I doubt this regime will have much longevity.

The greatest asset the Islamic State ever had was surprise. As long as the victories were easy and the casualties were few it was popular. Popular is the war lord structure.

They are sustaining losses without high levels of citizen deaths which translates into a greater fear of the Islamic State among their people. Fear is the only thing binding the people together. They learn the rules and surrender to them.

December 27, 2014

A 14-year-old Syrian boy (click here) has given himself in to Iraqi guards wearing a vest full of explosives, The New York Times reports. The teenager, recruited by the Islamic State, said that a mission to bomb a Shiite mosque was his only chance to escape militants.

Usaid Barho, 14, told a NYT reporter that he played soccer, loved Jackie Chan movies, and dreamed of becoming a doctor.

That was before he was recruited by the Islamic State (IS/ISIS/ISIL) in Syria and forced to convert to radical Shiite-hating beliefs....

There have been many successful attacks upon the Islamic State. Something in the number of over 2000 bombs. It really is not that big of a place. So, the people still living in the land occupied by the Islamic State are receiving regular bombing alerts and/or the noise of war very frequently. This regime is relying on child soldiers. That is not a productive society; it is one relinquishing their lives to power. There is a ruling class and they have nothing to lose but to be feared. At the very least they are wanted for crimes against humanity, but, they are genocidal and face many, many murders.

There was a jet shot down a day or so ago. That is anti-aircraft gun(s). It takes only a few people to fire those missiles. They probably found it among the ruins somewhere. The allied coalition denies it was downed by a surface to air missile. The pilot lived, it doesn't sound like it was destroyed by a missile actually.

If one listens to the noise coming out of the regime it is too embellished to be believable. They are going to take over the world and kill and destroy any other religion into oblivion. I don't think so. I heard that before? "I will destroy you." Now, where was that. Oh, yeah, the United Nations. The 902nd plenary meeting. 1960. Nikta Sergeyevich Khrushchev  didn't throw his shoe, he simply banged the desk with it. It left most with the feeling he was very frustrated. He at least had the weapons to make that a real threat though. After a while, one has seen them come and seen them go.

This is the Kurds below. Not the Islamic State. It does look as though the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak.

Go, Kurds, Go !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The officer has a right to defend himself.

Young black men are afraid of police officers. It is legitimate to estimate the one young man that was drifting away from the scene was reasonably scared of being shot for no reason, except, he and his friend was talking.

The other aspect is investigating the gun 18 year old Mr. Martin was carrying. Was it his? Where did he get it? Why was he carrying it? If he was carrying it because he was frightened to police killing him that is problem.

December 24, 2014
Staff

BERKELEY • Several dozen protesters (click here) gathered tonight near the Mobil gas station where an 18-year-old man was fatally shot Tuesday night.

The protesters chanted and screamed at officers who were guarding the station. 

Some of the protesters marched from there onto Interstate 170 nearby, at times closing the highway. Police used pepper spray on some of the protesters.

The crowd included the mother and the stepfather of the teenager who was killed.

The protest came a night after a Berkeley police officer fired at least three shots at a suspect who pulled a gun on him....

...The officer's attorney, Brian Millikan, said one of the men spoke with the officer, while the other kept wandering away despite the officer's commands to stay near him, Millikan said....

...Belmar said one round struck the suspect, Antonio D. Martin, 18, and one struck a tire of the police car....

His parents would know him and can estimate their son's actions when he pulled a gun on the police officer. I am not questioning the right of the police officer to defend himself, I am saying there are other questions here that need to be answered. 

It is unclear why the police officer, who was alone in his police cruiser, would stop when there was no crime being committed. Harassment as a chronic condition in a neighborhood or city will raise tensions between citizens and police. This is the second time there has been confrontation first by police before there was any killings. There was the case in St. Louis where three African Americans were talking together and the police stopped without responding to a crime and now this. This may be unjustified harassment and the cities young black men have come to a conclusion about their self-defense.

There is a difference between responding to a crime and harassing citizens.