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The Gloves Are Coming Off in the U.S. War Against the Islamic State’s Oil
Yahoo ^ | 16 NOV 2015 | Paul McLeary

Posted on 11/17/2015 5:24:06 AM PST by thackney

American military officials have come to the conclusion that the U.S.-led air campaign targeting Syria’s oil infrastructure — which has provided the Islamic State with hundreds of millions of dollars over the past two years — has been too cautious. A new offensive aims to change that.

Officials would not say if the rules of engagement for the U.S.-led air war against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, have changed to allow for a new and more aggressive round of strikes. But there was little doubt that the U.S. aerial assault that tore through 116 ISIS oil tankers parked near an Iraqi border crossing Sunday night signaled that the militant group’s financial infrastructure was now squarely in American crosshairs.

In the early days of the campaign last September, American officials made a point to say that the Islamic State’s mobile oil drilling assets were high on the target list, but a Pentagon spokesman said on Monday that the coalition has actually been trying to spare some of Syria’s largest oil producing facilities.

The coalition has been conscious of the “degree of damage we want to do to these things, recognizing that they remain the property of the Syrian people,” said Capt. Jeff Davis. But as the war has dragged on, and ISIS continues to pull in anywhere from $1 to $2 million a day from its black market oil smuggling operations, that thinking appears to have changed. As well-supplied ISIS fighters stubbornly hold out in cities like Raqqa, Mosul, Fallujah, and Ramadi, and the group begins to conduct operations as far away as Egypt, Afghanistan, and Paris, military planners have decided to expand their target lists. “We have gone after them more aggressively,” Davis said.

This month, the coalition has launched over a dozen airstrikes...

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bombtheshitoutofthem; closethemosques; deport; elections; energy; isis; islam; islamicstate; muslim; oil; securetheborders; sendthemback; taketheiroil; trump; trumpdoctrine; trumpeffect; trumpleader; trumppolicy; trumpwasright
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To: thackney
Too cautious?

Try non existent ?

Putin has forced Obama’s hand and threatens to expose how Obama has done virtually nothing to fight ISIS over the last two years

21 posted on 11/17/2015 5:53:19 AM PST by rdcbn ("If what has happened here is not treason, it is its first cousin." Zell Miller)
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To: thackney
1,000 well-placed "Daisy Cutters" should be a damned good start.





Why this is not obvious to our military and C-I-C, I have no idea!
22 posted on 11/17/2015 5:55:42 AM PST by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: thackney

The answer to everything Obama does now needs to be a simple. ‘A year later than it needed to happen. tens of thousands have been murdered because of it.”


23 posted on 11/17/2015 5:55:51 AM PST by ilgipper
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To: thackney

How will Obama justify this with his Muslim masters?


24 posted on 11/17/2015 5:56:57 AM PST by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: Sacajaweau

Obama wont be on the ballot in 2016, so they have to start pretending again.


25 posted on 11/17/2015 5:58:52 AM PST by TexasFreeper2009 (You can't spell Hillary without using the letters L, I, A, & R)
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To: MNJohnnie
It's better than nothing but not much.

To put things into perspective , four A10 and a C130 gunship is an aggressive ground support mission to support a couple of platoons of ambushed Marines.

Obama could have and still can shut off the flow of oil with minimal and easily repaired damage to the choke points in the system pretty much over night so respect for Assad's oil infrastructure is just the latest in a long line of red herring excuses Obama uses to avoid attacking ISIS

26 posted on 11/17/2015 6:03:26 AM PST by rdcbn ("If what has happened here is not treason, it is its first cousin." Zell Miller)
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To: MNJohnnie

They dropped leaflets and let the humans escape before firing.


27 posted on 11/17/2015 6:13:14 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ ("It gets late early around here..." Yogi)
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To: thackney

So a year later we are finally getting g serious?

I still doubt that


28 posted on 11/17/2015 6:13:19 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (islam is a totalitarian death cult founded by a child rapist.)
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To: Don Corleone

See post 27.


29 posted on 11/17/2015 6:15:18 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ ("It gets late early around here..." Yogi)
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To: MNJohnnie

This is exactly why we keep the A-10 around.


30 posted on 11/17/2015 6:21:25 AM PST by tanknetter
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To: mad_as_he$$

Jan 2017 cannot come soon enough.


31 posted on 11/17/2015 6:21:59 AM PST by MNJohnnie ( Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered)
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To: RoosterRedux

He’s very accomplished at leading from behind.


32 posted on 11/17/2015 6:26:28 AM PST by OLDCU
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To: AustinBill

Taking the gloves should involve sending in the B52s and unleash their load. Maybe be the could have an errant drop over cair. Carpet bombing is needed, vile islamist meet brute force.


33 posted on 11/17/2015 6:27:07 AM PST by grcuster
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To: MNJohnnie

;-)


34 posted on 11/17/2015 6:28:05 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ ("It gets late early around here..." Yogi)
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To: thackney
American military officials have come to the conclusion that the U.S.-led air campaign targeting Syria’s oil infrastructure — which has provided the Islamic State with hundreds of millions of dollars over the past two years — has been too cautious. A new offensive aims to change that.

No worries, when the 150 billion in frozen assets from Iran becomes available, they won't need the pittance oil money.

35 posted on 11/17/2015 6:35:13 AM PST by dartuser
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To: dartuser
I agree! And on the subject of Iran . . . Obama, Kerry, et al insist that the treaty brokered with that regime is a good one. In support of this claim they state on-site inspections are key. If, in fact, there is merit to this argument, how much time will elapse before an inspection is requested let alone conducted? How else can we know if Iran will live up to its side of the deal? Time to prove it up.
36 posted on 11/17/2015 7:01:59 AM PST by t4texas (-)
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To: tet68

This month, the coalition has launched over a dozen airstrikes...

I think I see the problem...


37 posted on 11/17/2015 7:12:42 AM PST by aumrl (let's keep it real Conservatives)
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To: thackney
But there was little doubt that the U.S. aerial assault that tore through 116 ISIS oil tankers parked near an Iraqi border crossing

While there are satellite pictures (taken by Russia) of caravans of oil tankers that go on for miles and miles.... the US bombed 116 tankers that were PARKED... because they were broken down.

38 posted on 11/17/2015 7:13:10 AM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: thackney

Shades of Vietnam. It’s “graduated escalation” all over again. The idiots in this administration think they’re so smart and original.


39 posted on 11/17/2015 7:21:46 AM PST by glorgau
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To: thackney
The area where the trucks assembled in Syria has been closely monitored by US reconnaissance drones.

As many as 1,000 trucks have been observed there, waiting to receive their cargo of illicit oil, the report said, adding that

at the time of the attack, 295 trucks were in the area,

Oh Jeeeze ....do I have to say it.

40 posted on 11/17/2015 7:42:50 AM PST by spokeshave (MDSM = Mentally Discombobulated Screaming Media)
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