Posted on 09/25/2014 8:11:48 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
This week, coalition forces took the fight against ISIS to Syria where the Islamic State not only maintains most of its command and control infrastructure but also its petroleum-based sources of revenue. Ed Morrissey has the details on coalition strikes which for the first time targeted mobile petroleum refineries under ISIS control.
“[CBS News reporter David] Martin says 12 small-scale oil refineries were hit in the eastern desert of Syria,” a CBS report revealed. “According to the Pentagon, the refineries produced between 300 and 500 barrels of petroleum a day, which ISIS used to power its own vehicles and to sell on the black market, bringing in up to $2 million every day in revenue.”
So, one would expect that revenue stream to have been vitiated if not entirely destroyed, right? Not so fast.
“Officials said the strikes wouldn’t target fixed oil fields, a precaution intended to minimize the potential for environmental damage,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. “The U.S. instead targeted small capacity mobile refineries used by Islamic State around northeastern Raqqa province and other locations in eastern Syria, officials said.”
The modular refineries produce between 300 and 500 barrels of refined oil a day, the defense department said in a statement. The military said that initial indications were that the strikes were successful. The make-shift refineries are located near the towns of Al-Mayadeen and Albukamal in the eastern oil-rich province of Deir Ezzour and in adjacent al-Hasakah province, the Defense Department said.
Islamic State uses the mobile refineries to process oil from the Syrian fields into diesel fuel. The diesel fuel is then smuggled across the border into Turkey.
The ability of Islamic State militants to finance their operation not from donations but through oil has made them a particularly dangerous group, U.S. officials have said. In the first round of U.S. and allied attacks, targets included a building used by the group to control its finances, an early signal that the U.S. strategy to curb the group’s power is to go after its funding.
The report seems to confirm what many have speculated; that the initial strikes on ISIS targets in Syria will be aimed primarily at degrading rather than destroying Islamic State infrastructure.
From a strategic perspective, the decision to leave ISIS oil fields intact makes little sense. A devil’s advocate perspective, however, would concede that it would not be wise to repeat of the devastation that was wrought in 1991 when Saddam Hussein set Kuwaiti oil fields alight. The environmental damage done by the Iraqi military’s maneuver was significant, and the move did reduce the efficacy of coalition operations.
The Pentagon seems eager to disabuse the press of the notion that they are conducting an environmentalist war. In a press conference on Thursday, a Pentagon spokesman suggested that the coalition forces were seeking to leave some revenue sources intact for the post-Assad regime:
US, Saudis & UAE, Kirby says, trying to blow up ISIS-held oil refineries w/o destroying a potential future $ source for post-Assad Syria
— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) September 25, 2014
A green war does, however, seem like a contradiction. At the very least, it is a utopian and likely unattainable goal. While we cannot be sure what the long-term effect of striking ISIS oil fields would be on the environment, we can be positive that not striking them will prolong America’s engagement in Iraq and Syria.
If you wrote a novel about this and submitted it to a publisher they’d come over to your house and kick your ***.
We are going to lose this war.
And that is significant, because unlike Vietnam its not really a war we went into, its a war that was declared on us, via proxy. And we’re going to lose it. An enemy force will have actually picked a fight with the US... and won.
The geopolitical consequences will be earth shattering. We’re watching the contraction of Rome.
Thank you Obola... YOU SLIME!
Extreme environmentalists and Global warming are evidently involved in support of this extremist group.
Clown Prince nobama and his commie minions know no limits to their efforts to intentionally ruin America. Those who support these degenerates are co-conspirators.
Of course we all hate this, but Obama is being consistent here.
He thinks global warming is our greatest threat, not radical Islam.
Right you are. And this is much more significant than most people realize. North Vietnam only wanted South Vietnam.
But the islamists want everything, literally everything. And we do not have the will to stop them.
“produced between 300 and 500 barrels of petroleum a day, which ISIS used to power its own vehicles and to sell on the black market, bringing in up to $2 million every day in revenue.””
The math doesn’t work.
Well said. Yet we're living it.
Yes it does add up if the money quoted is a total of that made by all of the 12+ mobile refineries, which is what the article implies.
Why are any of you surprised that this war is being fought for TV show only?
Obama has been trying to downplay the ISIS threat for over a year while arming them across the Middle East.
The purpose here is to just get us past the elections, then, early next year “victory” will be declared and stories created about how we “degraded” ISIS enough.
Bread and circuses.
This nonsense about the 12 tiny refineries producing $2 million/day keeps getting repeated without any questioning it in the media. They could only reach about a tenth of that. Oil/gasoline/diesel does not sell at $500/barrel.
You concept is correct but a barrel is 42 gallons.
No. 12 refineries each making 400 barrels a day produces 4800 barrels a day. $2 million divided by 4800 barrels is $417 a barrel. Black market products sell at cut rates, 4 times greater. Reports have put the price between $25~60 a barrel. Nobody pays 4~5 times the price for a back alley TV over Wal-Mart's price.
300 to 500 for every mobile refinery
Still doesn’t work
And the math still doesn’t work.
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