THE GREAT SYRIAN TURKEY SHOOT

This is from the facebook page of John Ringo.  I think it shows that the US military, when left to its own devices, can still carry out all of the missions and roles expected of it and also deliver the message. I almost wrote 'deliver the mail' but if you want to hear men in uniform whining and crying, sit in on any OPLAN meeting where every single service declares that they have no, absolutely zilch, responsibility to deliver or forward mail in the war zone or rear area. They try the same thing with regard to guarding prisoners. "Not our Job, not our circus, not our monkeys."

1. Sov... err... Russians built a bridge over the Euphrates which was the designated 'deconfliction line'. Why? Reasons. 'Commite of Nations' or something. 

2. 'Hybrid' force of mixed Russian contractors including multiple non-ethnic Russians (Serbs, Kossack, other non Slavics) as well as local Syrian Army 'commandos' attacked across temporary bridge. The 'Russian' side were 'Blackwater' equivalent mercenaries from a company generally called 'Wagner' which is the nom de plume of the boss. (Like if you called Blackwater 'Prince'.) 

3. Unit was partially mechanized, battalion strength. (One thing everyone agrees upon is 'about 600-700 personnel.') Had some towed artillery as well as 't-55 and T-72 MBT as well as armored personnel carriers.' (Type unknown.) Full on 'we're taking that position and you're not stopping us' full court press. 

4. Unit crossed bridge, arty deployed. 

5. Arty opened fire while most of unit was still in approach column formation. (Normal) One portion moved to flanking positions. 

5A. Minute the arty opened fire SHIT GOT REAL REAL QUICK. 

6. Reapers took out artillery and most of armor with Hellfire. From the few videos, pretty much before they knew what hit them. There had to be quite a few Reaper drones up or they were feeding guidance to Hellfire from Apaches (see below.) 

7. F-15E Eagles came in for clean-up and to check for anti-air defenses. 

8. Warthogs showed up just to go BRRRRRRT! 

9. AC-130 Spectre started fucking up their day for the hell of it. 

10. To add insult to injury, B-52s which, you know, just HAPPENED to be in the area, just minding our own business, just passing by from Diego Garcia which is a few thousand miles away, on our way to... somewhere... nothing to see here... decided to prove they could drop their entire load as precision guided weapons and just more or less DID A JDAM ARCLIGHT ON THEIR ASS. At that point, more or less because CENTCOM said 'Why not? ARCLIGHT is always pretty to watch...' 

11. The whole thing being so over it was ridiculous, AH-64 Apaches basically did 'hostile Bomb Damage Assessment' and complained there were no targets left. 

12. Oh, and then the Kurds, to just really FUCK with these guys, released water from a dam upstream and broke their bridge. So they had to ford back with their wounded. 

This was much less a 'battle' than a message. Towards the end we had to just be pounding ground to make sure they got it.

He then laid out the message delivered by US.

A. Don't fucking cross that river.
B. Hey, North Korea! LOOK WHAT I CAN DO!
C. Hey, Putin, about Donbas... This is what we can do to your 'freedom fighters' (AKA: mercenaries) at any time.
D. To everyone in general: You need to remember who's boss.