Syria and all dangerous conflicts - what we know and what we don't know

"...congratulate those who carried it out. It sounds like it was a very successful mission." Senator Mitch McConnell (R)

"...courage showed by those who carried out the mission is immeasurable,..."

Yup. It's hard for those #Fox_and_Friends righties to admit, the recent brazen raid by US Special Forces into Syria, where they successfully killed the evil-ISIS chief finance officer (CFO) Abu Sayyaf and took his wife hostage,  was a "boots on the ground" success.

Nevertheless, even though the righties choke when they agree on the amazing efficiency of the invasion, kill and capture, the danger faced by the Special Forces on this raid were overwhwelming.

Obviously, I've never been to Dier Az Zor, in Syria, where the invasion occured, it seems to me the location must be difficult to enter and just as challenging to arrange an escape.  

Salute to those Special Forces who accomplished this mission.

Even in the midst of the extraordinary success, it's important for military strategists to remember how success cannot raise the expectation of unlimited captures. 

There's an unlikely premise for my cautionary words.

In fact, I recall only too well how we were warned, when we lived in the Philippines, to be very aware of how smart monkeys would use their own babies to lure humans into traps.  When kind humans tried to rescue a baby monkey, the tribe would descend on the attepted rescuier and literally tear them apart, just because it was a game.  I'm not saying the evil-ISIS would do what conniving monkeys would do, given the opportunity. Oh no.  Instead, I believe the evil-ISIS would do worse without compulsion.  

My unqualified advice to military strategists is to be aware of the potential for evil ISIS traps, using hostages as bait.  Similar to how the monkeys threw their babies into harms way, the  evil ISIS is highly capable to doing the same and who knows what else?Interesting to know how the evil wife of the now dead Sayyaf was, in fact, in charge of the ISIS hostages.  Hmmmmm, surely, she'll have key intelligent information about plots, traps and the keys to how to locate hostages.  What we don't know is how many more of these clandestine raids are in the planning.

Meanwhile....here's the scoop on how the right wing is having a tough time with President Obama's successful strategy to capture and kill a high level evil ISIS leader.

US special forces kill ISIL's Abu Sayyaf in Syria raid

US Defence Secretary Ash Carter says Abu Sayyaf's wife was captured during the operation.

16 May 2015 14:14 GMT | Middle East, ISIL, Syria

US special forces soldiers have killed a senior leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group during a raid carried out in eastern Syria, the US secretary of defence said.

Pentagon chief Ash Carter said in a statement on Saturday that the raid in al-Amr had killed Abu Sayyaf when he "engaged US forces".

Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh, reporting from the Bekaa valley in neighbouring Lebanon, said two US helicopters had taken part in the operation at an oil field east of the city of Deir Az Zor.

"Activists from the area say at least six people from ISIL were killed, including at least two of Arab nationalities; a Saudi and an Iraqi," Saleh said.

"We believe the operation may have taken place overnight or early Saturday."

The US put the number of ISIL deaths at about a dozen, and said no US soldiers were killed during the incident.

Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) have been forced to admit on the Sunday shows that the Obama approved raid on ISIS in Syria has been successful.

On ABC’s This Week, Sen. McConnell said, “Well, the president has done a good job with these special operations type missions. Where I think the administration has fallen down is they tend not to favor, generally speaking, capture and interrogation. Although it’s good that the wife of this terrorist was captured and will be interrogated. I’ve been distressed, for example, about the willingness to release prisoners at Guantanamo. Look, this is not a criminal type matter. 

This is a defense matter. What you want to do is you want to capture people, you want to interrogate them, and you want to try to prevent the next atrocity. I wish we’d had, you know, frankly, more emphasis on capturing, detaining and interrogation than on strikes. Although the strikes are important, and I congratulate those who carried it out. It sounds like it was a very successful mission.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said on Fox News Sunday, “For now, let’s just say it was a successful raid, and it’s good news. Obviously, anytime you can take away and degrade top leadership of an organization it’s a positive step forward….It remains a risk, but obviously we want to congratulate the men and women in uniform who carried it out and the President for undertaking the mission.”

McConnell and Rubio are two of the Republicans who tried to sabotage President Obama’s foreign policy with their letter to Iran, so for Republicans to not only admit the mission was a success, but also praise the president is something that has been virtually unseen during the Obama presidency.

Reports are that the US raid in Syria has killed 32 ISIS members including four leaders. The symbolic message that the raid sends is that terrorists are not safe anywhere on this Earth. It takes an unspeakable amount of leadership for the President to authorize a mission where special operations forces are going into a territory where they have no allies on the ground.

The courage showed by those who carried out the mission is immeasurable, but they wouldn’t have been there if Obama would not have approved the mission. As much as it must drive Republicans crazy, even they are admitting that President Obama has been successful.

Julie's P.S. And the next time Congress says "thank you for your service" they must also remember the bravery of these and others who are taking enormous risks to protect the world from growing more terrorism....