Tag Archives: Islamic State

He Said That? 12/4/14

Posted on December 4, 2014 | Leave a comment

From Secretary of State John Kerry, during a meeting in Brussels of the nearly 60 nations that are fighting the Islamic State, referring to Iranian bombing of the Islamic State in Iraq.

I think it is self-evident that if Iran is taking on ISIL in some particular place, and it’s confined to taking on ISIL, and it has an impact, the net effect is positive.

The Wall Street Journal, “Iran Jets Bomb Militants In Iraq,” 12/4/14

In other words , we’ll deal with the supposed devil, Iran, if it will just play by our rules. A senior Department of Defense official said as much.

The message to Iran hasn’t changed: If you’re going to play in all this, then you need to do it in a way that  doesn’t further inflame sectarian tensions.

The Wall Street Journal, “Iran Jets Bomb Militants In Iraq,” 12/4/14

So how will the US get the Sunni Islamic State not to notice that they are being bombed by Iran, the foremost Shiite state in the Middle East? Is Iran supposed to drop propaganda leaflets on the Islamic State: We are not bombing you because you are Sunni, we are bombing you in an officially approved-by-America non-sectarian manner. You may be pissed off at us because we are bombing you, but please do not get more angry because we are Shiite.

You only get these convoluted absurdities when you’re fighting on both sides of a war. See: “A Clear and Concise Guide to U.S. Policy in the Middle East.”

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Government, Military

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Syrian rebels armed and trained by US surrender to al-Qaeda by Ruth Sherlock

Posted on November 3, 2014 | Leave a comment

By Ruth Sherlock, The Telegraph, Gaziantep 12:33PM GMT 02 Nov 2014

Moderate rebels in Syria that the US have armed and trained to fight jihadists have surrendered to al-Qaeda

Two of the main rebel groups receiving weapons from the United States to fight both the regime and jihadist groups in Syria have surrendered to al-Qaeda.

The US and its allies were relying on Harakat Hazm and the Syrian Revolutionary Front to become part of a ground force that would attack the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

For the last six months the Hazm movement, and the SRF through them, had been receiving heavy weapons from the US-led coalition, including GRAD rockets and TOW anti-tank missiles.

But on Saturday night Harakat Hazm surrendered military bases and weapons supplies to Jabhat al-Nusra, when the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria stormed villages they controlled in northern Idlib province.

The development came a day after Jabhat al-Nusra dealt a final blow to the SRF, storming and capturing Deir Sinbal, home town of the group’s leader Jamal Marouf.

The attack caused the group, which had already lost its territory in Hama to al-Qaeda, to surrender.

“As a movement, the SRF is effectively finished,” said Aymen al-Tammimi, a Syria analyst. “Nusra has driven them out of their strongholds of Idlib and Hama.”

The collapse of the SRF and attacks on Harakat Hazm have dramatically weakened the presence of moderate rebel fighting groups in Syria, which, after almost four years of conflict is increasingly becoming a battle ground between the Syrian regime and jihadist organisations. Continue reading →

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Posted in Foreign Policy, War

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U.S. Humanitarian Aid Going to ISIS by Jamie Dettmer

Posted on October 20, 2014 | Leave a comment

By Jamie Dettmer at The Daily Beast

Not only are foodstuffs, medical supplies—even clinics—going to ISIS, the distribution networks are paying ISIS ‘taxes’ and putting ISIS people on their payrolls.

GAZIANTEP, Turkey—While U.S. warplanes strike at the militants of the so-called Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq, truckloads of U.S. and Western aid has been flowing into territory controlled by the jihadists, assisting them to build their terror-inspiring “caliphate.”

The aid—mainly food and medical equipment—is meant for Syrians displaced from their hometowns, and for hungry civilians. It is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, European donors, and the United Nations. Whether it continues is now the subject of anguished debate among officials in Washington and European. The fear is that stopping aid would hurt innocent civilians and would be used for propaganda purposes by the militants, who would likely blame the West for added hardship.

The Bible says if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him something to drink—doing so will “heap burning coals” of shame on his head. But there is no evidence that the militants of the Islamic State, widely known as ISIS or ISIL, feel any sense of disgrace or indignity (and certainly not gratitude) receiving charity from their foes.

Quite the reverse, the aid convoys have to pay off ISIS emirs (leaders) for the convoys to enter the eastern Syrian extremist strongholds of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, providing yet another income stream for ISIS militants, who are funding themselves from oil smuggling, extortion, and the sale of whatever they can loot, including rare antiquities from museums and archaeological sites.

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Government, Other Views, War

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Can America Fight a Thirty Years’ War? by Pat Buchanan

Posted on October 9, 2014 | 1 comment

From Patrick Buchanan at http://buchanan.org/blog/

Can America Fight a Thirty Years’ War?

“The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature.”

With this citation from Madison, Cong. Walter Jones is calling for a debate and decision on whether America should go to war in Syria and Iraq, when Congress reconvenes after Nov. 4.

Last week’s events make Jones’ request a national imperative.

For former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says we are heading into a “30-year war” against the Islamic State and the emerging threats in Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and elsewhere.

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Government, Other Views, Politics

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He Said That? 10/8/14

Posted on October 9, 2014 | Leave a comment

From Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan:

You can’t end this terrorism [Islamic State offensive in Kobani, within sight of the Turkish-Syrian border] just by airstrikes. If you don’t support them on the ground by cooperating with those who take up a ground operation, the airstrikes won’t do it. Wall Street Journal, 10/8/14, pg. A6

Could that ground support perhaps come from Turkey, with its 600,000-troop military, 3,500 tanks, and 1,000 modern aircraft, including helicopters? Although the Islamic State’s black flags in Kobani are visible from Turkey, so far Turkey has committed no boots on the ground. The best guess is that they are going to play the time honored game: let the US fight your wars.

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Posted in Government, Politics

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