Terrorism and the Russian plane crash in Egypt
I’ve been holding off writing about the Russian plane crash in Egypt until we get more definitive news about the possibility of a bomb. But with the announcement that Russia, which had been downplaying the bomb rumors, has now halted all flights to Egypt, it’s looking increasingly likely that the plane’s downing was an act of Islamic extremist terrorism.
It makes sense. I’ve written before about the fact that previous terrorist attacks in Egypt (and Tunisia) have targeted one of those countries’ biggest sources of income: tourism. This airplane incident has the potential to deal a huge blow to Egypt in that arena, which in turn would hurt its economy. What’s more, it would be a twofer, punishing the Russians as well for their anti-terrorist stance.
Of course, if it turns out that a bomb was the cause of the crash, Putin and the Russians may not be quite as turn-the-other-cheek as Europe and the US in its current manifestation have been.
The Egyptians will do nothing against ISIS for this but Putin will go after ISIS with all guns blazing.
Putin has quite few guns to deploy, and without massive boots on the ground (about 200 000 troops) no bombing campaign can make a difference. But there is no such number of war-ready forces in Russia, and fears of repeat of Afghan disaster of 80s are too strong both in political class and general population to allow even limited land operation. For Putin this will be political suicide.
The Special Forces in Afghanistan disproved the “massive troops” needed hypothesis of those who still think military wars are conducted just brute force number attrition.
A commenter named “rovinrail” wrote in to the Washington Post today and suggested,
“Can’t we just have the stewardesses fly naked and serve bacon? Then the terrorists would be banned by their religion from ever getting near an airliner.”
Now, I’ll go for both components of the suggestion, but *seriously* . . .
I’d be very happy if we could implement something to the tune of serving bacon/pork on selected airline flights, maybe as many as 9/10 of them or some such. Muslims could fly the other 1/10, and we civilized people could be much more safe and secure in the 9/10 component.
I mean, we could deport muslims or something, a la The Donald, but that would be meeeeen, wouldn’t it? There *are* simple solutions if only we can think outside the box and be creative.
But there’s already so much pee cee out there that many simple and creative solutions to almost anything are ruled out.
Russian army can conduct only just brute force number attrition. There are Special Forces in Russian military, too, but they are trained for very limited scope of operations, like seize a small area and defend it for several days without logistical support until main forces come. Will not help in Syria anyway.
I would like to capture some of these brutes and bury them alive in vats of pig manure.
But there’s already so much pee cee out there that many simple and creative solutions to almost anything are ruled out.
The Leftist alliance is allied with Islamic Jihad. Even without PC, they would make sure their mind control techniques favor jihadists, domestic or foreign.
There are Special Forces in Russian military, too, but they are trained for very limited scope of operations, like seize a small area and defend it for several days without logistical support until main forces come. Will not help in Syria anyway.
Which is why Russia would be better suited to use domestic local recruits rather than Western militaries. As Hussein demonstrated in Libya, if the West bombs the battlefield and makes it even for the AQ insurgents, the insurgents can win and hold territory.
Well, I think we need to give Putin a few days to get the Russian civilians and other staff out of the immediate area. Then we may well see a move in which the consideration of “collateral damage” doesn’t have as much hold on the Russians as it does on the US. Given the number of Muslims inside parts of Russia giving them a passing in the mideast probably isn’t what Putin wants to do.
Cornhead Says:
November 7th, 2015 at 1:05 pm
The Egyptians will do nothing against ISIS for this but Putin will go after ISIS with all guns blazing.
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The Egyptian authorities are in full on war mode in the Sinai.
They’ve had to get permission from Jerusalem as the equipment types and body count have leaped past the Camp David accord limits.
In the meantime, Israel is extending its boarder fence down the Negev as fast as possible. In the tender sectors, the barrier is as impressive as that holding back the fanatics in Judea and Samaria.
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IIRC, June 22, 1944 and June 22, 1812 some foolish despots crossed the line with Russia.
Let’s see, … how did that play out ?
Let’s see, … how did that play out ?
The Russians had NKVD shooting Russian soldiers that refused to advance into machine gun fire, however. These days, they don’t have that much meat grinder to grind.