(Whatta dilemma:) The Stranded ISIS Bus Convoy That No One Knows What To Do With

Submitted by Amanda Matthews on Sat, 09/02/2017 - 2:00pm

Well, this is another fine mess we've gotten ourselves into what with all our meddling in the Middle East. Now what are our choices here? And what do we do about 'collateral damage'?

The Stranded ISIS Bus Convoy That No One Knows What To Do With

In a bizarre twist to an already unusual story, a convoy of 17 buses carrying Islamic State terrorists and their families has remained stranded since Thursday in the Syrian desert as the US, Russians, and Syrians discuss their fate: attack the convoy or allow it to pass? Regardless of what happens, emerging photos and video depicting ISIS' retreat from Lebanon as well as their current helpless plight stuck in the middle of Syria constitutes perhaps the most significant blow to ISIS propaganda to date.

Earlier this week we reported on the unusual deal which allowed a large convoy of Islamic State fighters and their families to exit their contested stronghold along the Syrian-Lebanese border under the watch of the Lebanese and Syrian armies and Hezbollah after being defeated. As first announced by Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah in a speech Monday night, the deal involved the transportation of 26 wounded and 308 ISIS fighters, along with 331 civilian family members via buses and ambulances to Syria's eastern province. The controversial deal was struck in return for the bodies of 9 Lebanese soldiers, kidnapped by ISIS in 2014.

^

After turning around and heading back west from the Abul Kamal area, the convoy of 17 buses containing hundreds of armed ISIS fighters and their families remains in the Syrian Desert between Humayma and As Sukhnah.

...In accordance with the law of armed conflict, the Coalition has struck ISIS fighters and vehicles, including a tank, armed technical vehicles, and transport vehicles seeking to facilitate the movement of ISIS fighters to the border area of our Iraqi partners. Food and water have been provided to the convoy.

*

At the moment, terrorists and their families remain sitting on chartered buses in Syrian no-man's land awaiting the decision of regional and foreign militaries controlling land and air over Syria. Will the convoy be destroyed or allowed to pass? Will the US coalition strike and kill over 300 civilian ISIS family members in the process? Simple imprisonment could prove difficult as the ISIS militants were allowed to carry small arms as part of the deal and will surely go down fighting at this point. Or there's the remote chance that the Syrians and Hezbollah actually desire for the US to attack the convoy: the Syrian and Lebanese governments could maintain they upheld their end of the bargain (this becomes important for potential future battlefield deals brokered with other groups), while the US would claim the moral high ground of fighting terror.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-09-02/stranded-isis-bus-convoy-no-one...

If the captors let these people go it seems to me that they're going to be anything but grateful. I doubt they go back to Jihadiville and tell everybody what a nice bunch of guys everybody was for letting them go. I bet they'll hold a grudge.

Who wants to be their jailer? That's asking for some long-term aggravation. Gitmo? Uh, no. So what's next? What do you do with captured fanatics (and their families in this case) and who is responsible for taking care of the 'dirty work'? Since ISIS is blowback from Shock & Awe, we are pretty much responsible for this problem. This caravan stranded in the desert illustrates what a horrific clusterfuck we turned the Middle East into. But for the US invasion, ISIS wouldn't exist.

What should will happen? What will happen? I personally have no clue. Taking in these people is a burden and a liability. Killing them (IMO) is indefensible.

Maybe we could house them with the prominent members of the bush**/Cheney administration? And with the Dim president who got us involved even deeper in the death, destruction, and hate.

As much as I hate to say it, you know how much people said "The Empty Suit inherited two wars so let's cut him some slack"? Well Trump inherited a half dozen. As much as I dislike the man, he didn't create this mess, but he's sure as hell stuck with it. I wonder what his generals are saying about this dilemma in the desert? I wonder what you do with a few hundred people who's main desire in their life is to kill us all?

EDIT: added a )

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ISIS desert convoy stranded

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Comments

Submitted by dervish on Sat, 09/02/2017 - 2:18pm

Many Lebanese are furious

that these guys were allowed to escape in the first place, Iraqis too, for that matter. I wonder what bone they tossed the Hezbos in exchange for their acquiescense?

I'd give them the same mercy that they showed the LA soldiers.

—

"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Submitted by Deja on Sat, 09/02/2017 - 2:38pm

You forgot Killary

Maybe we could house them with the prominent members of the bush**/Cheney administration? And with the Dim president who got us involved even deeper in the death, destruction, and hate.

Or, we could just lead her to believe these guys did her wrong. They'll all mysteriously (*cough*) commit suicide by two gunshots to the backs of their heads. Problem solved.

Submitted by Amanda Matthews on Sun, 09/03/2017 - 8:48am

Yeah, I did forget the most incompetent

@Deja
SOS (Kerry is second) the 'Democrats' ever had in office. Everything she touched went straight to Hell.

Except when it came to making a buck on all the chaos. (Something Kerry has also managed to do as well.)

—

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Sat, 09/02/2017 - 2:40pm

A difficult question: should ISIS be treated according

to the Geneva conventions.

I offer a few solutions:
1. Disarm them all, disembark them from buses and let them walk to wherever on their own
2. Arrest after disarming all combatants, give them military trials and serve years in chickenwire enclosures. The families can then be resettled like the US resettled our own Japanese Americans during WW2, for at least as long as ISIS continues to exist in any form.

Submitted by Azazello on Sat, 09/02/2017 - 2:48pm

Give 'em some army surplus tents

and they can set up their caliphate right where they are. Then they can ask the Saudis to deliver food and water by helicopter.

—

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Submitted by QMS on Sat, 09/02/2017 - 8:26pm

the US foreign policy

gets a bit of a spot light on this episode. Are we winning? ha

Submitted by lotlizard on Sun, 09/03/2017 - 1:16am

How the U.S. handled this, as Emir of Kuwait’s mercenary in 1991

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=iraq+highway+of+death&ia=videos

During the United Nations coalition offensive in the Persian Gulf War, American, Canadian, British and French aircraft and ground forces attacked retreating Iraqi military personnel attempting to leave Kuwait on the night of February 26–27, 1991, resulting in the destruction of hundreds of vehicles and the deaths of many of their occupants.

The Australian journalist and documentary filmmaker John Pilger disagreed with General Schwarzkopf's description of the victims, stating:[15]

Television crews travelling with the Allied forces in Kuwait came upon the aftermath by chance. As the first pictures appeared on American television, the White House justified the attack by referring to the dead as ‘torturers, looters and rapists’. However, it was obvious that the convoy included not only limited lorries, but civilian vehicles: battered Toyota vans, Volkswagens, motorbikes. Their occupants were foreign workers who had been trapped in Kuwait: Palestinians, Bangladeshis, Sudanese, Egyptians and others. In a memorable report for BBC radio, Stephen Sackur who distinguished himself against the odds in the Gulf, described the carnage in such a way that he separated for his listeners, ordinary Iraqis from Saddam Hussein. He converted [them] to human beings. The incinerated figures, he said, were simply people trying to get home; he sounded angry. Kate Adie was there for the BBC. Her television report showed corpses in the desert and consumer goods scattered among the blackened vehicles. If this was ‘loot’, it was pathetic: toys, dolls, hair-dryers. She interviewed a U.S. Marine Lieutenant, who appeared distressed. He said the convoy had ‘no air cover, nothing’, and he added ambiguously, it was not very professional at all.’ Adie did not ask what he meant, nor did she attempt to explain why the massacre had taken place. But she did say that those who fought and died for Iraq here turned out to be from the north of the country, from minority communities, persecuted by Saddam Hussein – the Kurds and the Turks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_of_Death

From the get-go, ISIS has received special sympathetic treatment from Western governments and media, including Israel treating ISIS injured. This is like no other supposed enemy of Israel and the West. From initial horror on ISIS decapitating their captives and backing attacks by radicalized Muslims across Europe, somehow we’re all soft on them now? Lie down with the Saudis, wake up with ISIS (and the Yemen genocide). So it goes.