ISIS/ISIL conflict in Syria/Iraq (No OpEd, No Politics)

Tahiadidou said:

I think it is very probable that SF teams are already on the ground in both Syria and Iraq, not the least to direct/guide airstrikes. What i worry about though is an encounter between those teams and Syrian forces. Would they shake hands and go their own ways? If yes, great but if not, all hell breaks loose.
It is also apparent that the Syrian air defense (those S300s if really delivered by Russia) is not interfering with airstrikes (after all not everyone has a Raptor) because it is in Assad's interest; for now...They may be intentionally 'shut down' under advice from Russia. Given the current armada involved the Syrians have no option. The administration can claim anything it wants but there must be some degree of 'coordination' via Russia.

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Tahiadidou said:

I think it is very probable that SF teams are already on the ground in both Syria and Iraq, not the least to direct/guide airstrikes. What i worry about though is an encounter between those teams and Syrian forces. Would they shake hands and go their own ways? If yes, great but if not, all hell breaks loose.
It is also apparent that the Syrian air defense (those S300s if really delivered by Russia) is not interfering with airstrikes (after all not everyone has a Raptor) because it is in Assad's interest; for now...They may be intentionally 'shut down' under advice from Russia. Given the current armada involved the Syrians have no option. The administration can claim anything it wants but there must be some degree of 'coordination' via Russia.

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Broccoli said:

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Assad cannot even stop Israelis from bombing Hezbollah convoys inside Syria and Pantsir systems were not useful against Israeli airstrike back in 2007 when they destroyed Syrian nuclear program.

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Franklin said:

As for the cost of the current war in Iraq and Syria. We don't know for sure how much it costs because the US government is refusing to answer questions about the costs of this new war. There was talk that the war cost about 7,5 million dollars a day. But that was before the current escalation. It seems that Obama is escalating this war by a thousand slices. At the middle of june there were 300 advisors send to Baghdad and now more than 3 months later they are bombing Syria. We know that they are dipping in to the 85 billion dollars overseas contingency funds. The US government hasn't ask for any new money from congress except for funds to train and arm the new 5000 man strong moderate army that is going to be trained in Saudi Arabia. You can be sure that countries in the coalition like Qatar, UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia will also be helping to pay part of the costs.

I don't know how accurate this source is but there is a war cost counter online that tracks all the war costs and put them into a clock. See link below

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This maybe off topic but they also have a homeland security cost counter if your are interested.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The first wave of U.S. military attacks against ISIS has cost nearly $1 billion, according to a military think tank.

And costs could rise to as much as $1.8 billion a month if the U.S. military presence grows to 25,000 ground troops, as some have suggested, said the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment (CSBA).

U.S. air strikes started in Iraq last month and expanded to Syria last week.

So far U.S. military efforts have mostly been limited to air strikes. There are also 1,600 U.S. troops in Iraq serving in advise-and-assist roles and staffing the joint operation centers. However, they aren't conducting combat operations against ISIS.

President Obama said he has no plans for U.S. ground troops to engage in combat.

Related: ISIS fighter says U.S. airstrikes aren't effective
ISIS recruiting on teen social networks
ISIS recruiting on teen social networks

The Center said that even if operations don't escalate, it will cost between $200 million and $320 million a month to maintain the current level of airstrikes and support troops. That works out to as much as $4 billion a year.

A Pentagon spokesman told CNN last week that military operations are likely to continue at their current level "for a matter of years.

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PanAsian said:

President Obama is doing a good job dealing with IS, a great job specifically with getting the Saudis and other current/ex-Sunni-extremist-supporting countries to publicly contribute forces and carry out strikes against it. It takes a true patriot and one with real grit to pursue his stated strategy of maintaining US strategic advantage at minimal cost by maintaining regional balances during domestically trying times, especially when changing conditions require major tweaks to longstanding US strategies for them to continue serving US interests rather than morph into serving someone else's.

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