French War Planes Strike Isis.

[tonyav]

French war planes strike Islamic State Syria bastion.
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/french-warplanes-strike-islamic-state-syria-bastion/ar-BBn2bPx?li=AA59G2

[ToraToraTora]

so what's the answer canary? No response? absorb? join them? what?

[Gromit]

// France has carried out its first airstrikes against Islamic State (Isis) in Syria after nearly three weeks of surveillance flights.

The French president, François Hollande, said the operation to “fight the terrorist threat” was coordinated with partners in the region.

“France struck in Syria this morning an Islamic State training camp which threatened the security of our country,” he told reporters at the United Nations, adding that six French jets had struck the Isis camp and warned of more strikes in coming weeks.

The targets were identified during surveillance missions conducted by French jets since 8 September.


The French government has insisted that although it is part of the US-led coalition, France will decide who and what to attack independently.

The airstrikes mark a turnaround in the French approach to the Syrian civil war. The president’s office said: “We will strike any time our national security is at stake.” //

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/27/france-launches-first-airstrikes-isis-syria

Not sure why it has had so little coverage, but the above bombing occurred 6 weeks ago.

It is possibly the single reason why the terrorists targeted Paris and not Berlin, Madrid or Rome.

From the same report...
// This month the French president ruled out sending ground troops to Syria [to fight ISIS] and said nothing should be done that could strengthen Assad or help him remain in power. “In the end, Assad must go,” Hollande said. //

Therein lies the problem. The West, US, UK, and France do not regard ISIS as the main enemy. They think the enemy is Assad, even though he has never threatened us. We have DELIBERATELY allowed ISIS to flourish, on our watch, because that weakens Assad. Now we are paying for our that mistake.

[Khandro]

gromit; I agree with you, - and Groucho too;

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies".

[Colmc54]

The French decided not to participate in the Coalition that fought Bush and Blair's 'War on Terror'. That didn't keep them safe. Now they're trying something else.

[Khandro]

I haven't seen it reported in the British press, but it's reported in the German, that the Polish President has said an emphatic 'no' (nie, I think that is) to involvement, he says; "No Polish men are going to die fighting in Syria, while Syrian men sit drinking coffee in Berlin cafes" !!

[sevenOP]

Do you think that the French bombers will spot the Daesh oil convoys ?

Putin: "I gave examples based on our information about individuals financing various Islamic State subgroups in different countries. We have established that financing is coming from 40 countries, including G20 countries. We discussed this issue.

We discussed the need to implement the relevant UN Security Council resolution, which was adopted on Russia’s initiative, on preventing financing of terrorism, unlawful trade in objects of art after terrorists pillage museums in the territories they seize, and unlawful sale of oil and petroleum products and earnings from this sale.

I also showed our colleagues satellite images and aerial photographs that show very clearly the scale of this illegal trade in oil and petroleum products. You see columns of refuelling vehicles stretching for dozens of kilometres in lines so long that from a height of 4,000–5,000 metres they vanish over the horizon. It really looks more like an oil pipeline system."

http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50704

[ChillDoubt]

haven't seen it reported in the British press, but it's reported in the German, that the Polish President has said an emphatic 'no' (nie, I think that is) to involvement, he says; "No Polish men are going to die fighting in Syria, while Syrian men sit drinking coffee in Berlin cafes" !!
-------------------
To be fair, the man has a point.

[Ellipsis]

>Weasly words as you would expect from this miserable pathetic surrender monkey

Perhaps not the best insult to use in the circumstances, retro ...

[Svejk]

Don't know has this been posted here yet?

A briefing document on Syria…...

President Assad (who is bad) is a nasty guy who got so nasty his people rebelled and the Rebels (who are good) started winning.

But then some of the rebels turned a bit nasty and are now called Islamic State (who are definitely bad) and some continued to support democracy (who are still good).

So the Americans (who are good) started bombing Islamic State (who are bad) and giving arms to the Syrian Rebels (who are good) so they could fight Assad (who is still bad) which was good.

By the way, there is a breakaway state in the north run by the Kurds who want to fight IS (which is a good thing) but the Turkish authorities think they are bad, so we have to say they are bad whilst secretly thinking they're good and giving them guns to fight IS (which is good) but that is another matter.

Getting back to Syria. President Putin (bad, as he invaded Crimea and the Ukraine and killed lots of folks including that nice Russian man in London with polonium) has decided to back Assad (who is still bad) by attacking IS (who are also bad) which is sort of a good thing?

But Putin (still bad) thinks the Syrian Rebels (who are good) are also bad, and so he bombs them too, much to the annoyance of the Americans (who are good) who are busy backing and arming the rebels (who are also good).

Now Iran (who used to be bad, but now they have agreed not to build any nuclear weapons and bomb Israel are now good) are going to provide ground troops to support Assad (still bad) as are the Russians (bad) who now have ground troops and aircraft in Syria.

So a Coalition of Assad (still bad) Putin (extra bad) and the Iranians (good, but in a bad sort of way) are going to attack IS (who are bad) which is a good thing, but also the Syrian Rebels (who are good) which is bad.

Now the British (obviously good, except Corbyn who is probably bad) and the Americans (also good) cannot attack Assad (still bad) for fear of upsetting Putin (bad) and Iran (good / bad) and now they have to accept that Assad might not be that bad after all compared to IS (who are super bad).

So Assad (bad) is now probably good, being better than IS (no real choice there) and since Putin and Iran are also fighting IS that may now make them good. America (still good) will find it hard to arm a group of rebels being attacked by the Russians for fear of upsetting Mr Putin (now good) and that mad ayatollah in Iran (also good) and so they may be forced to say that the Rebels are now bad, or at the very least abandon them to their fate. This will lead most of them to flee to Turkey and on to Europe or join IS (still the only constantly bad group).

To Sunni Muslims, an attack by Shia Muslims (Assad and Iran) backed by Russians will be seen as something of a Holy War, and the ranks of IS will now be seen by the Sunnis as the only Jihadis fighting in the Holy War and hence many Muslims will now see IS as good (doh!).

Sunni Muslims will also see the lack of action by Britain and America in
support of their Sunni rebel brothers as something of a betrayal (might have a point) and hence we will be seen as bad.

So now we have America (now bad) and Britain (also bad) providing limited support to Sunni Rebels (bad) many of whom are looking to IS (good / bad) for support against Assad (now good) who, along with Iran (also good) and Putin (also, now, unbelievably, good ) are attempting to retake the country Assad used to run before all this started?

I hope that this clears it all up for you.

[Khandro]

Svejk; Thank you, that's all much clearer now. :0) Except, I can't see where America throughout any of its meddling, has ever been 'good' - not even for America. I keep hearing how Assad is 'bad' but I haven't been able to figure out why (the "barrel-bombings" endless mantra notwithstanding) except I hear rumblings about how he was a block to building of a pipeline out of Saudi Arabia to Europe via Turkey, but I don't understand that either. Perhaps I should be better off to just carry on daubing.

[Colmc54]

'No Polish men are going to fight...'

That's because there are no young men of fighting age left in Poland. Most of them have come here to the UK!