So what is it that the US is doing anyway.
They’re fighting ISIS.
They’re fighting ISIS with Iraq. They’re fighting ISIS with SDF. They’re fighting ISIS with the Kurds. They’re just saying. Well, they’re not just saying, they’re also clearly doing.
How does this guy keep getting such choice footage of the high powered action stuff the US military is doing at any given time. He’s so lucky.
Speaking of just saying, we still don’t know who bombed those TFSA ISIS oil smuggler bad guys, do we?
I would never compare any part of our armed forces to OJ Simpson the man, but they sorta reminded me of that book he wrote: If I Did It.
They aren’t saying they did it. But they are definitely saying they could have done it.
There’s this.
AWESOME!! Turkish propaganda is stupid ours is awesome. Funny how that works. But if you can’t read it, here it is in English.
Now, it should be noted that they do put these videos out, but only sometimes do they put them out in two languages. Usually the main Operation Inherent Resolve accounts Tweet their stuff, and then when an affiliated entity Tweets about something they did, OIR retweets it. In this case, they tweeted their own version and retweeted the Iraqi Air Force tweet in Arabic and the effect is that for anyone listening, we really, really want everyone to understand what we did.
It has a stirring effect. It’s got that real multiple monitor NORAD Tony Stark’s Tower world domination vibe.
And, really, no, seriously, we can’t repeat this enough, it’s very important that you know with great precision, no pun intended, how good we are at killing ISIS from the air.
The Defense Post: Iraqi air force drops Paveway II laser-guided bombs on ISIS positions near Tikrit
Iraqi Air Force F-16 fight jets dropped GBU-10 Paveway II laser-guided bombs on Islamic State positions in northern Iraq, the Coalition against ISIS said on Tuesday, November 26.
“Two Iraqi Air Force 9th Fighter Squadron F-16s dropped two precision-guided munitions weighing 2,000 pounds each during an Iraqi-led operation to defeat Daesh fuel and vehicle storage facilities and bed-down locations,” CJTF-OIR said in a statement, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. “The Iraqi Air Force led the effort to include the pre-brief, execution and debrief of the mission.”
A video included in the release identified the date as November 24 and the location as in the vicinity of the Hamrin lake. ISIS once maintained an extensive tunnel system in the nearby mountains.
That piece actually includes a brief fucking history of the development of the weapons used, I shit you not. And there is detail on the operation. I generally don’t get anything coming across my feed that is so oddly specific about how they do raids—and, for that matter, how long they’ve been doing them.
So, they’re fighting ISIS with the SDF. And they could have done the air strike if they wanted to, not saying we did, but just saying—this is how we do things when we do them. Are we communicating yet?
I dunno if they did it or not. But the statement works either way.
So there’s that stuff, and then, of course, they’re cruising around their “expansive” region of coverage.
I love how closely the people on the ground monitor the US movements, even though half the time it seems like the US forces basically disappear.
Through this process, which I’ve discussed before, of error correction, I’ve even learned a bit of where some of the confusion comes from. Part of the problem, apparently, is that “panzer” is slang for all armor. But then when you have one word for all armor and it happens to be one traditionally associated with tanks, the reporting gets confused.
As I said, some of the people on Rojava twitter are super into being very clear.
Speaking of very clear, two examples of clarity and confusion in messaging.
Two months ago, I wouldn’t have given this video a second thought. Now the thing that jumps out at me is that the weapon briefly flashed in the opening is wrapped in pink.
Intentional? I just don’t know anymore with these guys. But I definitely wouldn’t doubt it. They are that subtle when they want to be, and they are that good.
So we know the video is a communication—I mean, that’s why people make videos, yeah? But some of what is communicated is not always clear. And there may be power in that too.
Interestingly, something can be confused in communication, and yet the message(s) received are completely clear.
Like, probably because it’s so damned important to them, they are able to make perfect sense of what our media claims is a confused message from the US government.
They summarize the whole political message of the video in two lines. They seem to find this all incredibly transparent.
For some reason, our media is reporting what is going on as unclear simply because the message is a little garbled. The people of Rojava have, perhaps, a stronger incentive to listen more closely.
This is not to say our policy is or will remain clear and consistent. But however muddled the message is, or the policy is for that matter, it can still be understood. OIR generally seems to be pretty clear about what they want us to know—that’s even addressed in the NYTimes video that they helpfully provide in the Tweet.
Rojava to Rock 