Detailed map of Syria and Iraq showing which forces hold what territory. http://t.co/tpH8q1z5Od pic.twitter.com/up3YGV5SGB
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) August 29, 2015
Who controls what in Syria and Iraq
31 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Iraq, ISIS, Syria, war on terror
Some of our enemies are fighting our other enemies, whom we want to lose
26 Jul 2015 1 Comment
in war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Iran, Iraq, ISIS, Israel, Middle-East politics, Syria, war against terror
"Some of our enemies are fighting our other enemies, whom we want to lose." http://t.co/JDP1UbyZWr—
William Easterly (@bill_easterly) September 25, 2014
The war situation in Iraq and Syria
10 May 2015 Leave a comment
ISW Iraq SITREP. Baiji-Repeat of Tikrit w/ roles of Iranian militias vs. Coalition airstrikes?
iswiraq.blogspot.com/2015/05/iraq-s… http://t.co/QLwhV0lkhS—
ISW (@TheStudyofWar) May 09, 2015
ISW Syria SITREP is out. Did Hezbollah decide to not engage JN or is "Qalamoun battle coming"? bit.ly/1JOMZ4R http://t.co/eb3zIQuhwU—
ISW (@TheStudyofWar) May 05, 2015
HT: Lorenzo M Warby
The main rifts in Middle East politics
26 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in war and peace Tags: Al-Qaeda, Iraq, ISIS, Middle-East politics, Saudi Arabia, Yemen
Airlines are avoiding Yemen, Iraq, and Libya
04 Apr 2015 1 Comment
in transport economics, war and peace Tags: airline safety, Iraq, Libya, Yemen
Airline travel are avoiding Yemen, Iraq, and Libya h/t @ianbremmer http://t.co/dgiNDILqzp—
Charts and Maps (@ChartsAndMaps) April 04, 2015
There Is No Global Jihadist ‘Movement’ — Atlantic Mobile
13 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
Some nice charts about how ISIS is more a rabble that happens to survive because of the lack of unity among its many enemies which include the Iraqi government government and its army that runaway.
The perils of foreign interventions – Syria/Iraq version
01 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism, war and peace Tags: Iraq, non-interventionist foreign policy, Syria
Counter-insurgency myths
22 Jun 2014 Leave a comment
in war and peace Tags: counter-insurgency tactics, France, Iraq
Compare occupied France with Iraq when the U.S. military were in that country:
- American forces in Iraq bunker down and move around in armoured convoys.
- German officers walked around occupied France with no more than side-arms because any mischief would be dealt with by savage reprisals.
Perfectly ordinary regular armed forces, with no counterinsurgency doctrine or training whatever, have in the past regularly defeated insurgents, by using a number of well-proven methods.
The simple starting point is that insurgents are not the only ones who can intimidate or terrorise civilians.
For instance, whenever insurgents are believed to be present in a village, small town, or city district, the local notables can be compelled to surrender them to the authorities, under the threat of escalating punishments, all the way to mass executions.
That is how the Ottoman Empire could control entire provinces with a few feared Janissaries and a squadron or two of cavalry.
The Ottoman troops were simply too few to hunt down hidden rebels, but they did not have to: they went to the village chiefs and town notables instead, to demand their surrender, or else. A massacre once in a while remained an effective warning for decades.
Terrible reprisals to deter any form of resistance were standard operating procedure for the German armed forces in the Second World War.
Occupiers and tyrants can be successful without need of any specialized counterinsurgency methods or tactics if they are willing to out-terrorize the insurgents and rebels so that the fear of reprisals outweighs the desire to help the insurgents and rebels.
The U.S military were not without their own subtleties. They learnt that Iraq resistance fell off in a district if power and water and other utilities and facilities were more reliable.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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