Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Is the "Perfect Storm" now headed for the east coast?

 

Everything That Can Go Wrong for U.S. East Is as Joaquin Churns in Atlantic

Updated on
Hurricane Joaquin is seen churning in the Caribbean Sept. 30, 2015. Joaquin was upgraded to a category 1 hurricane early on September 30. The exact track has yet to be determined, but there is a possibility of landfall in the U.S. anywhere from North Carolina to the Northeast.
Hurricane Joaquin is seen churning in the Caribbean Sept. 30, 2015. Joaquin was upgraded to a category 1 hurricane early on September 30. The exact track has yet to be determined, but there is a possibility of landfall in the U.S. anywhere from North Carolina to the Northeast.
Source: NOAA
  • Storm will find a water-logged U.S. East Coast if it strikes
  • Hurricane's track uncertain as forecasters try to plot course
The weather outlook for the eastern U.S. is starting to resemble the plot of a 1970s disaster movie in which everything that could go wrong did.
From the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast, the coastal states have been soaked by rain. While this is happening, Hurricane Joaquin lurks in the shadows, passing over water that is just perfect for it to strengthen explosively. No one could say for certain Wednesday where it will land.
On top of that, high pressure in Canada and low pressure in the southern U.S. will conspire to slam the surf onto land, eroding beaches and keeping water pinned along the shoreline. As that happens, another round of rain could leave 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) in New England to as much as 5 to 8 inches from New Jersey to North Carolina.
“There’s certainly going to be a lot of rain before Joaquin even gets here,” said Bruce Terry, a senior branch forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

Insurance Costs

From Maine to North Carolina, about $15.7 trillion of insured coastal property is exposed to any potential storms that come up the East Coast, according to the Insurance Information Institute of New York.
Things could easily go from bad to worse. “Joaquin is the wild card,” Terry said.
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ computer model has been predicting the storm will move away from the U.S. Other models predict it will strike along the East Coast, said Phil Klotzbach, author of Colorado State University’s seasonal hurricane forecast along with Bill Gray.
“Since the ECMWF is generally considered to be the best track model, it’s a really tough call,” Klotzbach said.

Balloons Launched

At 2 p.m. Wednesday, several National Weather Service offices made special weather balloon launches to help gather more information to firm up the outlook. The National Hurricane Center’s official track forecast called for the storm to glance off North Carolina and move toward Washington on Monday.
Once the storm starts moving north, however, it can speed up, and the forecasters at the center said there isn’t a lot of confidence in that outlook. Under normal conditions, five-day track forecasts can be off by 200 miles.
Then there is Joaquin’s strength.
Klotzbach said Joaquin is passing over a deep layer of warm water in the Bahamas that will allow it to grow strong. The storm’s winds doubled in strength in just about 30 hours.
“This falls into the category of what Bill Gray terms a Bahama Buster,” Klotzbach said. “These are weak tropical cyclones that intensify rapidly over the deep warm water near the Bahamas.”
Altogether, the situation is this: a rapidly strengthening storm bearing down on a region reeling from heavy rains and floods while the best computer models available to forecasters can’t agree on what will happen next.
There is one bright spot, said Paul Walker, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania.
Much of the East Coast didn’t seen rain for most of September, so river levels have been low. This may provide some extra room to absorb the deluge before they start to spill their banks, he said.
end quote from:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-30/everything-that-can-go-wrong-is-as-joaquin-churns-in-atlantic

The world fears Putin's actual Goals in Middle East

Putin said he was going after ISIS. He hasn't. Instead he went after rebels trained by the U.S. by the CIA. So, if he's lying about going after ISIS what is he doing? Economically, he needs the price of oil to go up. How would he do that? Force Saudi Arabia to raise the price of Oil somehow by threatening them?

I think just by the unanimous vote in Russian Parliament for military intervention in Syria has threatened all Sunni nations in the Middle East already including Saudi Arabia. 

And now, by going after rebels trained by the CIA he is not only giving the finger to the U.S., he is also giving the finger to NATO, and to all Sunni nations and Sunnis in the Middle East.

But then, no one said that Putin wasn't a macho kind of guy. (The kind that might one day get the whole world nuked out of existence). Russians aren't the only ones who should be afraid of this now.

Putin's Syrian War Gamble Stokes Fears About His Real Goals

Bloomberg - ‎17 minutes ago‎
Russia President Vladimir Putin's sudden escalation of airstrikes inside Syria is forcing the world to confront his latest military adventure, against a backdrop of deep distrust over whether defeating the Islamic State is his only goal.
Europe, US split over form of Syria talks
U.S. warns Russia against striking non-Islamic State groups in Syria
US and Russia to hold urgent talks on Syria strikes after Putin defies West ...
Russia's role in the Syrian Civil War








Putin's Strategy Behind the Russian Airstrikes in Syria
  • Russia says jets struck 8 targets controlled by Islamic State
  • Kerry, Lavrov agree they will avoid `unintended consequences'


Russia President Vladimir Putin’s airstrikesinside Syria are forcing the world to confront his latest military adventure, against a backdrop of deep distrust over whether defeating the Islamic State is his only goal.
While the U.S. and its allies want to see the extremists crushed, Putin’s actions -- the U.S. said he bombed an area where the terror group doesn’t operate -- fueled fears that he just wants to prop up ally President Bashar al-Assad, who Western leaders say should step aside. It also raises the odds of high-stakes accidents as Russian and U.S. jets share the same air space but potentially different missions.
"If it is a prelude to a diplomatic process that maybe even makes Russia more willing to assist in a transition then it could have even a positive aspect," said Philip Gordon, a former White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and Gulf Region. "Anytime you are introducing military forces into a war zone it’s potentially dangerous."

48 Hours



Damaged buildings stand in the central Syrian town of Talbisseh, Syria. Russia confirmed on Septemer 30 that it carried out its first airstrike in Syria, near the city of Homs, marking the formal start of Moscow's military intervention in the 4.5-year-old conflict.
Damaged buildings stand in the central Syrian town of Talbisseh, Syria. Russia confirmed on Septemer 30 that it carried out its first airstrike in Syria, near the city of Homs, marking the formal start of Moscow's military intervention in the 4.5-year-old conflict.
Photographer: Mahmoud Taha/AFP/Getty Images
Coming less than 48 hours after Putin and President Barack Obama failed to reach a breakthrough over Syrian policy at the United Nations, world powers seemed caught off guard by Russia’s actions. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry vowed to prevent “unintended consequences” in a lawless territory that has seen 250,000 people killed and millions sent fleeing since civil war erupted in 2011.
“We agreed that the military should get into contact with each other very soon," Lavrov said alongside Kerry at the UN.
Kerry earlier in the day said strikes against the self-declared caliphate were welcome but added that he would have “grave concerns” if Russia attacks areas where Islamic State isn’t operating. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said that seemed to be the case.
Russia insists that its initial eight targets were Islamic State militants, saying its warplanes struck command points, military equipment, arms depots, and warehouses controlled by the terror group. Yet Putin has also called other anti-Assad rebels in Syria backed by the U.S. “terrorists.”
Russia isn’t the only country accused of using attacks on Islamic State as a pretext to carry out other operations. Turkey’s airstrikes on Islamic State morphed into assaults on Kurdish militants inside Turkey and Iraq. Turkish authorities say they were responding to attacks by the autonomy-seeking Kurdish PKK, which has killed more than 100 Turkish police officers and soldiers since fighting intensified in early July.

Propping Assad

The head of Syria’s main Western-backed opposition, Khaled Khoja, said 36 civilians, including five children, died as a result of Russian bombing: "They are there to uphold a regime that is on its last legs," he added, referring to Assad.
Lavrov rejected the accusation.
“We take full responsibility for our targets,” he told reporters at the UN. “We are very carefully controlling to ensure that these surgical strikes have been surgical and that their targets were positions, objects, equipment and weaponry of terrorist groups.”
The Russian sorties were welcomed by Iraq, which has seen swaths of its territory overrun by Islamic State militants. This month it agreed to share intelligence with Russia and Iran to help combat the terror group. Foreign Affairs Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari said that "weakening ISIS bases in Syria" will "weaken ISIS locations in Iraq as well."

‘Act Preventively’

It’s not just heightening tensions with the West that are at stake. His moves threaten to alienate Sunni Muslims and drag Russia ever more deeply into a deadly conflict that has no end in sight. Putin, in a meeting with officials Wednesday in Moscow, indicated it was a risk worth taking.
“The only right way to fight international terrorism” is to “act preventively,” Putin said. “To fight and destroy militants and terrorists on the territories that they already occupied, not wait for them to come to our house.”
U.S. officials also flagged the danger of mid-air crashes that could quickly escalate the situation in unpredictable and dangerous ways -- and of the greater peril that Putin’s actions could further destabilize the region.
According to the State Department, when Russia informed U.S. officials in Baghdad of their intentions, they asked the Americans to clear their jets from Syrian airspace. Carter said Wednesday that won’t happen.
“The coalition will continue to fly missions over Iraq and Syria as planned -- as we did today,” Carter said.
The dispute highlights the mutual suspicions and recriminations at the heart of U.S.-Russia relations, which Putin himself said Sept. 28 were at a “low level.” Stephen Sestanovic, U.S. ambassador-at-large for the former Soviet Union from 1997 to 2001, said that the wariness won’t end anytime soon.
“In Washington most people still fear that in Syria, Putin will make a bad situation worse,” he said.

Strengthened Hurricane Joaquin closes in on central Bahamas

Strengthened Hurricane Joaquin closes in on central Bahamas

Miami Herald - ‎1 hour ago‎
Hurricane Joaquin gained power as it bore down on the central Bahamas early Thursday, and forecasters said it was likely to grow into a major storm while following a path that would near the U.S.
Hurricane Joaquin Strengthens to Category 3, Eyes East Coast
Hurricane Joaquin Strengthens as It Spins Toward the Bahamas
Hurricane Joaquin strengthens, East Coast coast at risk for landfall
Hurricane Joaquin

Nation & World

October 1, 2015

Strengthened Hurricane Joaquin closes in on central Bahamas


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article37165827.html#storylink=cpy
 
 

No Digital

I wrote the following piece: so far, when I was recovering my health from my burst appendix surgery. At that time I didn't know if I was going to recover my health enough to choose to stay alive anymore. Luckily, now I see my health is recovered except for a hernia above my belly button caused by laproscopic surgery. However, so far this is manageable. I mostly have to wear a 5 inch wide weight training belt when lifting weights above my head. I used to lift 50 pounds over my head. After the operation I started lifting 30. I have since moved up to 40 above my head. But, I likely will stay there because I don't want to tear my hernia anymore. Repairing likely won't work. So, I either have to manage it myself or have them put mesh under the skin(which takes 6 to 8 weeks to recover from) and doesn't make any sense to me. It seems like wearing a 5 inch wide band when lifting things is preferable to having an operation. However, we'll see how it all comes out.

So, basically I"m saying that if I can travel to South Korea and be okay. and then if I can ski this winter I'l be pretty happy. I can also ride my KLR 650 dualsport Kawasaki too. So, if I can hike, ski, swim and snorkel and ride a bicycle then I think I'm okay and my life is okay even if I'm 67. For example, I'd love to go snorkeling in Hawaii this January again if I can get my wife and friends to join me.

anyway, I found this on my Iphone today in the notes section. I can remember writing it likely while flying either to or from Seattle or Portland or something like that. However, it is pretty dark because of the time in my life when I wrote it so be prepared for that.

Begin:

I'm thinking about writing something about the future when people begin to realize more about how severely they are being raped of their information which is stealing both their ideas, life stories, family interactions through social media, texting, store cameras, security cameras etc.

Also, in the future unscrupulous people likely will use various kinds of technology to poison and kill people with likely no legal trace. Less than half of the governments now functional will be functional then. The only way to have privacy and to survive is to go off the grid completely to minimize your digital imprint. However, still satellites track you through wild places you inhabit to survive these times better.

But, if you have no digital existence or birth certificate then you are only a face and not someone identifiable digitally anywhere. In other words you are only a face with no digital records at all. A face with no name and no records, no history. You might as well be a UFO or a deer or a bear. And even many deer and bear have been tagged by Fish and Game people in the U.S. or around the world.

Jed had grown up with technology but he had come to hate it now because criminals had seen an online picture of his sister and tracked her down and raped her and killed her. but, because Jed was a hacker by trade, he saw it happen digitally and simply had these two men killed by puttin out a hit contract on them through the "Dark Web".

However, now he had had to erase his digital identity and disappear into one of the wild zones of earth.
So, though he had honored his sister by hiring and online Hitman, now he had to disappear.

Jed had completely disappeared from the system. He digitally hadn't even been born. He was now traveling in Nepal on a passport he bought in Katmandu on the black market. He figured many tribes in the Himalayas didn't even have birth certificates. He had left 100,000 dollars in an airport locker if he needed more cash to convert to Nepali rupees.

He got off the bus near the Tibetan border with Nepal. The bus was old sort of like a windowless van that people sometimes brought sheep to market from their remote Himalayan farms. He had disappeared off the grid but could he adapt to this "off the grid" lifestyle?

A woman and a girl seemed anxious to talk to him that were tribal people. He knew what they wanted right away. The girl would have to marry some old man in their tribe or something at likely age 15. He pretended he didn't understand but he did. He couldn't help them. He could barely help himself.

He wondered at moments like this whether having the rapers and murderers of his sister killed was the right thing to have done but these thoughts were fleeting. He knew he had done the right thing to honor his family and his sister.

As he walked up the Himalayan trail porters were carrying corrugated roofing across rickety suspension bridges across far canyons. The bridges blew and swayed in the wind so when it was windy you either hung on or didn't cross so you wouldn't fly off the bridge as it swayed.

Then as night began to fall he saw flashes of light until he realized it was Nepali fireflies greeting him to the next village.

The hotel along the remote river in the Himalayas had a water impeller generator for lights from the river. The lady spread cow dung upon the floor as the adobe floor was wearing down from foot traffic.

It rained that night so they gave him some green house plastic to keep the rain from coming in the window. He pulled out his sleeping bag, a North Face and his ground cloth and placed first his ground cloth and then his sleeping bag on it before he climbed in to quickly fall asleep on the hand made wooden bed with straw for padding.

After all he had walked 10 miles today with a full backpack on. he was tired in a way he seldom got.

The next day he hired a young man about 20 as his guide. After all, he was in a remote part of Helambu District within a days drive or less of Kathmandu(depending upon how you were getting there by car or bus or on foot or motorcycle or bicycle. Where he was there were no roads at all. There was no way to make one and not have it wash away during the monsoons. So, if you were injured and had no one to carry you out, likely you would die there in the back country of the Himalayas. He had seen many pictures of dead westerners from Europe or the U.S. in grotesque poses from likely exposure after being injured. They were posted on the walls of wherever trekking permits were sold to impress upon westerners there was no 911 available in the back country.

This year Jed was 37

So, he was still young enough for tihs but he had brought some muscle relaxants for nights in the Himalayas in small hotels or in Sherpa homes would would rent him space to get out of the rain or snow or cold of Himalayan nights. He was at 9000 feet presently so it had snowed last night and without a heater in his room and only greenhouse plastic covering his adobe window he was really glad to have a wool hat and a warm North Face Sleeping bag that he was cozy into at the present.

He had also had his fingerprints burnt off the tips of his fingers to reduce the change of ever being identified again in his life as the brother of the deceased. This just seemed to be a logical thing to do for now.

end of story from about 6 months ago.

I'm not in the right mood to continue such a dark story right now. But, many of the elements in this especially  the part about traveling in Nepal were right from my life when I visited there in 1985 and 1986 from December 1985 in Bodhgaya India  to time in Dhramshala India to Pokhara and Kathmandu Nepal to  trekking 50 miles in the Himalayas up to 10,000 feet with my family then when my older kids were 10, 12 and 14 years of age. So, what I'm sharing here is a part of what I actually experienced while in Nepal in 1986 until April 1986 when we flew back to Thailand and then back to San Francisco once again.

This trip made my whole family then "Citizens of the world". None of us has ever been the same ever again after this experience. Amazing!

The best part is all of us actually survived the whole thing! AND MY KIDS LIVED TO GROW UP RAISE FAMILIES OF THEIR OWN AND TELL STORIES ABOUT IT.

835,000 plus 1300 plus visits to intuitivefred888

Watching the number of visits climb has always intrigued me especially since 2011 when the number of visits per month really started to climb. I likely will be around 1,000,000 visits within the next year sometime(within 12 months) if the present rate continues.

Thanks for visiting my site and sharing my interests. Have a Great Day!

note:
At the present average likely it would be around 200 plus days from now.

Putin Hijacks Obamas War on ISIS?

This isn't true so far. So far he is only killing Sunni Families related to rebels who want to overthrow Assad. ISIS has been paid off for now by Assad for sure and likely Putin too. So, so far Putin has NOT attacked ISIS at all

If Putin takes out ISIS it will be because they betrayed him in some way. Anyone who betrays Putin dies. ISIS is like this too. So, likely they understand each other.

Putin Hijacks Obamas War on ISIS

Daily Beast - ‎47 minutes ago‎
The Kremlin boss didn't just start bombing Syria today. He made himself a central player in the world's struggle to clamp down on the so-called Islamic State.
September 30th, 2015 · 2 min read UN General Assembly: Syrian Analyses
U.S. warns Russia against striking non-Islamic State groups in Syria
US and Russia to hold urgent talks on Syria strikes after Putin defies West ...
Russia's role in the Syrian Civil War
Alexei Nikolsky/RIA Novosti/Kremlin via Reuters

Intercepted

09.30.159:00 AM ET

Putin Hijacks Obama’s War on ISIS

The Kremlin boss didn’t just start bombing Syria today. He made himself a central player in the world’s struggle to clamp down on the so-called Islamic State.
There’s a new decision-maker in the U.S. war against ISIS. But he’s not a general in the Pentagon or a minister in Damascus or Baghdad.
His office in the Kremlin and his name is Vladimir Putin.
The Russian president ordered a major bombing campaign Wednesday that struck U.S. allies and aided the forces of Syria’s dictator. That undermined one cornerstone of the American war effort—support of so-called “moderate” rebels—while making a second stated goal of the Obama administration more difficult: the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In effect, Moscow’s airstrikes were a message to Washington: If you want to get rid of Assad—or build a force that can take on ISIS—you’re going to have to deal with us.
“The dynamic has changed,” one U.S. defense official said. And the new American dependence on Russia could widen a rift between the two countries over the future of the Syrian regime and how to bring a five-year-long civil war to an end.
Rebel groups in Syria that have received military equipment from the United States said they came under attack on Wednesday by Russian aircraft. U.S. officials corroborated their account to The Daily Beast. Reports indicated that the group that was hit has its base in Hama, at a critical front line in the Syrian civil war. The group is believed to have been vetted by the CIA and has posted videos of its fighters using American anti-tank weapons against Syrian regime forces.
Had the U.S. and Russian militaries communicated about the airstrikes in advance, a process known as “deconfliction” that’s meant to protect forces in the air and on the ground, those attacks could have been prevented. But the U.S. and Russia never got past the early stages of such talks.
The strikes on U.S.-backed rebels belied prior assurances from Russian officials, including Putin, that their strikes were aimed at simply supporting Assad and attacking ISIS. That pledge apparently evaporated the moment Russian planes took off for their bombing runs. On Wednesday, U.S. officials acknowledged that the strikes, so far, appear to be conducted in areas where the Islamic militant group doesn’t have a stronghold.
“Multiple strikes” hit near the city of Homs, and areas west of the Damascus-Aleppo corridor, areas largely free of ISIS, one defense official said.
“It does appear that they were in areas where there probably no ISIL forces,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged to reporters, using the administration’s preferred acronym for the group. Oddly, Carter also said in the same press conference that he took “the Russians at their word” about their intentions in the air campaign—to strike at ISIS, and support the Assad regime.
NH delegation hopeful deal can be reached on Syria
WMUR - Manchester, NH
Privately, U.S. officials told The Daily Beast that the bombing campaign forces them to deal with Russia. Militarily, the U.S. will now have to watch for Russian strikes and their impact on the war. Diplomatically, the coalition must give Russia a seat at the table.
Some defense officials were visibly frustrated that Russia could have a say in the outcome of the war even after the United States has spent $3.87 billion, according to the latest Pentagon figures, and conducted nearly 7,100 strikes and sought in vain to train local fighters.
The picture that emerged Wednesday afternoon was of a U.S. administration that wasn’t taken by surprise when Russia attacked—American officials had been telegraphing the strikes for nearly 10 days—but that had no real response to a Russian offensive that has now encompassed both the ISIS forces that the U.S. is trying to destroy.
Privately, U.S. officials told The Daily Beast that the bombing campaign forces them to deal with Russia. Militarily, the U.S. will now have to watch for Russian strikes and their impact on the war. Diplomatically, the coalition must give Russia a seat at the table.
U.S. officials continued to argue that Russia’s entry into the war will backfire, potentially sucking the country into a quagmire. White House spokesman Josh Earnest referred Wednesday to the Soviet Union’s eight-year war in Afghanistan, also designed to bolster an ally.
“Russia will not succeed in imposing a military solution on Syria,” Earnest said.
But Russia’s strikes against the rebels seeking Assad’s ouster was the strongest reinforcement the beleaguered Syrian leader has seen in months. In Putin, Assad has found a coalition partner at a point when he appeared to be perilously close to losing key territory under his control.
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Can Russian intervention save Assad? Or is it laying the groundwork for his eventual demise?
Experts said that with Moscow backing Assad—and a Washington-led coalition reluctant to confront the Russians—the Obama administration’s calls for Assad to go, at least in the short term, are meaningless.
“The obvious answer is it makes it impossible for the United States to decide now that we want to remove Assad from power,” Christopher Harmer, an analyst at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, told The Daily Beast. “You can’t have the Russians embedded with Syrians and then attack the Assad regime. We can’t possibly risk an inadvertent conflict with Russia.”
And yet, because of the strikes, Russia now has a seat the negotiating table and potentially veto power over whether Assad stays or goes.
“They could pick their own dictator,” one senior defense official told The Daily Beast.
Any military cooperation between Russia and the U.S. also seemed in flux. U.S. officials had said in recent days that the two countries would begin to deconflict their military strikes, but those discussions still hadn’t happened as of Wednesday afternoon, hours after the Russian attack began. Secretary of State John Kerry appeared with his Russian counterpart Wednesday even at the United Nations and said the two countries recognized the urgency of such talks.
But Wednesday’s strikes could have long-lasting implications. If Russian forces have expanded their attacks to U.S. allies in Syria, “then any prospect there might have been for U.S.-Russia cooperation is gone,” Steven Pifer, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and a top Russia adviser during the Clinton administration, told The Daily Beast.
Russia’s entry into the war was bold, dramatic—and seemingly out of a spy movie. U.S. officials in Baghdad received a phone call Wednesday morning that a Russian three-star general would be coming by with a message. At 9 a.m. local time, he informed the embassy that Russian strikes would start shortly, and the U.S. should stop its strikes and move its personnel immediately. An hour late, the bombing campaign commenced.
Officially, Russia said its eight airstrikes on Wednesday were aimed at ISIS “terrorists,” as the defense ministry put it in a public statement. There were reports from the ground that at least 36 civilians had been killed.
While Russia may have seized some immediate strategic advantage, the Putin regime could still find itself in a quagmire like the White House is predicting. U.S. officials told The Daily Beast that Russian ground forces are now vulnerable to attack. What happens if some of the hundreds of Russian troops stationed at their western Syria base are killed by a car bomb or a ground assault?, the officials asked. How much money is Russia willing to spend on behalf of Assad? And if they leave abruptly, can Assad survive such an exit?
Pifer noted that public opinion polls in Russia show a majority of its citizens are opposed to a military intervention in Syria. The Russians “have put themselves at something of a risk” by attacking now and putting their own troops in harm’s way, he said.
U.S. defense officials insisted that Russia’s intervention would have no bearing on their plans. American strikes against ISIS continued “unimpeded,” Carter said.
But Carter also had no clear rebuttal to Russia’s previous assurances that it would limit its attacks to ISIS.
The prospects for a major upheaval in the Syria conflict following Russia’s entry has worried defense officials for the past two weeks. They’ve watched as Russia sent military aircraft to their longtime base in western Syria. As recently as yesterday, defense officials said four SU-34 aircraft, also known as Fullbacks, had arrived, bringing the total number of aircraft in Syria to 32. That’s four times the number that the U.S. has based at Incirlik, Turkey, the closest staging point to targets in Syria.
What's more several of those jets—and many of the surface-to-air missiles imported by Russia—are built to take on foes like the United States, not ISIS.
And yet the U.S.-led effort suffered a number of setbacks. A year into the fight, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the outgoing chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the fight had become a stalemate, as strikes had not substantially damaged ISIS. A cornerstone of its policy, training of Syrian rebels to confront ISIS, struggled to find fighters and keep equipment out of jihadist hands. Last week, the Pentagon announced that a commander affiliated with U.S.-trained forces handed over six trucks and unlimited ammunition to Jabhat al Nusra, an al Qaeda affiliate.
end quote from:

Putin Hijacks Obamas War on ISIS