Where’s Waldo? - A Followup to Special Forces in Rojava

The France24 film I linked to yesterday documented the presence of “Western special forces” at the battle of Shaddadi. Upon closer examination I have concluded that the bulk of the helmeted soldiers caught on film are an Air Force Joint Tactical Air Controller (JTAC) team. There are a few others in mufti who strike me as special mission unit (SMU) types with lots of whiz-bang gadgetry. They look more like “operators” rather than Special Forces soldiers. As Colonel Lang pointed out with his marvelous comment, “I wonder which martinet ass is making these GBs dress that way rather than like the people they are with.”

I was still looking for the mythical Green Berets in the documentary. I think I found them in this screen shot at the 10:32 point. It appears to be a command group. The soldier with the radio is wearing a YPG arm patch and is missing his right hand. I assume he is a YPG fighter. One of the faces is blurred out. One is well hidden by a keffiyeh reading out map coordinates to the YPG Kurd with the radio. Those two appear to be Green Berets in their natural habitat. There’s nothing flashy or high-speed about them and they’re dressed like the men they’re advising. The soldier standing with his hands in his pockets on the right could be either. His face isn’t blurred out, but he has that look with which I’m very familiar. I’ve seen that look in many team rooms and training camps. Perhaps it’s a private joke among the team that the film crew took him for a local rather than a Westerner. DOL

TTG

Comments

[Dubhaltach]

In reply to Tigermoth 27 April 2016 at 12:44 PM

Not a bad comparison at all - the same situation (I'm told) applies to tribes along the Amazon where within quite small areas there exist a plethora of wholly distinct languages.

As to dialect - I once had hours of fun suppressing my giggles watching and listening to my then girlfriend who was was from deepest darkest Bavaria trying to work out what the hell somebody from Flesnsburg was saying and vice versa. (As a Dane I had no problems doing that! And after all Schadenfreude IS a German word.)

[Dubhaltach]

In reply to The Twisted Genius 26 April 2016 at 08:59 PM

Why would they want to? My understanding is that the A10 can be refueled in flight. I can understand using FARPs for rearming if they were doing repeated runs and that that might be why they'd refuel but again my understanding is that they're not doing repeated strikes so somewhat puzzled.

[The Twisted Genius]

Dubhaltach,

The story of your former girlfriend reminds me of the time I saw an unsuspecting Bavarian ask for a Semmel in a Berlin cafe. It was like vultures descending on a bloated carcass. My partner and I vowed to watch what we said since we were based in Augsburg at the time.

[VietnamVet]

Amir & BM,

The France24 documentary shows western troops right in the middle of a war with no end in sight and escalating.

Yes, America is doing its best to ignore the wars it is enabling. But, even Washington DC is fraying on the edges; a 21% office vacancy rate in Arlington county and the Washington Metro subway system is falling apart killing passengers. Money is flowing to the military but due to sequestration it is drying up for domestic programs. Military logistics and security have been privatized. The hired mercenaries and contractors don’t have government medical care or pensions. They are on their own. The cost differences are pocketed by the connected.

I attribute this to greed which can be corrected by returning government back to the people. The alternative is that mankind is terminally psychotic and we are witnessing the 6th mass extinction event.

[The Twisted Genius]

Dubhaltach,

FARPs are only a possibility and, as you say, unnecessary in this situation. It would make a lot of sense if attack helicopters were ever to be employed.

[bth]

Stumbled across this article out of Turkey that says there are 4 Predator drones and 12 A-10s at Incirlik AFB.

It also says that the HIMARS battery and the increased use of Hellfires from drones is to push ISIL Katyusha rocket attacks out of range of Kilis. This is important as Turkey is not flying jets into Syrian airspace.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-demands-more-effective-use-of-hellfire-missiles-in-isil-fight.aspx?pageID=238&nID=98339&NewsCatID=352

[bth]

Slightly off topic. This article discusses British attack using two 2000 lb bunker busters against IS tunnel complex in hillsides along Euphrates in western Iraq. http://www.janes.com/article/59799/uk-debuts-bunker-buster-bombs-against-the-islamic-state

We don't see much discussion of the use of or destruction of said tunnel complexes in modern conflicts yet they constantly appear with our adversaries: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Serbia, Afghanistan, N. Korea, Iran, Vietnam so name several.

Someone knowledgeable in dealing with tunnels could post an interesting thread about this perhaps in the future.

[Dubhaltach]

Hey it could've been worse. Imagine if they'd asked for a "Berliner" when they really meant "pfannkuchen" and yes I did and yes they did think that was absolutely hilarious.

Then they sold me some of the best confectionery I've ever eaten and coming from a Dane who lives in the same city as La Glace that's high praise. If you're ever in Berlin again it's a brilliant bakery/konditori called Bäckerei Siebert its between Paul-Robeson-Straße and Bornholmer Straße - get off the light rail and walk towards the park. The bakery with the queue outside it is the one you want.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Nah, just the crooked timber of mankind - a.k.a. The Fall of Man.

[LeaNder]

Thanks, Wondook, I already shifted to the history of the Kurds in Syria. Hat tip to whoever mentioned Qamishli, which via a complex Kurdish party scene led me here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_al-Qamishli_riots#2004_events

Tejel, Jordi (2009). "The Qamishli revolt, 2004: the marker of a new era for Kurds in Syria". Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society. London: Routledge. pp. 108–132.

Available as pdf via Kurdipedia.org (74488.pdf), I know it's not legitimate concerning copyright laws, but if someone offers you a book for free on the web to immediately help you to take closer look at one specific event and its context, it's hard to resist. ;)

[LeaNder]

hmm, Wondook, more interesting then I expected, not least the author himself.

https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&query=122145151

On the surface he seems to share Aliza Marcus' views of Öcalan. I must have responded to the use of his image in the France24 doc somewhat ambivalently too. I guess, I wouldn't have taken a look on his biography otherwise. ...

Very different takes of the 'pregnant females' supposedly misused as suicide bombers Marcus seems to report about in two reviews over here. Interesting image, nevertheless.

One in DIE ZEIT, pretty short and somewhat nitpicking concerning centrally myth and reality of women's rights in 'Kurdistan'. A while ago, I watched a similarly motivated documentary on Arte, I suppose. But they apparently prefer to not descend to the level of the German Wikipedia article. The passage may well need correction.

The other review is highly critical, apparently from a German Kurdish site in English. Here a different person first 'gets her pregnant' and then sends her on a suicide mission. Relying mainly on interviews may no doubt contain traps. On the other hand there surely is an impulse to protect the image of the leader.

http://kurdistan-kolumne.blogspot.de/2008/07/review-of-aliza-marcus-blood-and-belief.html

"Sait Cürükkaya (Dr. Süleyman) who poses as an intelligent and sympathetic husband and family father in the book is actually infamous for getting a militant pregnant then sending her off on a suicide bombing mission. Important figures like Terzi Cemal and Hogir which would have shed light on important failures of the early years of the guerrilla warfare are also completely missing. Omissions like these are symptomatic because they all serve the same cause: to blame solely Ocalan for everything that went wrong or bad."

[LeaNder]

Ok, one last thing, VV, for whatever it's worth.

"The hired mercenaries and contractors don’t have government medical care or pensions."

That is one group, no doubt the larger one, there no doubt is a different group too. ... There are no doubt such that can easily afford to take care of the medical care and their pension themselves. And surely the private field esteems knowledge in government procedures and overall structures: opening the revolving doors.

I have to admit, that one witness in a US trial I watched closely fascinated me most and led me to take a more careful look into the various links in his biography.

He also was rather refreshing, spell rational or seemed far more rational then other actors. Especially in this specific field there were rather crazy assumptions and the usage of non-expert expertise, or fitting assumptions, on both political sides on the issue.

The start of his career was in the technical field, at one point in time he was, to the extend I recall, hired by a specific branch of the government more or less in his field, technology, development, somewhat more vaguely links led to competitions between firms that give the government a chance to filter out more promising approaches in developments. He wasn't apparently completely free to report on that part of his biography, to the extend I recall, which he claimed was partly censored.

He then moved on to a private company in Virginia, to be hired back to the government again. Meaning, for this special player medical care or pension wasn't his highest concern.

[turcopolier]

LeaNder

"one witness in a US trial I watched closely fascinated me most and led me to take a more careful look into the various links in his biography" your comment is meaningless if you don't name him. pl

[different clue]

Vietnam Vet,

Sequestration . . . . another gift that keeps on giving, thanks to President Obama. Along with the Bush Tax Cuts being permanent, also thanks to President Obama.

[different clue]

Dubhaltach,

Dialect . . . dialect . . . once a friend and I were touristing in the Florida Keys and at the hotel I heard some people next to me in the pool talking. They were talking some kind of Englandish dialect. While I could tell it was some kind of Englandish, I couldn't understand it at all because Ameringlish is the only language I know.