Air Strikes in Syria

[halfmanhalfbronco]

19 minutes ago, grandjean87 said:

It would be boring if we always agreed. We can rehash Libya sometime, but I don’t think the analysis of the US response is sketchy like you suspect.  Again, I’ll pivot if warranted.  

Also repeating, but I’m not going to the big, long-term military and foreign policy decisions. Every new administration is handed geopolitical and military situations which they must navigate. I doubt a covert ground operation was not plausible.  No response was possible, but there are probable costs to that. 

 

Really waiting for Joe and Metro to weigh in here more.  They have lived in that part of the world, and not on a base, but with the people where the dinner topic was the dynamics of these things way past my understanding.

I guess you can call me jaded.  Group A does a thing but we know nothing about group A, but we have a hunch they are one of a dozen plus pro iranian umbrella groups, so we launch some missiles at a different pro iranian umbrella group that did not do thing.  If I were to hazard a guess, I would say we once again thought showing strength with an appropriately measured counter response seemed the logical thing to do, but I fear we once again missed the nuts and bolts and just did the thing because a thing needed done.

 

[grandjean87]

18 minutes ago, halfmanhalfbronco said:

 

Really waiting for Joe and Metro to weigh in here more.  They have lived in that part of the world, and not on a base, but with the people where the dinner topic was the dynamics of these things way past my understanding.

I guess you can call me jaded.  Group A does a thing but we know nothing about group A, but we have a hunch they are one of a dozen plus pro iranian umbrella groups, so we launch some missiles at a different pro iranian umbrella group that did not do thing.  If I were to hazard a guess, I would say we once again thought showing strength with an appropriately measured counter response seemed the logical thing to do, but I fear we once again missed the nuts and bolts and just did the thing because a thing needed done.

 

Looking forward to their thoughts and analysis.  The US strike was a standard measure designed to set limits on the pro-Iran groups.  I couldn’t get through a couple of paywalls to verify, but the Al Jazeera report has the US response quite targeted.  What’s the cost of no response?  If the cost is less, Amen.  I would like to hear that argument in specific to this action. 

[BSUTOP25]

@Joe from WYand @halfmanhalfbronco:

[SalinasSpartan]

8 minutes ago, BSUTOP25 said:

@Joe from WYand @halfmanhalfbronco:

[halfmanhalfbronco]

19 minutes ago, grandjean87 said:

Looking forward to their thoughts and analysis.  The US strike was a standard measure designed to set limits on the pro-Iran groups.  I couldn’t get through a couple of paywalls to verify, but the Al Jazeera report has the US response quite targeted.  What’s the cost of no response?  If the cost is less, Amen.  I would like to hear that argument in specific to this action. 

 

Yeah, not comfortable with throwing all pro Irainian'ish groups in a box so when one does bad we blow up another.  If these groups had everything in common they would just be one group.  There are tensions and animosity between one and another.  There are rivalries and bad blood.

What would the cost of not retaliating be?  Maybe it emboldens future attacks?  My fear is that stuff like this ends up in an escalating tit for tat and that we have no idea of the actual logistics between all these factions and their communications.  This fear is not without reason, as we have seen this happen, because of that lack of knowledge, for decades.  We know for a fact lack of knowledge and understanding in the region has been our biggest blunder in our ME endeavours.  I am not going to think that Biden just somehow figured it out.  Obama did not.

 

[Joe from WY]

4 hours ago, halfmanhalfbronco said:

Going to need @Joe from WY to help make me less ignorant on this one.  Joe, the retaliatory strike was against Hashed al-Shaabi militants but the group responsible for the attack on the airbase was Awliyaa al-Dam.  To my knowledge we know next to nothing on the later.  Are they BFF's introduced in a meet cute by Iran?  

Just not sure I follow why one terrorist/millitant group or cell does the thing, so we bomb people who kinda sorta look like them.

This is why we need you.

I just had meetings all morning and then went and had a crown put on at the dentist. Let me smoke a cone of goodness and then I'll go and pontificate on here. 

[halfmanhalfbronco]

Just now, Joe from WY said:

I just had meetings all morning and then went and had a crown put on at the dentist. Let me smoke a cone of goodness and then I'll go and pontificate on here. 

 

Dooooo it.

I will burn one down in anticipation.

 

[grandjean87]

38 minutes ago, halfmanhalfbronco said:

 

Yeah, not comfortable with throwing all pro Irainian'ish groups in a box so when one does bad we blow up another.  If these groups had everything in common they would just be one group.  There are tensions and animosity between one and another.  There are rivalries and bad blood.

What would the cost of not retaliating be?  Maybe it emboldens future attacks?  My fear is that stuff like this ends up in an escalating tit for tat and that we have no idea of the actual logistics between all these factions and their communications.  This fear is not without reason, as we have seen this happen, because of that lack of knowledge, for decades.  We know for a fact lack of knowledge and understanding in the region has been our biggest blunder in our ME endeavours.  I am not going to think that Biden just somehow figured it out.  Obama did not.

 

There’s an argument that Obama’s biggest Middle East/Arab world blunders, sans the Afghan troop surge (which was not warranted,) were sins of omission, but that’s for another time.  Need to look at Libya again as the decade mark approaches.

None of that however, is really pertinent to the US measured strikes.  This wasn’t a major policy initiative nor widening of an existing conflict. Hope that Joe dude gets in the perfect frame of mind. 
 

 

 

[robe]

19 hours ago, thelawlorfaithful said:

Because Congress passes bills granting said authorization. Like these two eternal monstrosities: the one to seek out and merc those responsible for 9/11, and this one calling for regime change and promoting a democratic government in Iraq. So unless these Iranian backed militants in Syria somehow escaped our notice for 20 years, here is a helpful little map for you and the President as to where Congress has granted authorization to use force in the region.

You made it extremely simple. But I doubt they still get it.

[Joe from WY]

12 minutes ago, halfmanhalfbronco said:

 

Dooooo it.

I will burn one down in anticipation.

 

Theres 7 dispensaries within 15 mins of my house. I feel like i died and reincarnated in the Hindu Kush. 

[halfmanhalfbronco]

6 minutes ago, grandjean87 said:

There’s an argument that Obama’s biggest Middle East/Arab world blunders, sans the Afghan troop surge (which was not warranted,) were sins of omission, but that’s for another time.  Need to look at Libya again as the decade mark approaches.

None of that however, is really pertinent to the US measured strikes.  This wasn’t a major policy initiative nor widening of an existing conflict. Hope that Joe dude gets in the perfect frame of mind. 
 

 

 

 

I mean that argument would be stretched really, really thin.

I agree with the bold but am nervous it is a portent of this administrations intentions in Syria and elsewhere, given that they are the legacy of such bad, bad decisions.

 

[grandjean87]

2 minutes ago, halfmanhalfbronco said:

 

I mean that argument would be stretched really, really thin.

I agree with the bold but am nervous it is a portent of this administrations intentions in Syria and elsewhere, given that they are the legacy of such bad, bad decisions.

 

We’ll see sometime, but for now just damn Obama for invading Iraq. 

How long does it take for that cone burning thing to take hold?

 

[halfmanhalfbronco]

6 minutes ago, grandjean87 said:

We’ll see sometime, but for now just damn Obama for invading Iraq. 

How long does it take for that cone burning thing to take hold?

 

 

Yeah, not gunna trick me into defending Bush.

Libya, Yemen et al.  Obama was strait clown show in the Middle East and made things worse, not better.  Conversation for a different topic, though.

 

[halfmanhalfbronco]

Oh and about 10-30 minutes to chill after getting home, get dinner going, 3 minutes to roll, 10-20 minutes to smoke, 20-30 minutes to get into the zone where opining on a MWCboard sounds like fun.

 

[renoskier]

22 minutes ago, Joe from WY said:

Theres 7 dispensaries within 15 mins of my house. I feel like i died and reincarnated in the Hindu Kush. 

Do they deliver?

[renoskier]

12 minutes ago, halfmanhalfbronco said:

Oh and about 10-30 minutes to chill after getting home, get dinner going, 3 minutes to roll, 10-20 minutes to smoke, 20-30 minutes to get into the zone where opining on a MWCboard sounds like fun.

 

What!!?? 5 minutes...tops.

• drive into garage,
• pull out work bench stash
• load pipe
• take one goooood hit
• go inside and let dog out
• enjoy buzz 

then get dinner going and start cleaning like a mofo

 

 

[halfmanhalfbronco]

2 minutes ago, renoskier said:

What!!?? 5 minutes...tops.

• drive into garage,
• pull out work bench stash
• load pipe
• take one goooood hit
• go inside and let dog out
• enjoy buzz 

 

You don't need to chill for a bit and get food going before going all MWCboard?

 

[renoskier]

8 minutes ago, halfmanhalfbronco said:

 

You don't need to chill for a bit and get food going before going all MWCboard?

 

Yeah, usually. I don't normally take a hit until 7 or 8pm.

However, if I'm entertaining in the evening, I'll often hit the pipe earlier in the day and get started with the housework. I find it to be amazingly productive for doing menial tasks. 

 

[Joe from WY]

15 minutes ago, renoskier said:

Do they deliver?

3 or 4 of them do...the rest you have to pick up. But you can order online ahead of time with virtually all of them. And you can get deliveries from all over the Bay here too. From Berkeley and Oakland and Marin even. Its amazing. 

[Joe from WY]

12 minutes ago, renoskier said:

What!!?? 5 minutes...tops.

• drive into garage,
• pull out work bench stash
• load pipe
• take one goooood hit
• go inside and let dog out
• enjoy buzz 

then get dinner going and start cleaning like a mofo

 

 

I always just walk out on the deck as soon as work is over, crack open a Sierra Nevada, and burn a cone of something. I usually prepack them ahead of time. It's great.