Note from the article: the battle for Mosul started in October of last year.

That's the Obama plan I was referring to. The one they've been using since that first map, to retake city after city in Iraq.

Don't get me wrong, I give full credit to Trump for not screwing with the plan at all. And the fullest credit for the guys in the Pentagon who came up with it. It's not "Obama's plan" so much as "the war plan the generals came up with," in other words. Does that make it better?

-CW

You mean Obama's LEAD FROM BEHIND AKA THE COWARD OF THE COUNTRY plan??? A plan GREAT for "JV" players and actors that are "contained"...

Yea, thank the gods President Trump didn't screw with THAT plan, just threw it in the garbage where it belongs.....

Seriously, though, I was pretty scrupulously nonpartisan in this column. Look at it through a military strategy-and-tactics filter, not a political one.

Yes, credit where credit is due... You do ignore political correctness in military oriented commentary... Troo 'nuff...

I have heard it all before... And it *ALWAYS* amounted to nothing..

But THIS time it's gonna happen!!!

Right?? :D hehehehehehehe

You could be talking about Christianity if you replaced "Kurdistan" with "the South". So that means that the Kurds are just as progressive as the GOP I guess.

Which, in turn, means that STIG was saying that the Kurds are just as progressive as the GOP..

Yea, that's kinda my point.. :D

Thanx for backing me up on it.. :D

REALLY??? A man who now stands accused of giving classified information to the Russians!

Funny how ya decried and denigrated "anonymous sources" when they were against yer guy, Odumbo..

NOW that the POTUS has a -R after his name, now ALL OF THE SUDDEN, anonymous sources are golden and speak the gospel.. :D

THREE respected administration officials put their NAMES on the record as stating it was pure fantasy what WaPoop reported..

When one of your anonymous sources mans up and goes on the record, then... and ONLY then... will you have an argument to make..

I an NO fan of Hillary Clinton, but Trump could now conceivably be charged with committing at least SIX crimes within the space of a week.

Yea, yea yea.. TRUMP IS TOAST

I have heard it all before... And it *ALWAYS* amounted to nothing..

The Kurds are socially progressive, effective fighters and good administrators.

Michale
13

I know, I know...

Why let FACTS interfere with a good Progressive fantasy that everyone thinks like you do... :^/

Michale, you've really outdone yourself here in projecting your fantasy onto someone else's reality and over-inflating someone else's opinions as if they're "FACTS" that somehow prove your ridiculous point. You seem to think that this guy's opinion that you've linked to on Quora actually proves something/anything, and I can't stop laughing at the stunning ignorance of it.

In your haste to prove that Kurds aren't progressive and that TS is incorrect, did you even bother to read the first sentence of this guy's opinion? Your hero begins: "While I’m not a homosexual and definitely not a Kurdish...." Did you perhaps consider that even if the guy who wrote the opinion at your link was homosexual and/or Kurdish, it's still just his opinion and factual proof of absolutely nothing? Did you perhaps consider the fact that one issue like homosexuality doesn't define an entire group of people... Kurdish or otherwise? Did you perhaps maybe even consider that the term "progressive" is relative to different parts of the world? Those are rhetorical questions, of course, requiring no answer whatsoever.

The Kurds are progressive relative to their location in the world and their social mores... not yours. *LOL* :)

Just read evening headlines. Does anybody else get the impression the training wheels have fallen off the Trump Administration bicycle?

A link to the most recent Institute for the Study of War map:

http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/isis-sanctuary-may-10-2017

This one uses their ultra clean style, which I really like.

I've never found a map combining military control with ethnicity.

""Mess O'Potamia" -- OK, that was pretty funny!"

Of course, I stole it from John Stuart!

http://1.images.comedycentral.com/images/shows/tds/videos/season_11/episode_031/ds_11031_02_nws_v6.jpg?width=1200&height=630&crop=true

-CW

"Mess O'Potamia" -- OK, that was pretty funny!

:-)

michale [3] -

Allow me to correct that for you: "Thank God Trump didn't screw with President Obama's war plan!"

There you go!

:-)

Seriously, though, I was pretty scrupulously nonpartisan in this column. Look at it through a military strategy-and-tactics filter, not a political one.

TheStig [8] -

Well, thank you for the kind words!

I, too, like maps. I flagged that WashPost map when I first read the article, because it was such a good map. Later on, I realized that it was the best map to show how far IS had ever gotten. It may be a month off in one direction or the other, but it's pretty close to being the high-water mark of the "caliphate." So now it's my go-to "before" map, to show the progress of the counterattack against them.

TheStig [10] -

Yeah, I try to at least publicly 'fess up when I do screw up a prediction. Keeps me humble.

Balthasar [16] -

Fun conspiracy theory from WashPost comments: maybe Pence is the leaker. Makes all kinds of sense, when you think about it! Heh.

Kick [19] -

Yeah, just heard about that myself. Happy trails indeed!

Also [20], it's going to be a long, hot summer with no new SNL spoofs of Trump to watch... I mean, consider what he's done in his first 4 months...

-CW

I know this is very off topic since I've never seen it discussed here, but for those who care about what is in our food, and the coopted regulators angle that plays into the politics of both parties, here's a brief update on the Monsanto trial going on in SF... a trial that combines about 30 cases of cancer from the most widely used herbicide in history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK__WF96F8I

run time about 7 min

The discovery process has revealed that Monsanto has hired paid commenters to push the company line in every comment section from corporate media to FB.

Also a great video clip of a PR hack claiming it is safe to drink Round-Up... and then refusing to when given a chance.

A

Hey, JL, guess who is hosting SNL this coming Saturday. It's none other than The Rock. I hereby demand a skit where Alec Baldwin as Trump opens a door in the Oval Office, and there stands Obama getting mad as hell and turns into The Rock Obama.

Make it happen SNL! :)

Poor Donald... Comey is famous for his paper trails. I'm guessing this is merely trail #1. Happy trails to you! ;)

Not sure if he broke any laws where the Russians are concerned, but he has definitely violated the presidential oath of office.

You could be talking about Christianity if you replaced "Kurdistan" with "the South". So that means that the Kurds are just as progressive as the GOP I guess.

He says that an insecure Trump takes any criticism as a personal attack, so the leaker was trying to send a message through the media.

"..if the President, through inexperience and ignorance, is jeopardizing our national security and will not take advice or corrective action, what other means are available to get the President to listen and recognize the error of his ways?”

So, when your own side is calling you ignorant...

You can't expect Kurds to be more progressive than, say, Texans. Nobody expects that, but they're an open, generous people, and are on OUR side in this conflict.

"Thank the gods we elected President Trump!! :D"

REALLY??? A man who now stands accused of giving classified information to the Russians! After for over a year he and conservative Republicans and YOU vilified Hillary Clinton for playing fast and loose with classified e-mails? Now, you have the audacity to praise him????

I an NO fan of Hillary Clinton, but Trump could now conceivably be charged with committing at least SIX crimes within the space of a week.

Trump at best is either inept and incompetent to be President or at worst is now openly colluding with the Russians and daring people to take action against him.

In conclusion , the experiences of being a homosexual in Kurdistan is also based on which part of Kurdistan that you’re in , but because of the conservative nature of the Middle east(with the exception of Israel) and part of Kurdistan , you’ll always find yourself discriminated for expressing your sexual orientation.
https://www.quora.com/How-does-it-feel-to-be-a-homosexual-in-Kurdistan

I know, I know...

Why let FACTS interfere with a good Progressive fantasy that everyone thinks like you do... :^/

If you don't blow a few predictions you aren't playing very hard.

The Kurds are socially progressive, effective fighters and good administrators. I fear they are going to get screwed in any agreement that involves Turkey.

Kurds are landlocked. What they really need is a wee slice of Turkey (no pun intended) giving them access to the northeast Mediterranean...and the rest of the world. With that, they could become an Israel.

If you don't blow a few predictions you aren't playing very hard.

File it under Loose, Pouty Lips Sink Ships.

I'm also a huge fan of Google Earth. Roads and watersheds are hugely important in understanding Syria and Iraq.

CW.com has done excellent job in covering the conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

I would characterize the current pretender as

supercaliphatalisticexpialidocious

Yea.. Apparently, I am back.. :^/ heh

If you call "ignoring it until it got too big to handle" managing it fairly well, then yes... Odumbo managed the situation "fairly well"... :^/

We can always ask the victims of terrorism in this country and their families if Odumbo "managed the situation fairly well"...

I wonder what they would have to say about that...

Thank the gods we elected President Trump!! :D

The Islamic State never engaged in genuine blitzkrieg, they infiltrated Sunni areas who wanted to throw out the central government. The only blitzkrieg-like movements were the national government forces fleeing in reverse to friendly cities and towns. All the fighting to nominally restore government control has been in slow motion, yard by yard for the most part.

The Obama Admin managed this situation
(Mess o' Potamia) fairly well, compared to, oh, the Bush 2 admin which envisioned a quick, affordable and permanent solution. Trump is not getting that grandiose... at least not yet.

Two notes are necessary. Obviously, this was written while other news was breaking.

Secondly, I fully admit that previously, I had predicted that the Kurds would take Tal Afar before the battle for Mosul even began. Looks like I blew that prediction, but then I never claimed to be an expert on military tactics.

-CW