So the US and Saudis Created ISIS in Iraq
The U.S. administration and it’s neo-colonial allies have been messing with Syria since the year 2005 in favor of the Sunni Gulf States. The overall intention was to break the axis Iran – Baghdad – Damascus – Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Obama White House has taken the lead to overthrow President Assad, the same as in Libya and Bush did with Saddam Hussein. The removal of Assad and inflicting pain on Iran was in close coordination with the Israeli regime of right-wingers/settlers. It’s almost pacifying Israel’s hunger to bomb Iran in 2012 that Obama agreed on this path of regime change. Obama and its allies were fully part of the coalition to support the FSA and the political outsiders lining up abroad for decades. The inability to form a political opposition was another grand failure of Hillary Clinton. The U.S. has allowed tons of arms to be shipped from Libya to Syria via NATO partner Turkey. The US have trained “moderate rebels” in Jordan and on NATO bases in Turkey. The Al Nusra Front and ISIS have expressed their deepest appreciation to the US for training their men. Arms and fighters moved from the moderates to the Al Qaeda affiliated groups. ISIS was born out of the Sunni insurgency of Anbar province started in March 2003. Listen to the excellent interview with George Mitchell and read his articles in the Boston Globe.
I have no confidence in the people of the White House to get the policy right this time.
If Obama can’t fix the Israelis to move forward on a two-state solution with the Palestinians, he won’t succeed in any other campaign to remove ISIS or Assad. Saudi Arabia has been Israel’s ally in warfare against the ayatollahs of Iran, but the national interest of the Saudis force them to back the U.S. against ISIS that was created between them. The Saudis are no partner for peace in the region, they should be our nr. one foe to stop their funding of extremeists, preaching hate and propagate Wahhabism throughout the world.
Excellent Interview George Mitchell
An extraordinary person sums up America’s peril in the Middle East. The greatest threat to U.S. security are we as a nation over-extending our influence and our intervention in regional conflicts.
○ Former Sen. George Mitchell on ISIS Threat
“… And fourth and finally, I think we have to remember that the United States was a great nation long before it became a military and economic power. What appealed to people all around the world, and what still appeals to people all around the world is OUR IDEALS. The principles that are set forth in our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence. We have to remain true to them.”
How we got here | Part 1
By George J. Mitchell | The Boston Globe | Sept. 7, 2014 |
3 Years War? Obama to Bomb Syria in fight against ISIL
By Juan Cole | Informed Comment | Sept. 10, 2014 |Juliet Eilperin and David Nakamura at WaPo report on a Monday evening dinner at the White House attended by foreign policy experts, in which President Obama expressed confidence that he had the authority to bomb ISIL positions in Syria.
In other reports, Obama officials have leaked that they think this is a 3 years war. (Ronald Reagan began vastly increasing the aid to Afghan rebels against the then Communist government in Kabul in 1982, and US counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency in that country is still going on in 2014, 32 years later; so three years have a way of becoming multiplied by 10).
Everyone should just understand that the social science literature finds that external interventions typically extend, not shorten, civil wars, as Marc Lynch has pointed out.
Continued below the fold …
At the same time, Obama appears to envisage arming and training the “moderates” of the Free Syrian Army, who have consistently been pushed to the margins by al-Qaeda offshoots and affiliates. Private billionaires in the Gulf will continue to support ISIL or its rival, Jabhat al-Nusra (the Succor Front, which has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda). Strengthening yet another guerrilla group will, again, likely prolong the fighting. Moreover, in the past two years, Free Syrian Army moderate groups have gone radical and joined Nusrah or ISIL at an alarming rate. Defectors or defeated groups from the FSA will take their skills and arms with them into the al-Qaeda offshoots.
Obama’s ISIL Actions are Defensive, Despite Rhetoric of going on Offense
Obama’s War on Terror (and Islam) Redux
By Richard Silverstein | Tikun Olam | Sept. 10, 2014 |Here we go again. No sooner did we stop Obama from making a fatal mistake in going to war against Bashar al-Assad almost a year ago today, than we have to put our bodies in the path of another war train rolling down the tracks. This time the bogeyman is called ISIS.
I bet you thought we’d retired that awful phrase, the war on terror. That by-product of the Bush-Cheney years. Wasn’t it Barack Obama who told us we were no longer at war? That we were replacing that spooky Cold War-like phrase with something more positive, constructive. What happened to that guy? Where was he tonight? I missed him.
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“We have all been here before” to quote Crosby Still & Nash. Remember Iraq I? Where did that $2-trillion go that we spent there over the past nine years? Down the drain. What about those hundreds of millions in sophisticated equipment we left for the Iraqi military? The same ones who turned and ran at the first hint of Islamist trouble? Does anyone remember the 145,000 Iraqi civilians we killed to bring democracy to the Mideast? And the 5,000 U.S. soliders who died?Here follows what a Reuters reporter had to say on the subject:
In Iraq, U.S. is spending millions to blow up captured American war machines
“…Islamic State’s captured an enormous amount of U.S. weaponry, originally intended for the rebuilt Iraqi Army. You know — the one that collapsed in terror in front of the Islamic State, back when they were just ISIL? The ones who dropped their uniforms, and rifles and ran away? They left behind the bigger equipment, too, including M1 Abrams tanks (about $6 million each), 52 M198 howitzer cannons ($527,337), and MRAPs (about $1 million) similar to the ones in use in Ferguson…”
“Now, U.S. warplanes are flying sorties, at a cost somewhere between $22,000 to $30,000 per hour for the F-16s, to drop bombs that cost at least $20,000 each, to destroy this captured equipment. That means if an F-16 were to take off from Incirlik Air Force Base in Turkey and fly two hours to Erbil, Iraq, and successfully drop both of its bombs on one target each, it costs the United States somewhere between $84,000 to $104,000 for the sortie and destroys a minimum of $1 million and a maximum of $12 million in U.S.-made equipment.”
Imagine if we’d fought harder against Bush’s Iraq war mirage in 2003 and prevented the very nightmare we face tonight. Imagine if we hadn’t invaded Iraq and turned the place into a seething cauldron of inter-ethnic and religious hate spiced with a heavy does of anti-Americanism? But the damage has been done. The question now is whether we’ll compound our earlier error and get bogged down once again in a war against the Arab Mideast.
BooMan’s earlier optimistic note on Obama foreign policy was unrealistic as I wrote at the time. Yesterday we got more of the same from President Obama, it’s another “surge” strategy without US boots on the ground.
My diaries on this topic has been dozens in the last two years …
US policy on Syria as put forward by Secretary of State Clinton on June 6, 2012
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, thank you very much, Ahmet. And thank you and your team for the excellent preparations for this first ministerial meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum [GCTF is chaired by the US and Turkey]. You just heard from the minister an overview of all that we have been working on. The United States views this forum as an excellent opportunity to pursue our common goal of making the world safe from terrorism, but doing it in a way that is in keeping with human rights and the rule of law. And the announcements that Ahmet just related about continuing work that we will do evidences the approach that we are taking, and I’m very pleased that in just the few short months of its existence, the Global Counterterrorism ForumGlobal Counterterrorism Forum has already helped generate smart and achievable strategies for combating terrorism, and the United States looks forward to continuing our work.
Opening Remarks at the Global Counterterrorism Forum
“The core of al-Qaida that carried out the 9/11 attacks and other attacks in countries represented here today may be on the path to defeat, but the threat has spread, becoming more geographically diverse as groups associated with al-Qaida expand their operations. Terrorists now hold territory in Mali, Somalia, and Yemen. They are carrying out frequent and destabilizing attacks in Nigeria and the Maghreb. Here in Turkey, the PKK continues its long campaign of terror and violence, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The United States stands strongly with Turkey in its fight against the PKK.”
[As of this month, the PKK has joined the coalition to fight ISIS – Oui]On a few other issues, I want to thank the minister for the meeting that he hosted last night, the ad hoc meeting on Syria intended to intensify our efforts to support the Syrian people, given the urgency of the situation. The regime-sponsored violence that we witnessed again in Hama yesterday is simply unconscionable. Assad has doubled down on his brutality and duplicity, and Syria will not, cannot be peaceful, stable, or certainly democratic until Assad goes. So even as we intensify the sanctions pressure, because as we were meeting in Istanbul, the sanctions working committee of the Friends of the Syrian People was meeting in Washington, the time has come for the international community to unite around a plan for post-Assad Syria. And last night we discussed a number of the steps that we intend to take together.
I will just mention a few of the key elements and principles that are focusing our work. First, the Syrian Government must implement all six points of the Annan initiative, including a real ceasefire agreed to and observed by all parties. Second, Assad must transfer power and depart Syria. Third, an interim representative government must be established through negotiation. And we are firm in our core principles, and we believe we have to keep faith and do justice to the aspirations of the Syrian people. The transition phase must lead to a democratic, representative, and inclusive government. There must be civilian control of the military and security forces and respect for the rule of law and equality before the law for all Syrians regardless of background.
We know that many still cling to the Assad regime because they fear change more. And we have consistently made clear that we support a positive, inclusive democratic transition roadmap. And we have to bring people to that vision and, in effect, move them away from the Assad regime so that they can’t imagine a better future for themselves and Syria.
And secondly, we have to unite the international community behind a plan that is achievable and keeps faith with those inside Syria who are protesting and demonstrating, suffering, and dying for their universal human rights.
We said last night we are prepared to work with any country, including all members of the UN Security Council, and we will do so so long as any such gathering starts from the basic premise that Assad and his regime must give way to a new democratic Syria, and we have to continue to put more pressure and we urge all nations to impose and implement sanctions and close loopholes in existing measures.
