Talk:U.S. Air Strikes in Syria

I only saw some tweets that U.S. air strikes in Syria is now a real thing needing a page here. In general, ostensibly, this is a section of a US-ISIS conflict page, now a step out of the realm of Iraq-ISIS Conflict of 2014. Anyway, I call dibs on page creation since no one else did. I'll have more to say maybe tomorrow, so someone beat me to it and take a first closer look at the news. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:13, 23 September 2014 (UTC)


 * I can offer a SANA statement or two, and a map of targets. While the US of course insists they didn't ask for permission (would spoil the whole breaking-international-law fun), they did inform Syria about what to come, and SANA doesn't sound especially outraged. Also seems they shared intelligence both ways, and the targets look very plausible and legitimate, except perhaps that spot in northern Idlib where they allegedly targeted "Khorasan", the latest bogeyman nobody ever had heard about before. So it looks like so far it is somewhat reasonable, but of course we all expect or at least fear that once the "dams" of bombing Syria are broken, it will escalate to help them finally reach their goal of getting rid of Assad, maybe with another false-flag. And maybe under pretext of fighting this new virtual group. Anyway, for the moment it's good for the Kurds and everybody suffering under ghoul rule. --CE (talk) 13:29, 23 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Also, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar participated. Jordanian planes returned to bases safely. Russian FM issued a disapproving statement 'those who initiate unilateral applications of force will bear full international  legal responsibility for the consequences'.   --Resup (talk) 13:52, 23 September 2014 (UTC)

Khurasan

 * Aron Lund on the Khorasan group. He knows as much as we would do had we read the NYT the other day. ;o) --CE (talk) 19:10, 23 September 2014 (UTC)
 * It may be in reference to a rather broad area shown here on a map, or/likely to a  messianic end-of-time idea, "If you see the Black Banners coming from Khurasan go to them immediately, even if you must crawl over ice, because indeed amongst them is the Caliph, Al Mahdi " Mahdi. (Or just too much facebooking ) --Resup (talk) 20:05, 23 September 2014 (UTC)

Rita Katz: The "Khurasan Group": A Misleading Name in the Politics of War--Resup (talk) 10:23, 27 September 2014 (UTC)

World Reaction

 * Russia Condemns U.S. Airstrikes on ISIS and al-Qaeda; Assad Approves The Wire, via Yahoo News
 * Russia was quick to condemn the airstrikes. TheWashington Post noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin — the patron saint of territorial integrity * — decried the airstrikes as a violation of Syria's sovereignty.

As quoted, the problem would be "U.S. measures to target militants in Syria lack authority without buy-in from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad." But, they say, "Not only did Syrian dictator Bashar Assad refrain from lashing out against the American-led airstrikes, he seemingly gave a very coded thumbs up," citing tweets by AFP: "#BREAKING Syria backs 'any international effort' in fight against jihadists" and David Rothkopf "Tacit acceptance of strikes on IS by Syria, no renunciation, could provide int'l law fig leaf, at least dampen controversy, for Obama at UN"
 * Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting (subscription) that the U.S.-led effort involved coordination with the Free Syrian Army, which has also just become the recipient of some American weapons.

Tacitly by extension, Assad may approve of that too? --Caustic Logic (talk) 22:56, 23 September 2014 (UTC)
 * this probably refers to how Russia sent a Spetsnaz sniper team to Kiev in February to shoot police, provoke unrest, and bring down the Yanukovych government )source + notes). That is a pretty blatant violation, which set the stage for everything in Ukraine since ... bad Putin! --Caustic Logic (talk) 22:56, 23 September 2014 (UTC)

Lavrov: we were honored by the second place in the global threats list (from President Obama speech): the first place, Ebola virus, second place, Russian aggression in Europe, third place,  ISIL and other terrorists --Resup (talk) 16:43, 24 September 2014 (UTC)