Lords of Death Forums Lords of Death Forums LoD General Discussion Russias war campaign on ISIS

Hell if you're talking nuclear, then it's a moot point. If it ever comes to that, who gives a shit anyway. The world is dead.

Well yea but that's kinda my point. Russia is powerful enough on the nuke front that they do shit other countries would never get away with. We (the US and NATO) doesn't try and stop them because we're afraid of them. I mean they fucking annexed a part of a civilized country and the rest of the world didn't do shit. Can you imagine if another country decided they were going to come and take a couple of our states?

The sand nizzles can only dream of that kind of power. We're very lucky in that regard. Nothing is more scary than the idea of a WMD in the hands of someone who doesn't care if everyone lives or dies.

Forget the geopolitical stuff, all you need to know is the Command & Conquer style faction stats.

ISIS-Has tons of armored vehicles and US military equipment stolen from Iraqi forces...and no logistical base with which to supply/use them. As a result, their typical vehicle is a 1990's Toyota with a heavy machine gun in the bed. What they would really, really like for Christmas is some 23mm cannons to chase those Hinds off with. They're very much a Mao Zedong style propaganda centric fanatical human wave army.

Al-Nusra-Al Qaeda in Syria, the group that absorbed the "Syrian Rebels" and "Free Syrian Army" "moderate rebels" etc when ISIS showed up. Less fanatical and scrappy than ISIS, they're currently the US's BFF in the region. In addition to their vintage AK-74's, they're rocking US equipment, TOW missiles and some older MANPADs, enough to knock out armor and even flying vehicles if they're not careful.

SAA-This the official Syrian army, and Russia's BFF in the region. They have uniforms, training (kind of), and all manner of 1970's and 1980's era armor and equipment. It's like a real army, but more heavy-handed than your average Western army because they think fighting Jihadis makes the ends justify the means. You'll typically see them in all manner of vehicles getting blown up by TOW missiles and getting bailed out by the Russian air force.

Russia-Russia brought all kinds of toys with them to Syria, and thanks to Putin's military reforms they're not all blowing up the first time someone lights up a cig next to them. They're stuffed to the brim with countermeasures against those MANPADs so they can just fly around and play Call of Duty. In addition to an endless supply of 50 year old dumb bombs, Russia brought their SAMs and set them up over Syria. The Russian military is hit and miss, but their SAMs are the best in the world, and everyone is quickly getting tired of having to ask Russia's permission to fly over the region.

I am quite curious as to what Russia's next move will be and even more curious as to what Putin's long term plans are. I mean in the Cold War, there was at least a goal (we assume) of spreading communism. What is their goal now? Crimea was a bold move but not one that he would likely get away with a 2nd time. So what's next? I guess time will tell.

Crimea-Offensive opportunism, regain lost territory in their sphere of influence.
Ukraine-Defensive proxy war, cockblock Ukraine's entrance into NATO by locking them in an ongoing conflict (NATO charter says no entry with an ongoing conflict/border dispute, can't remember the exact language)
Syria-Offensive opportunism, Iraq war fiasco left the US wavering on intervention and Russia pounced to hijack the peacekeeping role to try and build a coalition with Iran/Iraq/Syria.

To what end though? What does a coalition with these countries do for them?

It does a lot for them, with military allies in the region they can project power into the middle east and keep their opponents out. If you're the dominant party propping the others up, you can get favorable trade partnerships with them for natural resources. Russia already is the main energy supplier for Europe, I imagine Russia would love nothing more than to induct middle eastern oil producers into BRICS even though that's probably a pipe dream.

Interesting. It's kind of funny to me because that kind of thing is something that the USA has been doing forever but we get mad when other countries do it. Look at all the shit we meddled with in Central America the early 1900's. But it's okay when we do it.

I should have put that statement in context, because the specific advantages are almost incidental to what's actually going on. After the Cold War ended, everyone didn't just shake hands and go home. NATO is still around, it still has a supreme allied commander, it still has the same mandate to encircle Russia and other potential threats. Russia still doesn't like being surrounded by NATO countries and they're reaching out overseas for allies, trying to rebuild a buffer zone, and challenging NATO control in whatever region they can get away with. So while the practical benefits are true, and I tend to emphasize them because Russia is pretty pragmatic about expansionism, it's really as much about jockeying for position as anything else.

Russia can be bargained with, embargoed, and is part of the global economy, therefor they have vulnerabilities. Even though they've been asshats the past couple years, I would completely disagree that they're more of a threat than ISIS. The Russians are logical and can be reasoned with. They may possess nuclear armaments, but they won't use them because of assured mutual destruction.

ISIS on the other hand, would not hesitate to use a nuke if they got their hands on one, which they are constantly trying to do, and we're constantly trying to stop. They can't be reasoned with, and all logic and self preservation tactics are useless on them. Their religious zeal gives them the mentality of "No downside" for anything they might do (read up on how they treat captured civilian non muslims. It will make you sick). As to not being financially capable or able to do the damage Russia can do, they have control of oil reserves, drug money, private donors, and a steady influx of zealots.

From newsweek:



These guys are as moraless as Nazis (Without the cold calculating logic of human test subjects. Apparently Allah is not all about learning) and even more dangerous on a large scale. Do some research on how they treat the people in the regions they take over. They murder any male who is not of their religion, because it is the will of God, and ship off all the women and children to be sex slaves, because it is Allah's will they be shown their wrongs by being repetitively raped, often until death, which may take weeks or even months.

There are a lot more Muslims in the middle east than there were German soldiers in WWII, and while Germany had a select few sick bastards that engaged in mass genocide, the majority of ISIS soldiers are sick fucks twisted by a warped religion, and they are decimating that area of the world. If they aren't stopped and are allowed to spread, oil exports from the middle east will slow or be routed to unfriendly countries, impacting everything from financial inflation to foreign policy, none of it for the good. Not to mention the crimes against humanity, loss of life, history, religous sects, allies, income, leverage, etc.

In the end, Russia scares me a lot less. They may be bigger badder stronger, but they also have a sense of self preservation that ISIS does not. Yeah, they're fighting over what is essentially lost territory from their financial collapse, and yeah Putin's doing exactly what most American's think our bitch ass president should do, and stand up for his country first, and not pander to everyone else, including muslims radicals on bent knee, mouth open for cock to be inserted, but I don't think that constitutes worry about ambitions for global domination via warfare (little tangent there).

Each and everyone devout ISIS member would impale themselves on a spear if they knew it would kill infidels for Allah (that's not just the western world, that's everyone on this planet who is not a strict devout Muslim) and I find that sort of conviction much more frightening than potential destruction by a relatively logical culture whose leader is standing firm, looking out for #1, and taking no shit from anyone (which used to be our MO before we had an ISIS Manchurian candidate elected. Yeah, I know that's a stretch, but I fucking hate that pussy).