[QUOTE]And sadly, I don't see anyone inside or outside the region able and willing to confront them on the ground. The 'Coalition' airstrikes are all well and good, but they aren't going to defeat ISIS by themselves.[/QUOTE] Well the Kurds beat them very badly and the Iranian army did a good job of pushing them back. If only the Iraqi military could grow some balls and fight to the end instead of cowardly running away and letting ISIS take their weapons. Better leadership is needed by the Iraqi military but no one as yet has stepped up to show what should be done.
And your answer is: well... of course. Islamic State lays explosives in Syria's Palmyra ruins Jihadi group is believed to have mined spectacular Greco-Roman ruins, a month after overrunning the central Syrian city Islamic State jihadis have mined the spectacular ancient ruins in Syria’s Palmyra, according to an antiquities official and monitor, prompting fears for the Unesco world heritage site a month after the extremist group overran the central Syrian city. Syria’s antiquities chief, Maamoun Abdulkarim, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said on Sunday that the group laid mines and explosives in Palmyra’s Greco-Roman ruins. The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, said the explosives were laid on Saturday. “It is not known if the purpose is to blow up the ruins or to prevent regime forces from advancing into the town,” said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman. He said regime forces had launched heavy air strikes against the residential part of Palmyra in the past three days, killing at least 11 people. .... http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/21/islamic-state-isis-explosives-syria-palmyra-ruins Frankly, I consider that unmitigated bullshit: because it was about three and half weeks, not a fucking month. Lying Guardian! Suckers. I jest, I jest. Anyway, it could be that they're only mining the priceless antiquities to keep Iraqi government troops from recapturing them, or maybe just to play a really big joke on that Indiana Jones character and his infidel bullwhip. I think it's a bit more likely that they're to demonstrate the moral superiority of Islamist explosives over ancient Roman architecture - we used to call that colonialism, didn't we? Where one view was seen as sufficiently superior to warrant blowing the shit out of the determinedly indigenous types. Didn't we? Anyway, I'm sure it'll never happen. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/07/islamic-state-isis-crimes-against-culture-iraq-syria
Well... admittedly... airstrikes COULD do the job... but we'd have to use something a bit heavier than we have been... but that's a level of escalation NOBODY wants.
