The Grinding Phase

It is to the advantage of the R+5 forces to keep the jihadi/unicorns fighting to defend their present positions as long as possible.  The jihadi/unicorns are not local forces in the places where they are fighting.  There are only so many of them.  "Dead men don't bite" should be the watchword of the campaign for the R+5.

Something was said about NW Syria not being good "tank country." IMO that is an over-simplification.  If you think of armored forces as being cavalry to be used in broad sweeping movements in the style of Murat, Guderian or Patton then that would be true, but it is also appropriate to think of tanks the way the Wehrmacht thought of mobile assault guns used in direct support of infantry in the attack.  The Wehrmacht was very good at this and developed specialized weapons such as the STUG-III for the mission.  A T-72 tank combined with infantry makes a formidable weapon in close combat.  The USMC thinks of tanks the same way, and plots each vehicle on their maps as major assets.  pl

Comments

[Will]

@BABAK
from your post
'The monks and priests on Britannia (UK), Gaul (France), Italia (Italy), and Germania were vigorously developing new theories of the Universe based on the old Greek Rationalist Tradition. In Muslim lands, especially among the Arabs, Reason died and Faith predominated. It was for this reason that Spain, which was occupied by Muslim Arabs, never caught up with the rest of Western Europe even though she was another inheritor, like Italy, of the Legacy of Rome and the Classical Civilization."

"One major reason was that the Platonic Academy and its offshoots and incarnation continued on in the areas West of Diocletian Line. The Platonic Academy has been the embodiment of the Rational Approach to the world which the Ancient Greek Thinker like Plato & Aristotle initiated. It has stood for Reason (as opposed to Religious Faith or Emotion)."

this is the part that you don't get. Greek knowledge died out in Europe. Aristotle and Plato were reintroduced into Europe from Arab Hispania and Italy.

Knowledge goes back and forth and is built on other knowledge. The ancient Hellenes acknowledged their debt to the Babylonians, Canaanites, and Egyptians. The Canaanite alphabet according to their own myths was brought to Greece, a phoencian prince and brother of Europa, to Thebes.

The Chinese who invented gunpowder had fell far behind and were humiliated by the "foreign devils" but now are talking about putting humans on the moon. The Hindus who invented the Hindu-Arabic numerals fell to European colonization but have now astounded with their space program and software prowess.

But as far the Arabs, alas their secular regimes have been sabotaged by the NeoKons and R2P'rs. Iraqi could have continued to be a technological powerhouse but for their fool of a leader who started a stupid war w/ Iran and was lured to invade Kuwait to the eventual dismemberment of his nation. Al- Assad similary made a huge mistake by not okaying a Qatari pipeline in addition to the Iran-Iraq one, and thus invited Wahhabi sabotage.

It goes around and around.

____________________________
" Averroes (1126–1198) was especially distinguished as a commentator of Aristotle.[4] He often wrote two or three different commentaries on the same work, and some 38 commentaries by Averroes on the works of Aristotle have been identified.[5] Although his writings had only marginal impact in Islamic countries, his works had a huge impact in the Latin West following the Latin translations of the 12th and 13th centuries.[5"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentaries_on_Aristotle

[The Twisted Genius]

alba etie,

From my vantage point, I no longer have any view of the political antics in DC and I thank God every day for that. Having said that, I think the R2P/neocons have been screwing the pooch for so long, the pragmatists may be emboldened to take them on when they can. Ukraine is a bankrupt, neo-nazi mess thanks to the Nuland's coven and five billion dollars of our money. It's a stinking embarrassment. As for Syria and Russia, there are still some sane heads in the military who have no desire for a war with Russia, hot or cold. They will do their duty to the best of their ability.

[Babak Makkinejad]

I am familiar with Averros.

The question is who among Muslim polities continued on his path?

Only among a tiny minority of the Shia Muslims you could find a whiff of philosophical thought. In Sunni Islam, Philosophy and indeed the thirst for the acquisition of new knowledge evaporated.

Ask Kunari or I.Z. - both from Turkey, the most modern Sunni state in the world - what status research in basic empirical sciences enjoys in that country.

But these are all quibbles.

800 years of doing-nothing is an empirical fact.

Just like the 60,000 years of dram-time walk-about of Australian Aborigines.

Or 2500 years of navel-gazing in India.

[Ulenspiegel]

Another possibility is of course that the willingness of the EU to talk about EU membership of Turkey will die when the situation in Syria is more stable. Here quite subtle schemes are possible.

Personally I do not think that is was a smart move of Erdogan to couple the EU memebership negotiations with the refugee issue, which was to a certain extend caused by Turkey.

[Ulenspiegel]

Tyer, whats your opinion on legalizing some drugs and destroying the economic base of smuggling?

[The Beaver]

Colonel,

Far away from the maddening crowd of Speedos "et en bédaine":
Spruce Head, South Thomaston.

[The Beaver]

Colonel

We have a new PM- Trudeau fils