Kurdish Mad Max

[August]

The more I hear about them the more I like the Kurds...


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ers-Syria.html

The REAL road warriors: 'Mad Max' battle buses and tanks built by Kurdish fighters to repel ISIS soldiers in Syria.


<li class="">Peshmerga troops converted old tractors and lorries into military vehicles<li class="">They are badly out-gunned by ISIS who seized weapons from the Iraqi army<li class="">In order to properly defend themselves, Kurds armoured their own vehicles<li class="">Result is a fleet of elaborately designed but well-defended battle buses<li class="">The vehicles bear a close resemblance to the vehicles in 1979 film Mad Max

[Buddahaid]

I loved the lorry with the cattle guard.

[Betonov]

Love the elaborate decorations

[Stealhead]

Neat artilce but they have Mad Max and Mad Max 2(akaThe Road Warrior)confused. The second film featured kitbashed trucks it was released in 1981 not 1979. The cars in Mad Max where more or less standard rides. The Kurds are also making real machines and not some hollywood prop.

Some remind me of early armored cars circa 1900~1930. The Mack with cow catcher is from the movie Buddahaid. Yellow thing is a BTR-60 or 70 with home made skirt armor. A few appear to have salavaged BTR or BRD turrets.

[Skybird]

Before anything else, most of these vehicles show how desperate their situation is.

Germany has delivered them some palettes of G3 rifles. It got reprted yesterday that the Kurds roll their eyes, saying they have AK47 already - more reliable, more precise, lighter in weight (say them, not me).

The Milan missiles they got probably are the only useful German contribution after the many bigmouthed promises they got from us.

Oh, and btw, it also gets reported that the IS and the Al Nusra front are uniting due to the pressure from US bombing raids. Before, they were enemies.

Sooner or later the American bombers wilol have run out of hard targets. And what then?

[August]

Well if by hard targets you mean their armor and artillery then it will have gone a long way to reducing their combat effectiveness.

[Stealhead]

Those things would get blown away by tank or AFV anyway. Its mainly light infantry which is not so easy to wipe via the current methods.

[Armistead]

I really hope IS doesn't take Kobani {thinks that's how it's spelled} in northern Syria. The Kurdish women are doing a lot of the fighting. Seems we're not giving any or much air support due to so called close combat and no eyes on the ground. This could turn into a slaughter if the Kurds can't hold them off. Turkey needs to be kicked out of NATO.

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Armistead

I really hope IS doesn't Kobani {thinks that's how it's spelled} in northern Syria. The Kurdish women are doing a lot of the fighting. Seems we're not giving any or much air support due to so called close combat and no eyes on the ground.

This is what I didn't understand from the beginning. If there was this urgency to support the Kurds in their fight then why not flying much more relief attacks on IS troops getting close to Kurdish territory? I mean a week ago they were still some miles away from that city. Instead they bomb oil facilities which will definitely help in the long run (in more than one way, I bet all oil producing nations were cheering that these facilities got taken out as they can now raise prices again because of the "shortage") but won't do much to help the Kurds who are already fighting for their bare lives RIGHT NOW. I think we need some A10s down there.

[Jimbuna]

The Kurds are in the forefront of fighting IS and as such should be given maximum support....bloody disgraceful the way the west are treating them but I suspect the Iraqi government have a majority say in where the military assistance goes

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by August

Well if by hard targets you mean their armor and artillery then it will have gone a long way to reducing their combat effectiveness.

This, but also troops amassed on the ground, allowing anti-personnel cluster bombing of any kind. IS already has adapted to the thread from air by the typicla means of asymmetraicla warfare tactis: melting into the civilian infrastructure and population, avoiding exposure to the open blue sky where possible, avoiding huge gatherings of fighters on the ground, no vehicle columns.

Its the same problem for the Air Force as what the Israelis faced in their past two wars in Gaza and Lebanon: they ran out of targets. And that reduced the importance of their superior air force as well. And then you have to make a decision: either to go in with boots on the ground, or not.

The alternative would be what Assad is doing: dropping barrel bombs on civilian city districts without discriminating between civilian residents and fighters. That is brutal, but this shows one thing about Assad: that he intends to win, no compromise accepted. The American/Western approach now, on the other hand, may be showing a civilised attitude, a temper moderated by reason and morals. But it is so in different and indetermined that I cannot see it achieving what Obama claims he wants to achieve.

Wait - has there even been clear despriptions of war objectives given so far, have they even described the criteria by which the war's objectives will be seen as achieved and the whole thing seen as a victory so that one will disengage again fro further military engagement? Or was it just blind activism that made them headjump into the pool once again without checking first whether there is water in it or not?

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

The Kurds are in the forefront of fighting IS and as such should be given maximum support....bloody disgraceful the way the west are treating them but I suspect the Iraqi government have a majority say in where the military assistance goes

That is correct, and since years they make sure that the Kurds do not get weapons that would indeed turn them into a stronger force. Corruption by individuals not even counted.

[Catfish]

Just refusing to sell IS Honda spare parts will probably stop them, finally

[Betonov]

Originally Posted by Catfish

Just refusing to sell IS Honda spare parts will probably stop them, finally

Unfortunately those are older models that can be fixed with iron water pipes and some steel plates

[Armistead]

Some of you may have caught the battle with the Kurds and IS at Kobani with CNN news reporting live and with their cams you could see IS far on the ridge line. Question is why weren't we bombing and the answer was no forward spotters. The CNN man reporting said he could spot easily

It wouldn't surprise me if Obama is going hawkish before the election. Geesh, just listen to the crap coming out of Bidens mouth {kill them and send them all to hell speech.} Obama may go right back to being a dove once the election's over.

I don't think anyone wants the mess of taking back the same cities we fought so hard over. The Iraq govt. is still playing games and if anything this will cause further division. If we do go back in, like it or not we have to keep large bases there for decades.

Let's do what Longstreet would do, take up a good defensive position between Syria and Iraq and split the two nations. There's got to be some plan where we would use boots without going back into these cities and cause them serious issue or least contain them until someone decides how to take them back.