Angela Merkel's logic is faulty on Russia vs. Ukraine.

http://www.dw.de/merkel-says-weapons-wont-help-resolve-eastern-ukraine-crisis/a-18242179

Chancellor Merkel told the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday that Germany remained convinced that sending weapons to the Ukraine forces fighting against pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine would not contribute to a resolution of the crisis there.

"The problem is that I cannot imagine any situation in which improved equipment for the Ukrainian army leads to President Putin being so impressed that he believes he will lose militarily," she said. "I have to put it that bluntly."

Wrong.

December 1994: Ukraine has nuclear weapons. Russia doesn't invade.

February 2014: Ukraine has no nuclear weapons.  Russia invades Crimea by proxy.

Waging war is not an existential matter with guns, tanks, and trucks for Russia. It is with nuclear weapons. Ukraine gave up its best deterrent to Russian aggression and we let them down by not following through to help them.

Give Ukraine nuclear weapons and the war will end the next day.

Toronto's "Mystery Tunnel" is a Spider Hole

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/59/Spider_hole.png/250px-Spider_hole.png


This mystery tunnel is anything but mysterious. It's an ambush position known in military terms as a spider hole.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/mystery-tunnel-found-near-pan-am-games-venue-1.2968367

Any kind of meth lab or grow op would need an exhaust port for the chemicals or generator so you could breath or keep the generator running. Exhaust would draw attention.

It's not a tunnel because it doesn't go anywhere.

This article disproves that the tunnel was the work of engineering students.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/toronto-bunker-builder-lucky-it-didn-t-collapse-expert-says-1.2254522
Even first year engineering students can do a force body diagram and figure out they need lateral support.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_hole

It looks like it can hold a 10 people. Plus supplies for the wait until ambush.

Here's how one might use it. Build a spider hole in a secure area long before surveillance. Wait till the event to load it with weapons and ammo. Attackers go into the spider hole 3 days or so before event security tightens up, then they wait until the right moment to burst out and attack.

You dig it in the winter when no one is around, then it gets hidden by vegetation in the spring.

If you want to hide from detection, you make sure it does not collapse under the ground weight and thawing conditions. You build it with a structure to make sure the space won't collapse on you.  You truck away the dirt, hide the entrance in some trees, and camoflage the ingress path.

If you find the people that made this spider hole, be very cautious they are probably well-armed and expecting that knock on the door. 

Give the caliphate what it wants, only not the way they want it.

This article is a very good read on ISIS:

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/

It explains, more or less, that the caliphate is living out an ancient Twilight novel - with the over-simplistic plot line and pathetic credibility gaps like a teen novel trilogy (made for people whose brains are forming yet still defective) that only morons would find interesting - this fantasy  involves a battle with an invading army at the town of Dabiq. The army is supposed to be Romans, everyone riding horses, and it is a milestone on the way to the apocalypse according to the script they are following.

Dabiq is on the border of Turkey and Syria. (from the article)

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/posts/2015/02/isismapweb2/307796482.jpg

Following the beliefs of an ancient book makes them predictable.   Why not let them have their wish? More like death wish.
 
If we want to get rid of them, and prove that god was never on their side, then we should formally agree to meet them on the plains around Dabiq.  Then when they gather, JDAM them.
 
If the events surrounding the caliphate don't play out like the plot of the book, then even zealous supporters will need to review their beliefs.  Doubt will creep in and the whole hollowed out core of once-humans will collapse. 

According to the pulp fiction, there will only be 12 caliphs and al-Bagdhadi is number 8.  Kill 5 more leaders and the plot line is over. 

To attack them alone will not solve the problem. To defeat what they believe is to attack the schwerpunkt of their ideology.  If the story does not go as planned, the whole enterprise was a lie.

Their moral belief in the script of an ancient book being true is their source of strength and biggest weakness. Exploit them.

The final awakening...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/isis-militants-to-be-wiped-out-says-jordan-minister-1.2949151

Arabs will make themselves free from US involvement when they finally stop radical Islam from drawing them into conflict. 

The US is no longer fixated on oil, it can make almost enough for domestic supply so there is no real economic urge to keep meddling.  Other than Israel. 

The real problem in the Middle East is not the US, it's allowing radical Islamist groups to grow and fester in your midst, sooner or later they were bound to turn on the rest of the Arab world.  You should have heeded Pakistan's problems.  An uneasy detente is breathing space of wicked groups that will turn their guns on you sooner or later.

To take responsibility and get rid of these groups will end the turmoil.