US Sunni allies Turkey and Saudi Arabia are preparing to oust US enemy Shiite Syrian leader Bashaar al-Assad, who is fighting various Sunni offshoots of al Qaeda, including the Islamic State, who are also US enemies. So US friends are fighting a US enemy who is fighting US enemies. However, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have covertly supported the US Sunni al Qaeda offshoots who are US enemies. So US friends are fighting a US enemy who is fighting US enemies who are really friends of US friends but are still really US enemies. Got it? Good. This article from Shamus Cooke, at antiwar.com, may clear up any residual confusion:
The Syrian war stalemate appears to be over. The regional powers surrounding Syria – especially Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, and Jordan – have re-ignited their war against the Syrian government. After over 200,000 dead and millions of refugees, the U.S. allies in the region recently recommitted to deepening the war, with incalculable consequences.
The new war pact was made between Obama’s regional darlings, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, who agreed to step up deeper military cooperation and establish a joint command in the occupied Syrian region of Idlib.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia are now openly backing Islamic extremists under the newly rebranded “Conquest Army.” The on-the-ground leadership of this “new” coalition consists of Jabhat al-Nusra – the “official” al-Qaeda affiliate – and Ahrar al-Sham, whose leader previously stated that his group was the “real al-Qaeda.”
The Huffington Post reports:
“The Turkish-Saudi agreement has led to a new joint command center in the northeastern Syrian province of Idlib. There, a coalition of groups – including Nusra and other Islamist brigades such as Ahrar al-Sham that Washington views as extremist – are progressively eroding Assad’s front. The rebel coalition also includes more moderate elements of the Free Syrian Army that have received U.S. support in the past.”
The article admits that the Free Syrian Army – that Obama previously labeled as “moderates” and gave cash and guns to – has been swallowed up by the extremist groups.
This dynamic has the potential to re-engulf the region in violence; deep Saudi pocketbooks combined with reports of looming Turkish ground forces are a catastrophe in the making.
http://original.antiwar.com/shamus-cooke-2/2015/05/15/syrian-war-set-to-re-explode/
To continue reading: Syrian War Set to Re-Explode
I googled “Shamus Cooke” to find that he blogs at “A Revolutionary Socialist Organization” site and that he is an activist in the Occupy movement. Not that he can not be a fine reporter/journalist, but I found it a little bit unusual that Iran and Russia were mentioned only once at the end of the article. Hidden agenda here? The google links are below:
http://workerscompass.org/ = a revolutionary socialist organization
Shamus Cooke – nsnbc international | nsnbc international
nsnbc.me/author/shamuscooke/
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Shamus Cooke is a social worker, trade unionist and activist in the Occupy movement. Shamus Cooke is is a writer for Workers Action and a prolific writer on …
I was unaware of Mr. Cooke’s background, so thanks for bringing it to my, and the readers of SLL’s, attention. I repost material from all over the political spectrum if I believe the points made are arguably valid and they are points I want to put in front of SLL’s readers. I believe Mr. Cooke’s article meets that test. I do not find it odd that Iran and Russia were only mentioned once; they are not the nations that, according to Cooke, are escalating the war.