Super Warriors

Long War: I blew it yesterday with my instant analysis of the Syrian military leadership defection to Turkey. I said the defectors helped shoot down the Turkish F4 jet. In reality the defectors were probably selling or giving weapons to the rebels. The general who defected was in charge of munition storage. He would have access to military supplies and probably was funneling ammo to the good guys. He probably figured that the heat would be on for any turncoat Syrian officer who was taking money from the CIA and helping the rebels. He and 199 other people (biggest defection yet) all skipped town and landed up in Turkey. So a valuable asset in country has been lost.

The US general in charge of Africa Command says that AQIM, Al-Shabab, and Bokom Haram have melded into a single entity, the co-operation is that close. They are shuttling fighters from one battlefield to another, sharing hardware, making bombs together, and sharing money. The three Islamic militias mentioned above constitute 90% of the jihadist firepower in Africa. And this new jihadist super-organization evolving in Africa has the country of Mali right smack dab in the middle of their stomping grounds. AQIM owns about half of Mali. So AQIM is the new power in Africa.

On that note, AQIM's partner in Mali, the Toureg rebels, have turned on the jihadists at least to some degree because Toureg rebels have been firing on AQIM positions in Mali. A low level war seems to be emerging between the non-jihadist Toureg rebels and AQIM in Mali. The Touregs and AQIM were partners when they took over 2/3 of Mali but now they are enemies. I count this as the CIA fingerprint of the day.

In Syria, Turkey has changed its rules of engagement vis a vis Syria. Now any Syrian war vehicle approaching the Turkish border in an aggressive manner can be fired upon by the Turkish Army. The old rules of engagement said a Syrian war vehicle would have had to penetrate Turkey's border before being fired upon. So under current rules Turkey can shoot Syrian tanks and planes even if the vehicles are still in Syria. This means that if the CIA has another rogue cell of treasonous officers in the Syrian Army, then it will have a much easier time goading Turkey into declaring war on Syria because of this rule change.

Also in Syria, the FSA is tearing into the Syrian Army like an enraged grizzly. We are seeing evidence of super warriors on the battlefield. Syrian tanks are being devoured by itty-bitty little hand held rocket launchers because somebody can wield weapons like this in a super warrior fashion, i.e. popping up from a concealed position that had been established a week ago and stuffing anti-tank missiles up the exhaust pipes of an entire armored platoon, you know super warrior stuff. What is another word for super-warrior? SEALS.