgWu

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is stepping up his rhetoric to convince his Justice and Development Party (AKP) voters that their leader is closer to God than they are.At certain intervals now, he invites several hundred selected mukhtars to the presidential palace for his speeches, again, broadcast live by almost all television channels.In one of these speeches earlier this year, Erdogan defied his state of besiegement, the result of his own dead-end foreign policy, assuring the mukhtars that help would come from above. "This or that country may be against us, opposing us — none of this matters,” he said."What does the commandment say? Allah is sufficient for us, and he is the best disposer of affairs. Without this faith of ours, we could have never confronted the Byzantine army, the world’s greatest military power at the time, in the Battle of Manzikert with a force of 20,000 or 30,000 people. Without this faith of ours, we could have never established the most powerful state in history and kept it alive for 600 years.”Erdogan seems to have developed an urgency to take his personality cult to new, more "celestial” heights, a drive that goes far beyond the "Allah is with us” rhetoric Erdogan deploys in the face of challenges.Since then, statements and behaviors adding transcendent and holy dimensions to the Erdogan cult have become more and more frequent. Take, for instance, the stunning remarks AKP lawmaker Yasin Aktay made during a parliamentary debate last week. Erdogan is “one of the best things, one of the best people this country has seen,” Aktay said, adding, “We say ‘Salli Ala Muhammed’ when we see him.” He was reciting an Islamic phrase, known as “salavat,” used to salute and praise the Prophet Muhammad or to express allegiance to him.In another recent incident, the head of an AKP youth branch in Istanbul posted on Twitter a picture of a water glass Erdogan had used, as if presenting a fetish object. “This is the glass from which our president drank water while making his speech,” he wrote.In desperate situations, Turks say, “It’s now up to Allah.” One could say Erdogan’s foreign policy, too, is “now up to Allah.” It does seem Turkey will need a miracle to break free from the isolation induced by its foreign policy — unless the right players change the prevailing conditions.With Russia, Turkey has been in a state of cold war, prone to hot confrontation, ever since it downed a Russian jet Nov. 24. With the United States and other Western allies, relations have plunged into a deep confidence crisis over Turkey’s shelling of Syrian Kurdish forces and its failure to provide expected support against the Islamic State.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Mar 2016 22:39

By 1920 USA had completed 70 years of Chinese style growth and was largest industrial power in the world...USA was the dynamic cheen decades before the real cheen was in current shape.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 10 Mar 2016 22:41

GD, Please stick to topic.
Thanks,ramana

vishvak · Post by **vishvak** » 10 Mar 2016 23:36

Kati wrote:

Turkish first lady says harem was 'school' for women
https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkish-firs ... 58334.html

Some lessons in harem of Al-Bagdadi, Sultan of Islamic State of I.&L.:
link

"He would always tell us: Forget your father and your brothers. We have killed them. And we have married off your mothers and sisters. Forget them."

Selected by the terrorist leader -- though she did not know who he was at the time -- at a slave market in "a white palace ... between the mountain and the sea," Zeinat and eight other girls were taken to his home in Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of ISIS' territory.

As soon as she arrived, she says, she was made to watch a video showing ISIS fighters beheading a Westerner and threatened with the same fate unless she agreed to abandon her Yazidi faith.
..
.. al-Baghdadi, who insisted she and the other women "belonged" to ISIS, and taunted by his three wives and six children while cooking and cleaning for them.
..
she recalls. "We were completely black from the beating. They beat us with everything: cables, belts and wooden sticks.

"(Al-Baghdadi) hit me (with a) garden hose and (a) belt. Then he slapped my face and my nose bled," she says, touching her left cheek to indicate where the blows fell.

Zeinat's arm was dislocated..

Where is the ISIL Sultan located, is he in NATO member Turkey with his harem doing herem warfare?

Karthik S · Post by **Karthik S** » 10 Mar 2016 23:48

-deleted-

Karthik S · Post by **Karthik S** » 10 Mar 2016 23:50

Singha wrote:^^ that means our total mobilization could be 100 mil across the 3 services incase of a sunni kabila vs india kind of mahabharata.

however given the highly armed and militarized nature of middle east / TSP societies their conversion ratio could be 20%..... I am sure they could put 50 million riflemen into the field. indonesia itself has some 200 mil pop, TSP some 250 mil, turkey and egypt are large pop, so is nigeria.

On a side note, I always believed En-See-See is a good way of training non-military population on handling weapons during above said scenario. We should try to have it in all major high schools and colleges.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 11 Mar 2016 06:32

map of the khanasser offensive going east

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 11 Mar 2016 06:41

if we compress the WW2 eastern front down to 300km from latakia to tadmur(palmyra) the SAA-Rus is finally going a 100x smaller version of the whole red army thing. red army used to launch diversionary attacks on all fronts to keep things warm while massing and shifting some 50-100 reserve strike divisions into the theater of choice for breakout moves(bagration,uranus) or defence in depth(kursk).

JN:
latakia - the last stronghold of kobani (not the other kobani) is under siege
idlib - jisr al shughour is slowly being encircled
aleppo - there are moves to engulf the urban areas and trap the JN and its pals into some pockets to end the wanton shelling of west aleppo
JN is itself slowly nibbling at IS held lands east of azaz

IS: they are now under attack on 4 lines of advance with no clue where the main bagration will come from
1. east aleppo - SAA is very close to Al bab and deir hafr two orc strongholds and key points on the route to raqqa - IS is forced to garrison these places to prevent a easy takeover.
2. east khannaser (map above) - a surprise hit on the unoccupied soft area to return the favour and try for Jirah about 40km away on euphrates - this will also intersect route to raqqa
3. ithriah - tabqah - they have entered raqqa boundary and have option of heading to tabqah or opp shore of raqqa - wide open lands
4. palmyra - widely publicized transfer of suheil al hassan led tiger forces to main offensive but could be maskirovka to draw out more ISIS into the open desert where they can be attacked more easily while main putsch comes elsewhere
and ISIS has to defend 5. raqqa and 6. deir from the back as well know, with line to Mosul also cut

JN is not in trouble, with the islamic emirate of Idlib under control, plenty of support from turkey adjacent border and strong holding forces sent to hold the azaz pocket as well.

IS is going to be under increasing pressure with RuAF also turning most of its sorties to them and attacked from both sides on 6 fronts.

unlike syria, the iraqi shias have a much larger population pool and seemingly massing a lot of militia forces to clean up salahuddin and nineveh province before storming mosul.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 11 Mar 2016 06:46

20 saudis and a jordanian did it so yeah its Iran's fault.

Iran was ordered by a U.S. judge to pay more than $10.5 billion in damages to families of people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and to a group of insurers.
U.S. District Judge George Daniels in New York issued a default judgment Wednesday against Iran for $7.5 billion to the estates and families of people who died at the World Trade Center and Pentagon. It includes $2 million to each estate for the victims’ pain and suffering plus $6.88 million in punitive damages.
Daniels also awarded $3 billion to insurers including Chubb Ltd. that paid property damage, business interruption and other claims.
Earlier in the case, Daniels found that Iran had failed to defend claims that it aided the Sept. 11 hijackers and was therefore liable for damages tied to the attacks. Daniels’s ruling Wednesday adopts damages findings by a U.S. magistrate judge in December. While it is difficult to collect damages from an unwilling foreign nation, the plaintiffs may try to collect part of the judgments using a law that permits parties to tap terrorists’ assets frozen by the government.
The case is In Re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, 03-cv-09848, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 11 Mar 2016 06:54

dogs of war - deir photo

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 11 Mar 2016 06:57

impressive looking Mi8

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 11 Mar 2016 06:58

better map of khanasser by petolucem