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IronLionZion

(45,410 posts) Wed Jun 1, 2016, 08:18 PM Jun 2016

Here's What Soldiers Fighting ISIS Asked Us To Tell You

When it comes to ISIS, the average westerner wants to know one thing: "Are they in our country right now, planning to murder us? If not, when will they be here? Tomorrow? Thursday?"

But, in some parts of the world, ISIS isn't this looming threat beyond the horizon -- it's the actual horde of screaming guys right in front of them, lobbing rockets. To find out what that's like, I went to the frontlines in Northern Iraq. No, really -- my photographer took this photo, that town on the horizon is ISIS territory:

And here I am about 90 minutes from the ISIS's regional capital of Mosul:

That's me drinking in a biergarden in the part of Iraq known as Kurdistan. The Kurds run their own separate pseudo-state inside of Iraq, where women are guaranteed 30% of the seats in parliament (our Congress is 20% female), the cell phone data coverage is exceptional, and a journalist like me can get drunk at mid-day without judgement. The only thing keeping this island of decency safe from ISIS are the Peshmerga, Kurdistan's native fighting force and the only standing army in Iraq to consistently beat back the suicide soldiers of the Islamic State.

I sat down with a bunch of these guys to find out what it's like fighting the world's most notorious group of assholes, and they said ...
http://www.cracked.com/feature/x-things-we-learned-talking-to-men-fighting-isis/

Very interesting read from the perspective of people over there dealing with this every damn day.

Summary:
6. What ISIS Lacks In Equipment, They Make Up For In Fanaticism And Experience
5. The Kurds Are Holding Back ISIS Without Money, Or New Weapons
4. ISIS Gets Incredibly Creative With Their Weaponry
3. ISIS Seems Strangely Scared Of Female Fighters
2. If ISIS Is Losing, It's Hard To Tell From Here
1. The War With ISIS Is Primarily Muslim Vs Muslim