- Obama: "I want to make sure we end before the call to prayer"
- Iran Deploys Troops, Ballistic Missiles To Eritrea [2008]
Posted on 08/28/2012 10:49:46 AM PDT by mojito
Iran has begun supplying Syria with an elite force trained in obliterating military uprisings, force members said after Iran promised to help Syria if it asked.
The quiet shipment of hundreds of members of Iran's 125,000-man Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, or the Revolutionary Guards, to Syria is in addition to Tehran's stepped-up efforts to aid Syrian President Bashar Assad's military with cash and arms, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
It is also part of an initiative in which Iran replaces low-ranking Syrian soldiers who defected with Iranian troops, furnishes Syria with a paramilitary volunteer militia that could support Syria's Alawite paramilitary semi-criminal militia gangs known as shabiha, and provides an unconventional-warfare special-operations Quds Force to spearhead military cooperation with Assad forces, the Journal said.
The Quds Force, which reports directly to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is generally tasked with training proxy militants and exporting Iran's Islamic ideology.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
Are they defining elite as in “Elite Iraqi Republican Gaurd Troops”... Calling Bagdhad Bob!
Note to Iranian Generals: review films of the 91 Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq invasion. Pay particular attention to Saddam’s spider hole...
They are getting increasing revenues via Nat. gas/oil.
The Saudi/Gulf States aren't getting much in return yet. And the FSA seems to not be getting the type of weapons they need. RPG 22. Even 18s would help. Still using the old 7s from Vietnam era. They need longer range weapons. FNs. G-3s, etc. They are outgunned. No air cover. Under constant arty/mortar/tank fire. Doesn't look good for them at this point...
The Russians have much better things to do with their Gas/oil money than blow it on propping up Assad. Like steal it and stick it in the west. The old regime was happy to waste resources on geopolitics. The kleptocrats not really.
And their gas/oil is a wasting asset, as alternate sources are popping up everywhere. Even Israel !
We don’t know what weapons the FSA really has. Our visibility to what is going on is poor. And they don’t need RPG 22’s if the strategic problem can be solved by blowing up truck convoys.
This is guerilla war, the goal is not necessarily to meet the regime forces on equal terms, but to control the population and exhaust the other sides resources.
The regime on the other hand has to pacify the population sufficiently as to be able to demobilize without risk, as long term this scale of mobilization and destruction is not sustainable, both to the Syrian regime and its backers.
Much more difficult problem.
Let all the Muzzies kill each other off, hopefully Iran is sending their soldiers to battle with sticks, like they did against Iraq.
I watched a convoy of T-72s and BMPs roll through Aleppo. The only explosions I saw on the video were those originating from the barrels of the T-72s.
Assad isn't trying to "pacify" anyone. He's f'ing killing them!
The Russians may have better things to do, than prop up Assad, but if that is necessary to hold on to Tartus? They will prop up Assad.
The proper thing for a guerilla force is to avoid fighting columns of tanks and APCs. Other than with mines and demolitions of course. Even if they have RPG-22’s.
Let the Assad troops fire their tank guns as they like. The insurgents should be somewhere else, to kill the regime supporters who don’t have tanks and APCs. They will learn that eventually. Most insurgencies do.
Mao had it right strategically and tactically.
Good going Iran, let the Sunni-Shia wars spread from IRaq and Bahrain. Next, get the Shias in Saudia to arise...
the way it was for millenia. Syria, home to some of the oldest cities in the world, Sumeria, Akkadian, etc. and the oldest continuously lived in city in the world — Damascus
nope, let the Sunni jihadis fight the shia jihadis to the death.
Hard to avoid IFV/tanks when they are crashing through your home.
In recent weeks I've noted many of Assad's tanks have been up-armored. He is using ZSU-23s to sweep up. Clear upper floors of tall buildings. Tulips and arty. Tanks at ground level. Top down via helicopters/fast-movers.
He is really putting it on the FSA. Casualties rising. Death toll rising. I suspect well over 20K already. His is either following advice of someone, or using their "volunteers." Perhaps Russian advice (ala Grozny) and Iranian assets.
Theory is one thing. Reality another...
Cronos, back in London, on the tube & on my way to school (University), in the 80s, I used to listen to music, i.e. headphones (like today’s ipod — don’t laugh, we were the TREND-SETTERS for newbies now!). Back then, THE POLICE (Sting) was a very popular music band in the UK.
Although I am a Zoroastrian on my mother’s side & a Christian on father side, both by birth, I remember that the following was ONE of my favourite songs back then, and those initial words/lyrics stuck with me, going still:
THE POLICE:
“There is no political solution
To our troubled evolution
Have no faith in constitution
There is no bloody revolution
We are spirits in the material world
Our so-called leaders speak
With words they try to jail you
They subjugate the meek
But it’s the rhetoric of failure
We are spirits in the material world”
......
http://www.lyricsdepot.com/the-police/spirits-in-the-material-world.html
YouTube Vid - there are many versions now, but NOTHING beats the ORIGINAL!!
Original in Vinyl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzWJ7_5wlZg
Another version (Not Original):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG80KNDN1Dk
Well, it particularly sounded appropriate back then!
Must add that #32 was was in reference to Iran.
I agree. Very appropriate
just ping!
Syria has 23M people, about 16M of them Sunni. Iran has 79M people. Iran could exterminate all the Sunnis in Syria and repopulate Syria with their own people if they really wanted to. Or just kill all the Sunni men and take the women.
My husband says we should bomb the bloody ayatollahs, mullas et al in Iran to start with, and get it over & done with, once & for all. No Shite any more to entertain us!
I agree. We’ve the capability. But who the heck is game?!
Question --- Where did all those WMDs come from? Maybe those tractor trailers in convoy from Iraq in 2003/3?
Is there still a Presidential election coming up in the USA, with Obama in it?
It has been so very quiet in other parts of world regarding the upcoming US Presidential elections.
So close to the election, Obama would say anything... if Obama were still true to his rhetoric regarding Iran back in 2008, I would be hopeful, not sure at this point. He has had almost 4 yrs so far..
He could manage another term, bombing Syria and then having a Mullah or an extension of Iranian Islamic regime figure installed in Syria...
Obi has been good with marketing & basically managing Perceptions.
Iran has a very small reliable military force, as the mullahs don’t trust a mass army of their people.
The vast majority of Iranians are definitely not up to fighting a foreign war for the mullahs.
Thats why Iran has downgraded their regular army and why their national military service is a joke.
And besides which the Iranians can’t maintain a substantial military force in a non-contiguous country. They don’t have the resources or the money to do it. If they can deliver and supply a force of 50,000 in Syria I would be very surprised.
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