Claim and Counter Claim
The Turkish General Staff said in a statement that a total of 2,940 terrorists have been “neutralized” since the start of Operation Olive Branch. Turkey’s defense ministry said that it will begin installing upgraded defensive systems to its tanks in Syria to protect them from rockets and missiles. The Turks use stats in the same way that Baghdad Bob did during the First Gulf War. They multiply enemy losses by ten and call it accurate.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) claimed on the 7th that they have destroyed 96 armored vehicles, including tanks, and damaged another 32 vehicles since 20 January. They also reported shooting down two helicopters and damaging a third.
The SDF said that they have lost 283 fighters and claimed to have killed 1,588 members of the Turkish armed forces and their allied Syrian militias.
Turkish Armor
Taking the Azaz road from Turkey, it’s about 13 miles/21 kilometers to Afrin. Put this in perspective. The Kurds with no armor, very little tube artillery and a supply of MANPADS that has been expended are holding back the might of the Turkish armored fist from moving 13 miles between January 20 and now. The Turks have air supremacy, they have German tanks and massed tube and rocket artillery. They are boasting that they’re now only 10 kilometers from Afrin. So it’s taken them 46 days (and counting) to push SIX MILES against a rag tag crew of Kurdish dismounted infantry? The Turks are boasting that they’re within ten klicks from Afrin as of today.
The Turks said the armor upgrade is being undertaken to support a faster pace of operations. It also suggests that the SDF claims about destroying Turkish armor have some merit, though the numbers cannot be confirmed. The casualty figures are not reliable. The Turks admitted losing two helicopters.
An Army of Trained Chimps should have been able to accomplish more than the Turks have. Seriously. Explain to me one more time why we need these morons in NATO.
Too much corruption, and not enough loot in Afrin?
". Explain to me one more time why we need these morons in NATO."
Ummm – "Diversity!"
There's no loot in Afrin. The Kurds evacuated it two months ago. Empty buildings that have been bombed by Turks who estimate enemy casualties based on the laws of probability. Which mean every bomb they drop must kill at least 10 Kurds, right?
That must be it. It's important to have a multicultural community within the military force structure that includes incompetent Muslim Turks.
To maintain bases on the south of the USSR.
Oh.
That was clearly the original intent, but it hasn't worked out for us. Nobody is sure whose side the Turks are on now that they are a fundamentalist Islamic State ruled by a hostile tyrant…whose army can't fight its way out of a paper bag even given all the modern tools of war.
What is weird- and I am no military historian- but didn't the Turks have reputation for being rather formidable foes? Was not the the center of the Caliphate Turkey, Suleiman the Great etc? Gallipoli etc?
There's a lot to be said about the armored might of Sultan Erdogan's new caliphate but sometimes pictures speak louder than words.
Thanks for the closing onfographic.
They used to be.
I think that eventually, they'll be able to encircle Afrin and then they'll kill whoever they find within the boundary. Let's face it, even complete incompetence and hundreds of tanks and thousands of soldiers with air supremacy will eventually win out to take a town on the Turkish border.
The Turks also have plans to invade Iraq to kill Kurds. It's popular back home and they have a lot of domestic unrest.
The caliphate is interesting as muslims fight muslims.
I remember reading about Ataturks creation of a western style state, and how the Turkish military was a bulwark against the Islamists. Do you think the hard time they have been having in taking Afrin is a result of a purge of the military and installing "correct thinking" officers?
Division's been their curse, thank God. Then they produce a leader like Saladin.
Erdogan's no Saladin.
The Horns of Hattin were a disaster and now that we have total, overwhelming, unquestionable military superiority over the Moslems for the first time in history, we lack the will to use it.
This too is a disaster.
On the other hand, Saladin was a Kurd.
Yes, indeed he was.
I think that's clearly part of it. There is clearly a strong reluctance on the part of the Turkish Army to completely engage the enemy. Whoever is commanding on the ground is no Gen. George S. Patton.
Stalin had that problem in early WW2. The purges wiped out a high percentage of competent officers and he was left with a disorganized and largely untrained army to face the Wermacht.
Killing Kurds is popular back home. The fact that the Kurds were able to STOP an advance that only had to move a FEW MILES for all this time is a testament to Kurdish resolve and Turkish incompetence, which working together has produced results worth studying for future reference.
LSP, the US clearly has an interest in wiping out rogue players like ISIS and thanks to President Trump, we have. It's all mopping up now. There should come a time, when we can withdraw from a lot of these military adventures that have been so expensive and so distracting.
Then comes Iran – and what to do about the Persians?
There's some hope if we can loosen the grip of islam on the once grand people of Persia.
I doubt it…but there is always hope.
The Kurds seem to be facing an existential threat to their society- if they lose, they ALL die. If the Turks lose, they can go home.
That's why the Kurds fight. Everyone wants them extinguished.
The Turks seem to enjoy the whole genocide thing. It's kind of what they do. National pastime.
In this situation in Afrin Canton and in N/W Syria, the Kurds will leave, the Turks will go home and then the Kurds will return.
Good Kurd point, I'd forgotten that.
Erdogan better hope the Kurds don't open a new front, inside Turkey.
Comments are closed.