Another One Bites The Dust *Open Thread*

That would be cities controlled by ISIS. I was greeted with the news this morning that ISIS has now taken over an ancient city in Syria, Palmyra. At this point, according to this AOL article, ISIS now controls HALF of Syria.

Yes, you read that right – ISIS controls HALF of Syria:

[…] Islamic State insurgents stormed the historic Syrian city of Palmyra on Wednesday, fighting off pro-government forces who withdrew after evacuating most of the civilian population, state television said.

The capture of Palmyra is the first time the al Qaeda offshoot has taken control of a city directly from the Syrian army and allied forces, which have already lost ground in the northwest and south to other insurgent groups in recent weeks.

The central city, also known as Tadmur, is built alongside the remains of a oasis civilization whose colonnaded streets, temple and theater have stood for 2,000 years.

Islamic State has destroyed antiquities and ancient monuments in neighboring Iraq and is being targeted by U.S.-led air strikes in both countries.

Syria’s antiquities chief called on the world to save its ancient monuments and state television said Islamic State fighters were trying to enter the city’s historical sites.

Palmyra is also a strategic military gain, home to modern army installations and situated on a desert highway linking the capital Damascus with Syria’s eastern provinces, mostly under insurgent control. […] (Click here to read the rest.)

While Obama is blathering on to the graduates of the US Coast Guard Academy about the threat Global Warming poses to our National Security, ISIS is busy taking over the Middle East.

About that whole thing – it turns out that even more countries have been busy fudging the data about Global Warming. Yep, the Daily Caller reported this the other day:

Weather agencies in Australia, Paraguay and Switzerland may be manipulating temperature data to create a sharper warming trend than is present in the raw data — a practice that has come under scrutiny in recent months.

Most recently, Dr. H. Sterling Burnett with the Heartland Institute detailed how the Swiss Meteorological Service adjusted its climate data “to show greater warming than actually measured by its temperature instruments.”

In his latest article, Sterling wrote that Switzerland’s weather bureau adjusted its raw temperature data so that “the temperatures reported were consistently higher than those actually recorded.” For example, the cities of Sion and Zurich saw “a doubling of the temperature trend” after such adjustments were made. (Click here to read the rest.)

Uh, yeah. Nothing like falsifying data to come to a foregone conclusion. That is bad enough, but while radical Islamic extremism is CLEARLY on the rise, to have the Commander in Chief preaching the Global Warming message to graduates of a MILITARY college as our biggest threat, is just insane. It is. It is insane.

Especially when you look at how ISIS is operating, and how it recently took over the hard fought for city of Ramadi, a city that cost American lives to secure. Larry O’Connor writes about this very issue in IJReview, inclusing this ABC News Report:

(T)he city fell into ISIS hands after the militant group set off 30 suicide car bombs in the city center, 10 of which each were comparable in power to the Oklahoma City truck bomb of 1995.

The explosions took out “entire city blocks,” said a senior State Department official who spoke to reporters at the State Department Wednesday on condition that he not be named. The vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, or VBIEDs, were able to gain access to the city center after an armored bulldozer plowed through T-wall barricades lining the city’s critical government buildings, the official said, adding that the same bulldozer was later used as a power VBIED, itself.

Soon after the bombs went off, the Iraqis deployed a reinforcing column into the city center, but they were forced to retreat after coming under heavy enemy fire, the official said. That retreat led to a larger exodus of Iraqi security forces and the civilian populations, leaving the streets looking “barren,” according to this official. […] (Click here to read the rest.)

That is just staggering, isn’t it? And I wager that this is more than just a “setback,” as Josh Earnest declared in a fit of petulance the other day (h/t Facebook friend) as IJ Review noted with this quote from a recent press conference:

[…] “Bill, what I think is silly is for us to spend a whole lot of time agonizing over the fall of Kobani, and then after Kurdish security forces, with the backing of American coalition fighters, retake that village, drive ISIL forces out. And then everybody decides that that’s not really a big deal either.

So I think, I guess the thing is that we have to sort of decide, uh, what our approach to these issues is going to be.

Are we going to light our hair on fire every time that there is a setback in the campaign against ISIL or are we going to take very seriously our responsibility to evaluate those areas where we succeed and evaluate where steps are necessary for us to change our strategy where we sustain setbacks.” […] (Click here to read the rest.)

Why sure, Josh – it is just “silly” for people to get all worked up over losing this cities and towns to a radical Islamist organization hellbent on destruction of anything and everything that gets in their way. Don’t you know we got GLOBAL WARMING PROBLEMS that are threatening our nation as I speak?!?! Keep your eye on the ball, people! Sheesh!

Like I said, it is insane. As cities and towns continue to bite the dust, as ancient artifacts are destroyed with reckless abandon, our Administration isn’t even bothering to have a COMMITTEE reviewing its strategy in dealing with ISIS. Because that’s how they roll.

And that is why we have this, as Branco demonstrates so well. From Legal Insurrection:

And that says it all. This is an Open Thread.

Tags: Global Warming, Iraq, ISIS, Josh Earnest, Palmyra, President Obama, Ramadi, Syria