I’m going to post the video at the very end of my post, so nobody accidentally clicks it without being fully aware of the content.
ISIS, the new AQI that has emerged from the end of our occupation and the conflicts in Syria, Yemen, and Libya, has released a full hour video of their current efforts in Iraq. This is disheartening to those who buried our friends for that place, and more importantly shows the effects of a “power vacuum” left when an occupation force is withdrawn quickly to enhance one’s political checklist.
The video is brutal for some to watch. Unfortunately I’ve become numb towards this stuff. What makes this worse than the usual muj videos is how clear the film quality is, the apparently competent video editing job done, and the absolute lack of opposition facing ISIS in the form of the IP/IA we left in place. Most of it is typical, the shooting bound and blindfolded people, the sniper and IED cams, all the usual. Again, very clean footage, not that grainy first generation camera stuff. So if you can stomach an hour of this and watch as an analytical and observational viewer, it certainly is telling.
Some points I think many should take away from this;
The level of complacency the Army and Police display. They were never known for their awesomeness, but these videos seem to be happening at outposts where poor discipline is rampant.
Use of IEDs. If you know what you’re looking for, it’s not hard to pick out exactly where/when/how the strikes would hit. Apparently this concept is lost on people who think “God willing” is a good enough way to avoid being vaporized.
Ballistic effects - There are dozens of different weapons used in this. I don’t think many of them are concerned with only using Hornady super expanding flavor of the month rounds. Sometimes first round hits and DRT. Sometimes it’s a third or fourth. Regardless, don’t count on the ballistics to do your job.
Fanaticism - I’m sure there will be an outcry against Islam after some watch this. Save it for the gun club anyone who has spent enough time in these areas has seen that any religion can be used to justify savagery when mixed with just the right amounts of illiteracy, funding, and absence of self awareness/personal responsibility. However it is worth noting that those who feel as if their cause is somehow blessed by God/Allah are more “in it to win it”. Those collecting a paycheck are no longer in the land of the living.
Psychology of a gunfight. Several of the ISIS fighters are wounded and continue to fight. Likely a mix of drugs and a decade of experience has taught them “you ain’t dead til you’re dead”. In contrast, many of the young Army/Police as well as the older, further removed from fighting type, seem to immediately submit when they are hurt. Doesn’t seem to do much in the way of keeping them alive. So if you’re moving gents, you’re fighting. That’s it.
Motive is the last Ill discuss, and if you’re skimming please read this part in particular. Sure Islam is a motive, whatever. In reality this is a cookie cutter conflict of those with money using those who want power. And those who seek power use those who have been wronged/seek revenge to accomplish these methods. The Iraqi government we left behind was much like the Afghan government now; rife with corruption, lacking leadership, and driven by personal gain. These guys getting killed in the video are most likely pretty far from innocent in committing similar acts. They’re likely reaping what they sew.
For those of you who find this particularly upsetting (this isn’t FUN to watch, but it’s about as upsetting to me as a nature show) you can consider this a gut check. This isn’t cavemen clubbing each other to death, or anything particularly prehistoric in means of carrying out attacks. This is what war looks like. This is how you win. And even if you’ll never attack a fortified enemy, this is what shooting people looks like. Too many have been mislead to believe that their level of preparation is based on success on a static one dimensional range. Defending your home or your family, defending your freedom, it’s real. And it’s a game you can just as easily lose as win.
Mods, sorry if the content is forbidden, still getting used to being an active member of M4C. Please know the intent isn’t to push a snuff film on members, rather to have intelligent dialogue about the subjects discussed.
It is disheartening to watch this knowing how much blood and treasure we sacrificed in Iraq. We pulled out to soon and left the people of Iraq in a bind. Democracy won’t last in this country. The combat advisors said the Iraqi Security forces weren’t ready yet and this video proves it.
What makes men just willingly lay down and get their heads blown off? Its not like they didn’t know it was coming. The guy was even yelling at him, my Arabic is poor, but he had a guy yell in his face at least 5 times using the word “death”.
They seem well equipped, but 6 shots to the face of an already dead man says amateur hour to me although with the cameras rolling they probably had propaganda on their mind.
ETA: 52:50 was a fighter. But you’ve already lost by the time you’ve been handcuffed and blindfolded.
As for the religious element, my Arabic is pretty poor, but the speeches and conversations are replete with references to Jihad, Allah, Muhammed and bringing honor to the true faith of Islam and Jihadist war and warriors.
These guys are hard core religious fighters and are 1000% devoted to imposing on everyone they can Sharia law.
Their tactics suck, of course, but the guys they are killing don’t look any better prepared.
Notice how at around 44:00 how well kitted up these guys are, with multicam and tac lights, etc.
Since 9-11-2001 (and some may argue, quite effectively, that it has been since 10-23-83), we have been fighting an enemy VERY similar to the Japanese of WWII. The assholes just after $$$ aside, the “True Believers” display eerily similar characteristics to the Bushido era Japanese. Not afraid to die, and learning from previous encounters with their enemy (tactics on Iwo Jima and Okinawa as compared to earlier island encounters). The only way we defeated them was nukes; if not we still would have won but the casualties would have been staggering, like nearly doubling our KIA for the entire war up to that point.
Unfortunately, the only way to deal with people not afraid to die is to kill them, and I fully realize that is much easier said than done. I guess what I’m driving at is that “talking” to the True Believers is a waste of time. Making deals with their less-motivated money-grubbing elements to sell them out is a somewhat more successful venture, a la the “Awakening” in Anbar.
The kits are most likely issued. Some of their intel and layouts/overlays of the targets probably come from some of their element being assigned to those posts.
Their tactics don’t suck. They work. When you’re outnumbered, outgunned, and against an enemy with a logistical support network that dwarfs your own, you get dirty. The violence of their attacks breaks the will of a lot more than they could ever hope to kill.
Ultimately this isn’t about religion, and though it sure seems they believe it, they’re using what they know to justify their actions. It’s not much different than hearing GWB go on about freedom not being free. That’s a cool concept, but when it gets down to pulling triggers and dragging bodies, you better believe in a whole lot more than that.
Despite the elaborate disclaimer one still wonders what the purpose of this thread is beyond exploitation of the obvious. I don’t respect their tactics and if you know anything about what’s going on over there then you yourself know full well radical Islam is the primary motivator of their bloodshed.
As I said, to discuss the growth and evolution in tactics used by ISIS. To remind people that the reality of using guns on each other (which I’m not really for or against, either way) is a lot different than it looks in Lone Survivor or any polished Hollywood depiction of late. Among other points mentioned.
If your experience has lead you to believe it is a religious problem, than I’m not going to beg you to change your mind. As I see it there’s much more than that, and I don’t at all believe it to be the primary motivation at all.
Islam has been around for a long time. A lot longer than what we are seeing in the recent rebellions.
This is where many Americans and, for that matter, secularized Westerners, fail to understand the militant Islamists. It is about religion for them. We find it hard, if not impossible to comprehend, but at our peril we underestimate this key factor. Precisely because the believe in the absolute necessity of their form of Islam, with the imposition of Sharia law, is why they fly aircraft into buildings, cut people’s heads off, and empty their magazines into people who are already several times over, and will do anything to impede anyone who would stop what they believe is worth dying for.
They do not understand our Western appeal to “peace” or “let’s all just get along.” From its very inception, Islam has been a religion of the sword and brutal domination of every culture and people it comes across. It is a far different “model” if you will than the way Rome conquered the known world. The Romans were cool with every local culture and religions, just as long as it acknowledged the rule and reign of Rome. Live and let live, until people rocked the boat and tried to reject the rule of the Caesars, or refused to go along with the Emperor cult (which was the reason Christianity was declared non grata and persecuted).
For Islam it was a matter of crushing local cultures and the tribalism across the Arabian peninsula, and then from there, across Asia and North Africa. Islam required total and complete allegiance to Allah, with Mohammed as the prophet of Allah, the last revelator of religion to mankind, following Jewish and Christian religions, which were merely stepping stones to the “true faith” of Allah. In this system there is no “coexistence” and in every single place in the world where Muslims have been able to dominate a nation it has crushed competing religions. Turkey has been an on again/off again in adopting a secularized government. Jordan’s ruler has been working hard to hold radical Islamist movements in check. The Sauds in Arabia have had their own battles for a long time with radical Islamists who want to overthrow the House of Saud control over Arabia and wrest the wealth from oil that the Sauds have controlled with an iron fist for many years.
That is why radical Islam will remain the most dangerous threat to our nation for many years to come, and an even greater threat when we refuse to realize that the only way to stop this kind of what we regard as “religious fanaticism” is to exterminate it and crush it. There is no appeasement, compromise or negotiation with radical Jihadists. None.
“we have been fighting an enemy VERY similar to the Japanese of WWII. The assholes just after $$$ aside, the “True Believers” display eerily similar characteristics to the Bushido era Japanese. Not afraid to die, and learning from previous encounters with their enemy (tactics on Iwo Jima and Okinawa as compared to earlier island encounters). The only way we defeated them was nukes; if not we still would have won but the casualties would have been staggering, like nearly doubling our KIA for the entire war up to that point.”
There is no way of defeating this threat when we have a population, by and large, that does not have the stomach for total war, even after they slaughtered thousands of American civilians, on the CONTINENTAL USA, something that has NEVER happened before in our history, for God’s sake. What more of a wake up all did we need? What’s it going to take? A nuclear explosion in New York next time?
Our nation elects an idiot who sells out Americans who had been involved in the GWOT telling all nations that “we” would respect their right to arrest any American involved in renditions of high value targets. And when he said that we lost many an excellent CIA operative who all said, “Screw it, if my president is not going to have my back, I’m out of here.”
The Japanese bombed a military installation on a territory of the USA, thousands of miles from the mainland, and we united and defeated them.
And with that depressing thought in mind, sweet dreams to all.