Obama’s Fatal Fatalism in the Middle East

Some evening reading for the Obama/Rhodes WH since they apparently have no understanding of the ME and history of AQ.....

This @KyleWOrton reconstruction of Saddam Hussein's global terrorist legacy is really good.

Really really worth reading....a lot of information not really talked about much in the Us ...especially concerning the 1993 first attack on the NYC Twin towers......

Donald Trump is Wrong (Again): Saddam Hussein Supported Terrorism

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on July 6, 2016

Quote:

Last night Donald Trump unburdened himself of the view that Saddam Hussein was an efficient anti-terrorist operator. It is a statement Trump has made before, and it is one of such staggering ignorance—yet one which has such wide sympathy—that it seemed worth examining the multiple ways in which it was wrong.

Trump and Saddam

Trump’s praise for Saddam having “made a living off killing terrorists” in February followed a statement in December 2015,

“Saddam Hussein throws a little gas, everyone goes crazy, ‘oh he’s using gas!'” Trump said. Describing the way stability was maintained in the region during that time, Trump said “they go back, forth, it’s the same. And they were stabilized.”

One might wonder if the use of chemical weapons of mass destruction against the Iranians during the eight-year war Saddam started can really be called “stability,” and the genocidal use of such weapons as part of the Anfal campaign that murdered at least 100,000 Kurds hardly seems to have helped regional stability either.

Trump’s exact statement from last night was:

Saddam Hussein was a bad guy … really bad guy. But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read them the rights. They didn’t talk. They were terrorists. It was over. Today, Iraq is Harvard for terrorism. You want to be a terrorist, you go to Iraq.

Christopher Hitchens used to say that anyone who would content themselves with saying only that Saddam Hussein was “a bad guy” did not know anything about that man, his regime, or Iraq, and that rule can be safely said to hold in this case. It does accidentally contain a truth, however: If you “want to be a terrorist, you go to Iraq,” was in fact a well-known maxim for international terrorists for many decades.

A Long Trail of Murder

Sabri al-Banna (Abu Nidal) had many paymasters and agendas in his career as the most infamous international terrorist before Usama bin Ladin, but in preparation for that career and then for long stretches of it he was sheltered by Saddam. Hitchens met al-Banna in 1976 in Iraq, where he threatened Said Hammami, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representative to Britain and a moderate who had publicly promoted a two-state solution long before it was acceptable in Palestinian politics. Hammami was struck down in London on 4 January 1978 by a member of the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO). This was just one of many crimes Saddam enabled al-Banna to commit.

Al-Banna departed Iraq to Assad’s Syria in 1979, but returned to Saddam’s realm in March 1982, after he had acquired the moniker of “the Arab world’s foremost terrorist.” It was from Baghdad that al-Banna attempted to murder Shlomo Argov, Israel’s ambassador to London, sparking Israel’s invasion of Lebanon to dismantle the PLO’s state-within-a-state—and doing great damage to the strategic standing and military of Saddam’s great rival in Damascus that had heretofore had almost unchallenged primacy over Lebanon.

A wave of assassinations and attempted assassinations then followed from the ANO against Jordanian, Kuwaiti, and Emirati officials. There is every reason to believe that the attacks against Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates especially were, at the least, encouraged by Saddam since those two states were making overtures to normalize their relations with the Iranian revolution that Saddam was then at war with.

Al-Banna departed Iraq again in November 1983—though parts of his organization remained there—and again put himself at the service of Hafez al-Assad. Though the Assad regime is now presenting itself as a victim and opponent of terrorism, before geopolitical amnesia set in the regime was known for carrying the near-unique attribute of having sponsored terrorism against every single one of its neighbours. Assad’s bugbear in the mid-1980s was Jordan—which was showing dangerous signs of making peace with Israel—so al-Banna was directed to blow up her diplomatic outposts and murder her diplomats, which he duly did from India to Spain.

Al-Banna would, in 1987, take up residence in Muammar el-Qaddafi’s Libya—another bizarrely lamented government (including by Trump) whose record as a global, long-standing state-sponsor of terrorism has been clumsily revised—where al-Banna ended up massacring most of ANO’s members after being deceived into thinking his organization was riddled with spies. Al-Banna was reported to be in Egypt in the summer of 1998, and finally came back to Iraq in December 1998. The curtain finally came down for al-Banna in August 2002: a suicide, reported Saddam’s regime, wherein he had shot himself three times in the head.

Muhammad Zaydan (Abu Abbas) led the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) and directed the taking of hostages aboard the Achille Lauro on 7 October 1985. During the assault, the PLF shot and killed the wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer because he was a Jew, and threw his body overboard. When Italian authorities caught up with Zaydan they had to release him because he was travelling on an Iraqi diplomatic passport—despite being neither Iraqi nor a diplomat. Zaydan moved to Saddam’s Iraq and remained there until he was captured five days after the fall of Saddam’s regime.

In April 1993, Saddam tried to murder former President George H.W. Bush with a car bomb during his trip to Kuwait, using Wali al-Ghazali, who had taken part in the Shi’a uprising in March 1991, as a cut-out to give the regime plausible deniability. President Bill Clinton ordered airstrikes in retaliation.

Islamic Terrorism

It might be felt that this record, bad as it is, doesn’t exactly contradict Trump because this terrorism was not Islamist or jihadist in nature. Not to fear: Saddam supported Islamist and jihadist terrorism, too—a lot.

Saddam’s regime supported the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (SMB) from when they initially rebelled against the Assad regime in 1976. Al-Banna was even tasked with training Syrian Ikhwans in camps at Hit, in Anbar Province. One man trained in these camps—which evidently operated even after al-Banna departed the country—was Ahmed Barodi, who later resided in the U.S. before being deported partly for these ties. In the wake of the crushing of the SMB rebellion in 1982 at Hama, Saddam took in the survivors—the “most radical” ones anyway (many others went to Europe), including Eddin Barakat Yarkas and Mustafa Nasar (Abu Musab al-Suri). Yarkas became a roommate of Mohamed Atta—the lead death pilot on 9/11—and was swept up in Spain after the 9/11 massacre, later convicted of helping to plan and finance that atrocity. Nasar went on to become probably the greatest strategist in the Jihadi-Salafist world, a guide for both the Islamic State (IS)* and al-Qaeda.

Continued.....

U.S. jets abandoned Syrian rebels in the desert. Then they lost a battle to ISIS.

Very important read.
http://wpo.st/Yk_k1

While the entire West and the Obama WH talks about IS attacks on the West...we tend to forget this simple basic fact.......

Jordan
Lebanon
Turkey
Bangladesh
Iraq
Syria
Saudi Arabia
Libya
Nigeria
Yemen
Afghanistan
Egypt & more...

ISIS Attacks/Kills Muslims

Since more than a month,thousands of pro-Assad troops and the Russian air force have only one goal: Too cut off & besiege E Aleppo city.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians WILL be trapped.

The EU&US SEES this happening and says / does nothing.

Little room for interpretation...BUT WAIT the Obama/Rhodes WH does not want to do anything remotely appearing to be "stupid".....

APPEARS the Obama/Rhodes WH truly believes the Russian Ambassador to Syria when he states Assad does not want to capture Aleppo.....YES he does as it is the second largest city on Syria....AND if the Obama/Rhodes WH truly believes him then I have an entire desert I can sell to the WH...

Syria yesterday
The same procedure as ever day from Aleppo to Rastan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO17PBAlPV4 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf9zgdHb29Y …

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...2552&tid=ss_tw

By Josh Rogin

July 3 at 7:18 PM 

The U.S.-Russia relationship is too big to fail, but it’s failing.

Quote:
The Obama administration came into office with a big idea about this relationship: that these two world powers must work together on areas of mutual interest even if they still worked against each other where their interests diverged. The concept was sound, but as relations have deteriorated and Russia has taken a more antagonistic stance, the United States has failed to adapt.

Last week’s revelation that the administration is proposing increased military cooperation with Russia in Syria, in exchange for Russian agreement to abide by the cease-fire it had already agreed to, was a stark example of how the administration’s theory about how to work with Russia is being misapplied on the ground. Washington is offering Moscow both a reprieve from the political and military isolation it imposed after the invasion of Ukraine — and a reward for taking unilateral military action designed to undermine U.S. policy in Syria.

The White House and the State Department believe that the only way to make progress in Syria is to work with Moscow, even if that means setting the isolation effort to one side. That makes some sense, but only if Russia actually honors its agreements in Syria and makes progress toward resolving the Ukraine crisis.

But neither of these things is happening. Ukraine’s recently departed prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, told me last week that while Russia has successfully distracted the world from the Ukraine crisis, the Russian military continues a medium-boil military campaign in violation of the Minsk agreement.

“Every single day they kill Ukrainian soldiers, every single day the death toll is rising, every single day we’ve got civilian casualties. There is no cease-fire on the ground,” he said.

To Yatsenyuk, Russian President Vladi#mir Putin’s strategy is clear. Russia will pretend to work with Western powers and even strike deals when the deals are sweet enough. But by selectively violating the agreements while manipulating other governments and the media, Putin will continue to make steady progress toward his anti-Western, anti-democratic objectives. For Yatsenyuk, there’s simply no way to work constructively with the current Kremlin.

“I don’t believe that you can agree on anything substantial with the Russian Federation because the U.S. is an enemy to the Russian Federation in their view,” he said. “They can have talks, they can have debates, they can even agree on some non-existential issues. But there is an existential difference. These are just two different worlds.”

The United States cannot afford to write off the U.S.-Russia relationship. There is truth to the argument that the world’s most pressing problems, including Islamic extremism, cannot be solved without some Russian involvement. But Washington cannot ignore Russia’s increasingly horrendous behavior. Russia’s dangerous military maneuvers near U.S. ships are now regular occurrences. Russian harassment and intimidation of U.S. diplomats across Europe is at an all-time high. Russian government cyberespionage and propaganda campaigns have run amok.

“The fact is, they are engaged in a new global Cold War against the U.S.,” said Samuel Charap, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “There’s absolutely no question about that. We have this festering wound on the relationship that nobody on the U.S. side is spending much time trying to fix.”

The United States has complicated relationships with lots of problematic countries. China, for example, is internally repressive and externally aggressive, but there’s no thought of cutting off relations with Beijing. Similarly, the policy of isolating Russia as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine has limits. Russia was determined not to cave to sanctions, and if the recent vote in the French senate is any indication, the sanctions regime will not last forever.

AND the US and Germany do not support the PKK...US named Terror organizatzion.......?????....really????

Photos being shared online of HPG (PKK) members with what looks like a German Panzerfaust 3

Well worth reading..........

Hassan Hassan @hxhassan
Obama retreats from Putin in Syria — again
http://wpo.st/Nc9k1

Now convince me that the Obama/Rhodes WH has done nothing outside of just plain being "stupid" when it comes to FP on just about anything...since 2012.....

AND the Obama/Rhodes WH really wants to work again with WHO?????

Russia fights terrorists in Syria. US sanctions Russia. Therefore, US "supports terrorists." @mfa_russia's odd logic http://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/...ent/id/2340873 …

The final toll of the airborne terror attacks on #Rastan is 4 dead, incl. 2 children, 13 injured, incl. 8 children.

This is the face of the Obama/Rhodes WH who does nothing "stupid" in Syria....except allowing civilians (men, women, children) to be killed ......daily and even hourly.......

The face of a broken man, lost both his wife and daughters in a single regime terror attack on #Aleppo

Syrian man in #Aleppo is inconsolable after he finds his little daughter, dead
https://youtu.be/CvaykaNDLI0

Around Aleppo today.
Russian jets bomb densely populated areas NONSTOP.
World looks away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzKF-7Xo384 …

Patience still "running out", @JohnKerry, @GermanyDiplo and co.?!
ACT or at least stop pretending to be interested.

There are no safe zones, no cessations of violence, no regimes of silence and no mercy.
Hoping for this from Russia & Assad is delusional.

BUT WAIT that is exactly what the Obama/Rhodes WH is hoping Putin and Assad will do with their latest FP spin stunt...which both have never done before.....

Appears that the US supported Kurdish proxy SDF...which is part and parcel of the YPG/PKK a US designated terrorist organization is now declaring it's independence EXACTLY WHAT the Turks stated they will not allow...their "red line"....

THIS cannot possibly be the Obama/Rhodes Syrian FP or is it?????

BREAKING: Federal system introduced in N. Syria will be called: Rojava - Northern Syria. Qamişlo named as capital. SDF as defense force.

The Obama/Rhodes WH cannot seem to be able to identify who has been placing precision night time air strikes onto a number of hospitals/IDP camps and civil defense facilities, cannot seem to identify EVEN if Russian cluster and incendiary munitions are being used against civilians EVRN in the face of countless videos, interviews and dud Russian sub munitions...AND now suggested sharing intelligence as they first option of physically working with the Russian AF was blocked by congressional law WHICH they seem to also not known about......

Maybe someone should gently tell them to read SWJ on a daily basis and they will be much better informed it seems as they are not getting apparently anything from the BILLIONS spent on the US national level IC.

This is the ground reality and it is daily and hourly and it contracts and expands as it always does when there is a full scale war of survival by a civil society torn apart by genocide, starvation and thousands of war crimes......BUT this WH does not seem to "see" and "understand" because they are afraid of doing "something stupid" which BTW they are actually doing daily in Syria....by having no clear, concise and coherent Syrian FP other than words....

Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post

CrowBat...anything on this on your end????

Nusra:Technical error crushed Syr jet not #JaishAlIslam who mistakenly killed pilot while trying 2 get him by force

CrowBat response:

Nusra's rubbish.

Pilot - Maj Noures Hassan - ejected safely and was captured by the JAN.

Video of the crash site can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrrirDm4XG8

He was then brought to the joint operations room (run by the JAI and the JAN), and interviewed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPNsqctYLqY

And then one of the JAN idiots there executed him (i.e. shot him in the head, from behind, as can be seen here, GRAFFIC!!!).

The 'episode' left the JAI 'shocked', as they officially announced here.

Now, I am all against doing such things. If nothing else, Hassan was certainly a good potential source of intel.

Tragically, somebody there was probably longing for any kind of revenge after so much death and destruction caused by such like Hassan. After all, it's not for nothing I wrote here:

Quote:

In the words of several of SyAAF pilots, there is no other priority but to — literally — “cause mass destruction” and “burn Sunnis.”

That's precisely what no less but 5 of them (Hassan's colleagues) have mentioned to me in different interviews over the last two months.

Unsurprisingly, even somebody as blind as the US admin is meanwhile calling Assadist flying service a criminal enterprise.
CrowBat is offline

Just when you thought the previous was crazy it just got crazier with this....

US supported terrorist group YPG/PKK/SDF is attacking along with Assad regime forces the FSA which has been attacking IS .....so is the US really fighting IS and have they been actually supporting openly Assad and his genocide....

What the heck is this....??
After Rebels repelled pro-Regime offensive in Khaldiya, reports that YPG is now simultaneously attacking Rebels there w/ Regime, Aleppo.

Can anymore crazy statements like this come out of the Obama/Rhodes WH...

First they cannot determine who has been conducting precision night time air strikes on Syrian hospitals when only the US coalition and the Russian AF has the ability..SO was the US by accident if not the Russians... someone in the Obama WH is playing cover up.....WHY??????

NOW this....come on US MSM just how much more lying by the Obama Wh and DoD will you allow..there are tens of cluster munition and incendiary munition attacks on Syrian civilians both day and night time COMPLETE with Russian Today info war video footage and tens of dud Russian cluster and incendiary sub munitions.....

AND yet this...can anyone in their right mind explain this??????

BUT WAIT they do know BUT are unwilling to call Russian use out in the UNSC...wonder WHY?????

State Department spox: "Russia and Assad need to be more careful about distinguishing between terrorists, civilians and parties to the CoH."

State Department spox:"United States is not in a position to confirm the allegations by Syrian opposition of Russia using cluster munitions"

.@DeptofDefense, fmr US Amb to #Syria @fordrs58 and intl. analysts oppose it.
But @NobelPrize winner @BarackObama wants to join #PutinAtWar

White House officials say Assad/Russia can't be trusted, so the plan is to work with Assad/Russia. I just work here.

Putin: Russia sincerely wants to resolve the crisis in Ukraine
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/30-june...lve-the-crisis … via @RT_russian

Sincerely killing 2 Ukrainian service men, injuring 11 more, over the last 24 hours during 61 artillery and ground attacks....

Resolve yes but not to fulfill even Minsk 2.....

POTUS confirms the utter bankruptcy of his admin. "Obama proposes new military partnership with Russia in Syria."

The only thing this approach will do is to tell the Arab Sunni world that America is not their friend (or confirm it)

This proves what the entire Arab Sunni ME has stated for months since the Russians came into Syria.....Obama/Rhodes WH has done a "Golden Handshake" over Syria and that in fact this explains the reluctance of the Obama/Rhodes WH to end the Assad genocide....

Obama in 2014 stated....we will judge Putin by his actions not his words...and in eastern Ukraine and Syria he has never fulfilled a single thing and never fulfilled a single point of Minsk 2...SO WHY is he going to suddenly change his tiger strips......

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/obama-proposes-…

Obama proposes new military partnership with Russia in Syria

By Josh Rogin June 30 at 7:01 AM 

The Obama administration has proposed a new agreement on Syria to the Russian government that would deepen military cooperation between the two countries against some terrorists in exchange for Russia getting the Assad regime to stop bombing U.S.-supported rebels.

The United States transmitted the text of the proposed agreement to the Russian government on Monday after weeks of negotiations and internal Obama administration deliberations, an administration official told me. The crux of the deal is a U.S. promise to join forces with the Russian air force to share targeting and coordinate an expanded bombing campaign against Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, which is primarily fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Under the proposal, which was personally approved by President Obama and heavily supported by Secretary of State John F. Kerry, the American and Russian militaries would cooperate at an unprecedented level, something the Russians have sought for a long time.

In exchange, the Russians would agree to pressure the Assad regime to stop bombing certain Syrian rebel groups the United States does not consider terrorists. The United States would not give Russia the exact locations of these groups, under the proposal, but would specify geographic zones that would be safe from the Assad regime’s aerial assaults.

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter was opposed to this plan, officials said, but was ultimately compelled to go along with the president’s decision. For many inside and outside the administration who are frustrated with the White House’s decision-making on Syria, the new plan is fatally flawed for several reasons.

“One big flaw is that it’s clear that the Russians have no intent to put heavy pressure on Assad,” said former U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford. “And in those instances when the Russians have put pressure on, they’ve gotten minimal results from the Syrians.”

There’s not enough reliable intelligence to distinguish Jabhat al-Nusra targets from the other rebel groups they often live near, Ford said. And even if the Syrians agreed not to bomb certain zones, there would be no way to stop Jabhat al-Nusra and other groups from moving around to adjust. Moreover, increased bombing of Jabhat al-Nusra would be likely to cause collateral damage including civilian deaths, which would only bolster the group’s local support.

“It makes no sense to me,” said Ford. “If they are trying to destroy al-Qaeda in Syria, do they really think bombing them is the way to do it? F-16s do not solve recruitment problems with extremist groups.”

One administration official complained that the plan contains no consequences for the Russians or the Assad regime if they don’t hold up their end of the bargain. Fifty-one U.S. diplomats signed a dissent letter this month calling on the White House to use targeted military force against the Assad regime as a means of increasing the pressure on Assad and giving the U.S. real leverage.

Kerry has been threatening for months that if Assad doesn’t respect the current cease-fire, known as the “cessation of hostilities,” that there was a “Plan B” of increasing arms to the Syrian rebels. But the White House has now scuttled that plan in favor of the proposed Russia deal, which could actually leave the rebels in a far worse position.

Because most Jabhat al-Nusra fighters are fighting Assad, if the plan succeeds, Assad will be in a much better position. Meanwhile, the other Sunni Arab groups that are left fighting Assad will be in a much weaker position, said Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The strategy could allow Assad to capture Aleppo, which would be a huge victory for his side in the civil war.

“If the U.S. and Russia open up on Jabhat al-Nusra, that changes the dynamics on the ground in Aleppo and Idlib,” he said. “It would definitely benefit the Assad regime and it could potentially benefit the Kurds and ISIS.”

For Russia, the deal is not just about Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin sees increased military cooperation as an acknowledgment of Russian importance and a way to gradually unwind Russia’s isolation following the Russian military intervention in Ukraine. That’s why Carter was initially opposed to the plan, officials said.

“The Russians have made it very clear that they want military-to-military cooperation with the U.S., not just to fight terrorism, but to improve their world standing,” said Tabler. “It is a way to be welcomed back into the fold.”

State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on the specifics of the proposal but defended its basic principles.

“We have been clear about Russia’s obligations to ensure regime compliance with the cessation of hostilities. We have also been clear about the danger posed by al-Qaeda in Syria to our own national security,” he said. “We are looking at a number of measures to address both of these issues.”

For the White House, the priority in Syria is not solving the Syrian civil war, which most White House officials believe is intractable, or forcing the ouster of Assad. Senior administration officials admit that Russia and Assad are violating the cease-fire and failing to show the will to advance the political process. But the White House has decided not to go back to the plan of increasing pressure on the Assad regime.

“Analytically speaking, the path of military escalation by one side or the other is not likely to lead to a final outcome in Syria,” one senior administration official told me. “It’s essentially a stalemate.”

The White House wants to keep the cease-fire in place for as long as possible, despite the violations, and wants to keep the political process going, despite the lack of progress.

“We want to keep the violence as low as possible for as long as possible,” the official said. “What we have to look at is, what is the alternative? And the alternative is either the levels of violence that we saw months ago . . . or we could see the violence get even worse.”

CIA Director John Brennan said Wednesday in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations that Russia is “trying to crush” anti-Assad forces and that Moscow has not lived up to its commitments regarding the cease-fire or the political process in Syria. Nevertheless, Brennan said, the United States needs to work with Russia.

“There’s going to be no way forward on the political front without active Russian cooperation and genuine Russian interest in moving forward,” he said.

If the price of getting Russia on board with the Syrian political process is to further abandon the Syrian rebels and hand Assad large swaths of territory, it’s a bad deal. It’s an even worse deal if Russia takes the U.S. offer and then doesn’t deliver on its corresponding obligations.

The Obama administration is understandably trying to find some creative way to salvage its Syria policy in its final months. But the proposal that Obama offered Putin will have costs for the U.S. position vis-à-vis Russia as well as for the Syrian crisis long after Obama leaves office.

Another massive CIA or CENTCOM failure...when will even they get it right???

Meanwhile, whatever CIA or CENTCOM idiot planned that NSyA assault on al-Bukamal, the character in question proved as 'good' at his job as any of Assadist mini-Napoleons.

Namely, the Daesh quickly counterattacked there and forced the NSyA to retreat out of the town. At least the known losses are limited to five KIA and 2 WIA - so far.

That is: Daesh claims 40+ KIA insurgents, 15 captured, and is already boasting with equipment and arms once again provided directly by the USA...

Rumour has it: the NSyA actually run out of ammo, because Americans refused to provide enough of the same....

**************

Overall, this war is meanwhile a championship of idiotic megalomaniacs that think they're running the show.

NOTICE...read the second to last sentence.....TELLING....about US so called Obama/Rhodes WH policy to destroy IS......

Honestly can any SWJ reader/commenter convince me that this Obama/Rhodes WH is really seriously fighting IS..........

How can the USAF and the billions spent on ISR oversee FIFTY IS vehicle all lined one awaiting an air strike BUT WAIT known comes....either from the Us or YES even from Putin.....

Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post

~72 hrs before major #ISIS offensive on #Marea & #Azaz, up to 50 IS vehicles (supplies/transport) gathered in #Dabiq

CrowBat response

...and the CENTCOM ignored these completely, as usually...

THE Obama/Rhodes WH apparently truly does not want to destroy IS NOR assist the FSA in their own Syrian fight against IS......

Apparently the Obama/Rhodes WH does not actually fully understand Syria and their civil society environment......sad.....

Over the past 2 years Isis leaders on record complained locals don't join jihad. Isis & Nusra have failed to turn DoZ into jihadi stronghold

Fighters who were forced out of Deir Ezzor went on to fight the Assad regime elsewhere in Syria, several died defending Mare' in Aleppo.

The Shaytat fighters for example went three separate ways to fight Isis: one with the regime, one with the SDF and one with the rebels.

Many are itching to go back and expel Isis from their areas. Why don't they do that? Washington's Syria policy.

The anti-Isis coalition's high command was made aware of all these things, but still showed contempt for civilian livelihood & fighters role

The Obama/Rhodes WH always claims they are fighting to destroy IS..BUT are they really that serious??

The FSA keeps attacking ISIS in al-Rai.
No US/Turkish forces helping it seems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CI9uFrLWuo&feature=youtu.be …

AND where is the so called USAF when there is a target rich environment??????

Senior Russian MP: Brexit a "personal failure of Barack Obama." https://twitter.com/Alexey_Pushkov/status/746246254389305344 …

Russian war in Syria is -no sacred Christmas story of the lone Star of Bethlehem in the skies above the ME--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Y1yVuTTa8 …

It is a hardcore story of the killing of civilians by the deliberate targeting of the RuAF and their use if cluster, incendiary and thermobaric munitions....all with the approval of the Obama/Rhodes WH and the UN......

Sometimes it is in fact that simple to "call out"......

BUT hey they are at least they not doing anything "stupid" are they??

White House: Airstrikes against #Assad regime might ignite war and president #Obama prefers continue focusing on fighting #IS.

Following Obama announcement, Assad/Russia are expected to escalate their attacks across Syria destroying any chance of a political solution

THIS is the same exact argument used by the Obama/Rhodes WH in not providing TOWs and counter battery radars to UAF in eastern Ukraine while under full scale attack by the Russian Army......there they even argued that TOWs and counter battery radars ARE "offensive weapons".....whereas in Syria TOWs are a "defensive weapon".......

Basically this now opens the flood gates for both KSA and Turkey to make their moves under the argument the US is absolutely doing nothing thus we will......and if these Russian cluster and incendiary air strikes continue and as the resulting videos make their rounds in the ME...they will make their moves....

So while the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH congratulate themselves on how proud they are of their highly successful Syrian/IS "so called strategy" which is really is nothing other than doing "nothing" THIS is what the rest of the world is seeing now daily.......

One has to wonder what "altered state of reality" exists in the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH........it is called "legacy".......as the world is developing another opinion of the so called Obama/Rhodes/Kerry ME FP....that it fully and completely supports Russia and Iran......

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/wo...inkId=25783813

Russia unleashes lethal aerial arsenal on Aleppo

Quote:

Russia is breaching international conventions by dropping incendiaries similar to white phosphorus on to residential neighbourhoods in the Syrian city of Aleppo in what is thought to be the prelude to a ground assault to retake the city from rebel forces.

Photographs have also shown what experts believe to be a thermobaric bomb, the most powerful explosive apart from a nuclear weapon, being detonated next to urban areas, with potentially devastating effects for civilians.

Video footage has emerged showing the glowing showers of what is thought to be thermite raining down on a rebel-held suburb in the west of Aleppo.
Rest of story is behind a paywall....

Incendiary weapons take gruesome toll on civilians. So why is #Russia using them in #Syria?
http://bit.ly/28Nf5lA

Another footage for #Russia|n jets burning NW #Aleppo in #Syria by Phosphoros bombs.
Vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZn_M3Ng-VI …

EXTREMELY GRAPHIC but the world needs to know.
#Assad crimes in #Talbisah today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eknHv2Eli0c …

In the period of five years the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH discussed away the killing of 500,000 Syrian civilians as being something they had no interest in as it "would have been doing something stupid".......

Perfect example of just how little the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH cares about genocide and war crimes against humanity........

This much harm is unbearable but to understand why incendiary weapons are so deplored watch 2013 @hrw #Syria clip
https://youtu.be/soxtqJgNC7Y

Overnight incendiary munition use in Syria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Thc26npzY …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snYaxq7lhDQ …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIeLGPIGxAg …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOjMKHTM4YA …

Wow....all of 30 minutes and that spent on saying what he has been doing which is actually to date not much of anything outside of "failure after failure"...he was "just going through the motions" as he knows he is out of a job in NOV anyway.....

Kerry Meets With State Department Officials Critical of U.S. Syria Policy

Secretary of state engaged in back-and-forth with diplomats who are pushing for change

http://www.wsj.com/articles/kerry-meets-with-state-department-officials…

This appears to confirm just how "highly successful" the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH Syrian policies have been that Obama is "proud of".....

Hraytan Standard daily procedure now for many #Aleppo towns & villages to be hit w/ incendiary munitions by #Russia
https://youtu.be/XIeLGPIGxAg

So if "success to be proud of" is defined by death and destruction this WH is on a roll........

Cannot confirm this comment as either Rhodes spin or actually having been stated by the Obama WH........probably a little of both as they pushed back on the DoS Dissent Letter claiming their policies were a total failure.

Obama said he is "very proud" of his Syrian policy.

BUT am assuming it was actually said as it ties into their "spun" WaPo article that SWJ posted claiming a highly successful Syrian/IS strategy was hard at work......

As someone who has been tracking Syria now for almost two years I am not sure exactly what he "is proud of" other than "not doing stupid shit"...and a cage of monkeys pounding keyboards can do as well.

This though is the Syrian ground reality and I hope he is not "proud of that".....

This is how #Putin says "good morning" to the free Syrian people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO21rQKMJV0 …
#Hayyan shortly ago.

Just another night of unthinkable #Russian terror vs. the Syrian population.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThcXBCiUPEk …

4 year-old Haya Alloush victim of #Assad regime air attack targeted Kafranbel village #Idleb less than hour ago.

Dispatches: Incendiary Weapons Pose Civilian Threat in Syria | Human Rights Watch
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/06/21/dispatches-incendiary-weapons-pose-… …

Part of the Obama/Rhodes WH is that they have totally allowed their personal biases to get in the way of a clear thinking and clear and concise decisions built around a clearly defined set of strategies...they basically "winged it for almost eight years" and no one even challenged that.

AGAIN IF the statement is correct then I cannot imagine either Obama/Rhodes is proud of supporting and contributing to genocide and war crimes and want that as part of their so called "legacy".....

Courageous nurses rescue children after an air raid on a hospital in Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC-xNAwVOUw …

Video comments from two Shia women working with Iraqi Shia militias and Hezbollah troops.....epitomizes what the Obama/Rhodes WH has totally failed to understand with their full scale tilt to Iran as the regional hegemon......sectarian warfare clear and simple.....

"We are serving the Shia militias so that the banner of Hussein flies over the cities of the Sunnis"

Plain & Direct.

This is exactly why I often use here in comments the term "Khomeini's Revolutionary Islam".....which equals in many cases Sunni jihadism.....

Impressive RuAF incendiary strikes taking place in Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pM6ixJSTLc …

Something the Obama/Rhodes WH and the entire 700 person NSC urgently needs to read since it appears now they are actually supporting not defeating IS in Syria......

US policy in southern Syria is blundering into helping IS. And Russia is quite deliberately exacerbating this.

https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/...to-save-assad/

REALLY long read but worth it....

Russia Needs the Islamic State to Save Assad

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on June 20, 2016

Quote:

After a coalition supporting the regime of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad conquered the city of Palmyra from the Islamic State (IS) in late March, suggestions were made that this demonstrated the efficacy of the pro-Assad coalition in fighting IS, and doubtless the same will be said if and when the pro-regime forces conquer Tabqa. It isn’t true. From the time of Russia’s direct intervention in Syria on 30 September 2015 to Moscow’s announcement on 14 March 2016 that it was withdrawing “the main part” of its “military” from Syria, IS was almost untouched and al-Qaeda was barely damaged, while the Assad regime was bolstered and the moderate opposition, particularly those components supported by the West, were gravely weakened.

Despite Moscow’s claims that its mission was fighting IS or “terrorism,” Russia’s real goals can be summarized as three:
1.Rescue the Assad regime, which was assessed to be in mortal peril
2.Damage the mainstream armed opposition, especially those elements supported by the West, in order that Russia can …
3.Rehabilitate the Assad regime internationally by inter alia leaving only extremists as its opponents, depriving the international community of credible interlocutors, and therefore strengthening the Russian hand to make peace talks an instrument for re-legitimizing Assad, rather than removing him

In recent days, this basic war strategy has been seen again in southern Syria.

The Assad Regime Totters

In late March 2015, the Assad regime was swept from Idlib City, only the second provincial capital to fall, by Jaysh al-Fatah (JAF), a coalition of insurgents. JAF included Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, Jund al-Aqsa, and Ahrar al-Sham. JAF included, too, Ajnad al-Sham, a slightly ambiguous group that appears to be more hardline, plus Liwa al-Haq, a Homs-origin Salafist group, and Jaysh al-Sunna, a non-ideological group, both of which have since been subsumed by Ahrar. JAF also at that time included Faylaq al-Sham, a much more moderate Islamist group that has since left JAF and moved into the Western orbit, and the offensive was supported by numerous U.S.-backed, FSA-branded groups.

JAF hung together after the fall of Idlib City and pushed on to take Jisr al-Shughur by late April, the gateway to Latakia Province, the coastal homeland of the Assad clan and the Alawi minority from which he hails and which has disproportionately staffed the regime’s trusted military units. By June, the regime was losing ground not only in Idlib, but in Aleppo and in the south. On 9 September 2015, the regime pulled out of Abu al-Duhour airbase, making Idlib the second province to be completely free of a regime presence—and the only one to be free of the regime and IS, which had been expelled by the moderate opposition in January and February 2014. Regime losses were then suffered in Aleppo to rebels led by the moderate Islamists of al-Jabhat al-Shamiya (The Levant Front).

It had been thirty months or more since the Assad regime had appeared in this much strategic trouble, and the regime was unable to hide it. Assad gave a very important speech on 26 July 2015 conceding, for the first time, that “there is a shortage in manpower“. This is a chronic problem for the regime: Iran has tried to solve it by raising sectarian militias, orchestrating a Shi’a jihad, and increasingly flooding in its own irregular (and now regular) forces. But the demographics were remorseless. This was the calculation behind the joint decision by Iran and Russia to step in directly.

By June, the regime’s Iranian and Russian supporters had begun preparing their intervention, assessing that the regime would fall without it. Iranian troops were moved into position and Russian air assets and even a contingent of troops were moved to Syria. In July 2015, with the nuclear accord secured, Qassem Suleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), went to Moscow—despite a travel ban imposed by international sanctions that ostensibly prevents him leaving Iran—to finalize the arrangements.

Meanwhile, Russia prepared the ground politically. As a recent comprehensive report by The Atlantic Council notes, Russia very specifically framed its intervention as a means of countering IS. Vladimir Putin had opened his speech at the United Nations, on 28 September 2015, by invoking the anti-Nazi struggle and calling for an international alliance “similar to the anti-Hitler coalition” to defeat IS. As ever, Moscow’s version of the “Great Patriotic War” starts with Operation BARBAROSSA in June 1941, not with the crushing of Poland in September 1939—when Moscow was in a formal alliance with the Nazis. Nor was this the only deception.

Russia Intervenes

Two days after the U.N. speech, with the blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church, which called Putin’s mission a “holy war“—not dissimilar to ROC’s view of Moscow’s undeclared war in Ukraine—Russia’s bombardment of Syria began. Russia’s first wave of airstrikes did not go after IS. Russia did not even go after al-Nusra, which has laced itself into the rebellion as part of its stratagem for longevity in Syria—thus potentially providing a fig-leaf for Russian claim it was fighting “terrorism”. Instead, Russia attacked Free Syrian Army (FSA)-branded nationalist rebels like Harakat Tahrir Homs, the First Coastal Division, Jaysh al-Izza, Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, and Jaysh al-Nasr, which were or had received support through the covert programme run by the Central Intelligence Agency that has vetted and supplies around 50,000 moderate rebels throughout Syria. Indeed, the CIA quickly concluded that Russia was systematically targeting its assets in Syria. This situation was not improved by a public admission that the U.S. did not intend to risk a confrontation with Russia by providing vetted rebels with the ability to defend themselves from Russia’s air attacks.

Russia simply, blatantly, and repeatedly lied about what it was bombing. By 12 October, Russia’s Ministry of Defence had published forty-three videos of airstrikes in Syria, by The Atlantic Council’s count. Exactly one video showed an airstrike on an area held by IS. This “inaccuracy on a grand scale,” as The Atlantic Council puts it, took the form of deception about both the location and the target. The U.S. State Department on 7 October said that more than ninety percent of Russia’s airstrikes had hit non-IS targets.

Russia’s airstrikes, in fact, allowed IS to gain territory in the first two weeks of the intervention. Russia claimed on 9 October that it had killed two-hundred IS jihadists in Aleppo. Hours later—with no sign of Russian jets—IS advanced nearly ten miles north-east of Aleppo City, in areas the rebellion had held IS out of for two years, one of IS’s largest territorial gains since it took Ramadi and Palmyra in May 2015. Clearly Russia had bombed the rebels out of the way, allowing IS’s advance. “Russia’s involvement in Syria is facilitating ISIS’s territorial gains,” The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) summarized at the time. “ISIS is benefiting from Russia’s strikes on the Syrian opposition.”

This was the demarcation between an anti-IS and a pro-Assad intervention: Russia would allow—even assist—IS gains if it helped Assad, and helping IS destroy the other insurgents and make Syria into a binary choice of Assad or IS was very helpful to Assad; it is what the regime had claimed was the case, and worked at making the case, all along. In such a scenario, the regime was sure it could rely on the tacit support of the international community to put down the insurgency.

That the build-up of extremists within the insurgency in Syria—especially extremists that attack the mainstream rebellion—serves Russia’s foreign policy goals is what is behind Moscow having facilitated the travel of Jihadi-Salafists from the Caucasus to the Levant. This was reported as far back as August 2015 and in May 2016 Reuters documented six cases where the Russian state had directly or indirectly helped Islamic militants to go to Syria to wage jihad.

In the case of Saadu Sharapudinov, a jihadi from the village of Novosasitli in Dagestan who was already in the woods waging war against Russia, an offer was made by the Russian security services in December 2012 via a political official—who confirms the story—for the provision of a false passport and an airplane ticket to wherever he wanted to go. In September 2013, the FSB drove Sharapudinov to the airport “in a silver Lada car with darkened windows,” handing him a passport with a new name on it and a one-way ticket to Istanbul. This continued until at least September 2014, when Temur Djamalutdinov departed the Russian Federation, despite having been denied a passport two weeks earlier for non-payment of alimony and being on a watch-list of “Wahhabists,” with a notable uptick of state-assisted departures around the Sochi Olympics in February that year.

Continued.....

Russia’s intervention has both removed obstacles to al-Qaeda and IS, namely the rebels who can uproot and replace them, and provided the only conditions—extreme anti-civilian violence—in which al-Qaeda and IS can pose as the Sunni vanguard, a protector-of-last-resort.

MORE Obama/Rhodes WH fatal "fatalism"......

WELL so much for the with Obama/Rhodes WH/CENTCOM fanfare and vaulted PR.....SDF/YPG/PKK is being driven back by IS from around Manbij.......and the Russian offensive with Iranian and Hezbollah troops towards Raqqa as well.....

IS retook also Jubb al- Ashara, Gharrah Kabirah, Gharrah Kabirah & south of #Manbej
[url]http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.396415&lon=38.049259&z=13&m=b[/url] …

IslamicState retook Khirbat Zaydān & Syratel tower from #Assad-forces on road to #Raqqa
[url]http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35.490376&lon=38.265982&z=14&m=b[/url] …

IslamicState launched night assault on Bir Abu al `Allaj at #Raqqa road to push #Assad-forces further back
[url]http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35.491984&lon=38.175430&z=13&m=b[/url] …

Despite #Russia'n armored vehicles, ground & air support #Syria'n
regime- forces suffered setback on road to #Raqqa

In one photo there were alone six identified Russian Spetsnaz based on their weapons they were carrying...same seen in eastern Ukraine....

APPEARS the only ones that are holding their own and winning against IS is the not so much US supported FSA and definitely not supported JaN (AQ)...AND they both are on a roll against Assad......

YET Obama/Rhodes WH says absolutely nothing ......AT least the Russians "think" there can be a military solution in Syrian....a Russian solution.....which again proves that the Obama/Rhodes WH was wrong........

BreakingFootage
HELL caused by #Russian jets to the town of #Hayyan, north of #Aleppo.
[/B]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu5ZIiG_X8Y …

Has the Obama/Rhodes WH simply lost the plot in it's final seven months????

Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria agrees: Obama's policy is bankrupt:
http://thebea.st/1sNM52S

U.S. Diplomats Are Right on Syria

Quote:

The former U.S. ambassador to Syria agrees that President Obama has lost the plot.

In response to the State Department dissent memo signed by 51 officials who have worked on Syria in recent years, the White House probably won’t change its approach to the broad Syrian conflict. After nearly two years of American military operations in Syria, after an estimated 400,000 or more dead in Syria, and after Syrian refugee flows have raised questions about European unity itself—the unity that was a goal of American foreign policy dating back to Truman—the memo is right to urge we review how can we achieve secure our strategic objective in Syria. The discussion is all the more urgent since there are no sure-fire solutions and no options without risks.

The dissent memo supports the administration’s goal of ending the conflict by having Syrians negotiate the establishment of a new government that could rally Syrians to fight extremists like the Islamic State. The memo doesn’t call for regime change; it doesn’t say that Bashar al-Assad has to go. That’s an issue for Syrians to negotiate in what surely would be very hard talks.

Those talks have never really started mainly because of constant Syrian government violations of the ceasefire. In a reminder of Richard Holbrooke’s use of NATO air power to change the calculations of Serbia and its Bosnian Serbian allies, the memo urges deterring the Syrian government from further violations by destroying some Syrian military assets with stand-off strikes. Once Assad understands the ceasefire is for real, and he can’t win militarily, the memo reasons that real political talks about Syria’s future can finally begin.

Some critics of a more muscular American approach warn that this is a recipe for Iraq 2003 redux or a replay of Libya 2011 when regimes fell and chaos ensued. George W. Bush didn’t seek a transition negotiation with Saddam. Qadhaffi had an ICC indictment waiting for him; Assad doesn’t. The future of Assad and his inner circle is an issue for Syrians to negotiate. The Syrian opposition even hinted once that it might drop the issue of holding Assad accountable if he steps down. The larger point is that the majority of the armed opposition is willing to negotiate a new government but the Syrian government isn’t.

Other critics of greater American involvement warn that it is naïve to think Assad will ever negotiate. Like the Fuhrer he’d rather go down in a fiery Gotterdamerung if abandoned by his allies (presumably his inner circle all would agree). Since the Russians and Iranians won’t abandon Assad, the Americans and their regional friends must instead abandon the opposition. These analysts haven’t explained why regional actors like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, or even Turkey, as uncomfortable as it is with Syrian Kurdish expansionism, would find this change to be in their interest.

More importantly, these analysts haven’t explained how millions of Syrians would be reconciled to an unrepentant Assad government and if, as likely, they cannot reconcile, and how much larger numbers of Syrians would rally around Assad to fight the many extremists in their midst. The State Department dissent memo warns that if local Sunni Arab communities don’t rally to fight the Islamic State and al-Qaida, then we will not contain the extremists over the long-term, and American military operations will never end. The question is how to get that local Sunni Arab support. The memo rightly asserts that stopping the Assad government attacks on civilian communities and resolving the larger Syrian conflict are key. The Obama administration focus on the Islamic State, and not the larger civil war, is misplaced.

Moreover, those wanting to accept Assad say international funding should appear, like magic, to rebuild Syria, but they don’t explain where it would come from. Is it realistic to think that the international community would rally around Assad to raise the absolutely enormous sums required for a reconstruction program his bloody, corrupt government would direct? Without national reconciliation and without national reconstruction, how will the millions of Syrian refugees go home and how will pressure on our European friends be eased? Proponents of accepting the Assad government as it is are really just saying there is no chance to stabilize Syria or address our broader interests. The dissent memo should receive credit for at least trying to figure out a better way forward.

Finally, some reject even limited U.S. military strikes because of the risk of direct confrontation with Russia. Striking Russian military assets in Syria would create such a risk. Hitting Syrian government targets is different; the Israelis appear to have hit targets in Syria with no vigorous Russian response. Moreover, the Russians have hit American-backed opposition groups. They set the precedent. If presented with an American military fait accompli, might the Russians respond by escalating with more bombing, more military aid to Damascus or even troops? Very likely they would. That would pose questions then about additional U.S. strikes if Damascus, counting on Russian backing, continues its violations. We could expect multiple rounds of Syrian, American and Russian #### for tats before any serious political talks—a riskier, less tantalizing proposition.

Other analysts, myself included, argue that before using still more American military force in Syria, we should first figure out how to boost the moderate opposition. The dissent memo itself urges empowering the moderate opposition. However, Defense Department and CIA efforts now are separate and have distinct goals. We should consider program resources, how to structure programs so that they are not blank checks to opposition groups but rather are part of a broader political opposition outreach effort, and how to channel our efforts in a mutually reinforcing manner. What is more absurd than Pentagon-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters attacking CIA-backed Syrian Arab fighters or a NATO ally shelling fighters (linked to a terrorist group) whom the Pentagon is arming? That suggests incoherence in Washington aggravating, not resolving, contentious agendas in Syria. We can do better.

Attaining the U.S. objective of a negotiated new government in Syria needs cooperation from Russia and Iran who must understand that they and Assad won’t be able to impose a political deal with only cosmetic changes that the majority of the Syrian opposition cannot and will not accept. That’s not an American dictate—it’s a Syrian one. The dissent memo should wake us up that the current approach ensures we will not secure our national interest in Syria, that broader U.S. interests will suffer as a consequence, and we need to reconsider our approach.

Obama and his spin doctor Rhodes of Iran Deal spin fame pushed back on the DoS Dissent Letter indicating there is no military solution for Syria......which they have been saying actually since late 2012/early 2013 and thus complicit in the killing of 500,000 Syrians by taking no actions...

BUT notice the use of words in the DoS Dissent Letter that neither Obama nor Rhodes addressed.....

Using “judicious” military pressure to set-in-motion a sustainable political process & durable settlement is *not* a “military solution."

Seems they need to attend an English word usage class.....

Obama and his spin doctor Rhodes of Iran Deal spin fame pushed back on the DoS Dissent Letter indicating there is no military solution for Syria......which they have been saying actually since late 2012/early 2013 and thus complicit in the killing of 500,000 Syrians by taking on actions...

BUT notice the use of words in the DoS Dissent Letter that neither Obama nor Rhodes addressed.....

Using “judicious” military pressure to set-in-motion a sustainable political process & durable settlement is *not* a “military solution."

Seems they need to attend an English word usage class.....

The New Syrian Army ‏@NSyA_Official
The Russian aggression and bullying of the New Syrian Army camp, more details:
https://www.facebook.com/The.NSAy.Of...55249531509776 …

Wise words from a Syrian SME who should be listened to especially inside the Obama WH.....and especially his so called Deputy National Security Advisor Rhodes who led the Iran Deal spin campaign......

http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/co...yrias-conflict

The US has only one good option in Syria’s conflict

Hassan Hassan

June 19, 2016 Updated: June 19, 2016 04:55 PM

Quote:

Last week, news emerged that 51 officers at the US State Department signed an internal memo urging a more muscular approach in Syria. Without action, the diplomats warned, the regime of Bashar Al Assad will have no reason to abide by the cessation of hostilities or negotiate in good faith. And to stem the appeal of extremists, the US should recognise that Mr Al Assad is responsible for the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of victims in this conflict.

The call comes amid a desperate situation for the Free Syrian Army’s Southern Front in Deraa, arguably the only place where the US policy deserves true praise. The one-eyed policy of focusing on extremists and neglecting the regime is quickly eroding what was a successful effort. Whether the rebel coalition will overcome the brewing crisis there will hinge on whether the diplomats’ advice will be heard.

As a viable fighting force consisting of mainly nationalist rebels concentrated in one region, the Southern Front is often cited as the most successful model for the opposition. Unlike in the more-chaotic north, jihadists in the south have been checked by powerful forces capable of combining force and governance – such as the Southern Front.

Recently, the rebel coalition has been facing four-way pressure that could lead to its demise.

The rebels are under pressure from the US-led Military Operations Command (MOC) in Amman to focus on fighting ISIL in Deraa. As The National’s Phil Sands and Suha Maayeh reported last week, the MOC suspended a shipment of arms and payments scheduled for the rebels the previous week. Delivery of arms and money will be contingent on the rebels’ military delivery against ISIL.

The arms-twisting policy comes amid enormous popular pressure and criticism levied against the forces of the Southern Front. Over the weekend, the opposition circulated documents signed by 50 highly influential members of the opposition – including military commanders, activists and religious clerics – which urges the Southern Front to stop sitting idly by while the rest of Syria is being pounded by the regime and its backers.

Such criticism emanates from the perception that the Southern Front is a puppet of foreign countries. The state department’s memo rightly states that Syrians continue to see the Assad regime as their primary enemy, and the only way to rally everyone against this organisation is to put an end to its flagrant abuses.

There is almost a consensus inside Syria that rebels in the Southern Coalition are prohibited by its backers from advancing into sensitive regime bases near the capital. The rebel coalition’s credibility is already in question throughout Syria, and increased pressure on the rebels to focus even more on ISIL will undoubtedly weaken it. The MOC’s threat to withdraw support if the rebels do not advance against ISIL adds insult to injury.

By pressuring the rebel coalition in the south to shift attention to ISIL, the US is concurrently weakening the coalition and strengthening ISIL.

In the memo, the diplomats said that failure to stem Damascus’s abuses will bolster the ideological appeal of groups such as ISIL. This fact should be recognised especially as the Southern Front is now facing a more organised ISIL force in Deraa after three local forces merged under a coalition loyal to ISIL last month.

Besides the MOC, opposition activists and ISIL, local families are also asking armed groups to sign truces with the Russians. Such demands might not be critical for now, but it adds to the pressure and shows that the relevance of the Southern Front is increasingly questioned by both hawkish opposition and ordinary people.

The precarious situation of the Southern Front is real. If it opts to please its foreign backers by focusing on ISIL and neglecting the call by influential civil, military and religious activists, its position will be weakened in the eyes of ordinary people.

This will also strengthen ISIL, which, as I said in these pages last week, is seeking to expand in southern Syria by relying on loyalists from the area, many of whom come from prominent local tribes.

The anti-ISIL policy in Deraa is clearly misguided. It is consistent with the broader policy to stem ISIL, often by relying on forces perceived suspiciously by locals.

In the south, there are no such forces on which the US-led coalition can rely to fight ISIL, unless it wants to work with Mr Al Assad.

That leaves the US with one good option – to listen to the sage advice of the 51 diplomats.

Can anyone at SWJ or the DoD fully explain exactly what went on in Syria and why the Obama WH has no ROEs for this.....???

BTW...British SF were also inside this base....

Russian SU-34s circled back around to bomb medics treating wounded of 1st strike... after F18s left to refuel.
Typical Russian double tap practice often used against the Syrian Civil Defense......

http://www.latimes.com/world/middlee...nap-story.html

Russian jets strike American-backed forces in Syria, ignoring U.S. warnings

By W.J. Hennigan

June 17, 2016, 2:59 PM |Reporting from Washington

Quote:

Russian warplanes hit Pentagon-backed Syrian fighters with a barrage of airstrikes earlier this week, disregarding several warnings from U.S. commanders in what American military officials called the most provocative act since Moscow’s air campaign in Syria began last year.

The strikes hit a base near the Jordanian border, far from areas where the Russians were previously active, and targeted U.S.-backed forces battling the Islamic State militants.

No U.S. forces were present in the area, but the U.S. military scrambled fighter jets and used an emergency communications channel set up to avoid air accidents to tell Russian officers to end the strikes, according to the officials, who spoke Friday about the incident after requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers left the area at first, but came back for a second strike after the U.S. F/A-18 fighters went to refuel. The second attack killed several Syrian rebels attempting to provide medical support to the survivors of the initial one, officials said.

“It’s an egregious act that must be explained,” a U.S. official said. “The Russian government either doesn’t have control of its own forces or it was a deliberate provocative act. Either way, we’re looking for answers.”

The incident came amid calls within the U.S. government for a tougher approach to the Syrian conflict.

On Thursday, an internal State Department memo became public in which 51 diplomats, using the State Department’s long-standing dissent process, criticized President Obama’s policy and called for U.S. military strikes against forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, Russia’s ally.

State Department spokesman John Kirby on Friday conceded that such a large number of signatures on a dissent memo was "unusual."

"No one's content with the status quo,” he said. “Too many people are dying.”

Assad’s army continues to bomb civilian neighborhoods as the bloody civil war plods toward its fifth year. Russian bombing and intervention by Iranian-backed forces have helped give Assad's embattled government an advantage over rebel groups in recent months.

Nearly all the Russian airstrikes over the past nine months have hit northern Syria, in the region around Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city. The Free Syrian Army, a loose grouping that has received aid from Washington and its allies in the Persian Gulf and Turkey, has battled government forces for control of the city.

The U.S. has carried out its own air campaign against Islamic State positions in eastern Syria.

These latest strikes occurred on the other side of the country from the usual Russian operations, around Tanf, a town near where the borders of Jordan, Iraq, and Syria meet.

​​​​​U.S. officials believe the strikes were launched to pressure the U.S. into working with Russia. Moscow has long wanted the U.S. to combine its air campaign in Syria with Moscow’s so they can share intelligence and targeting information.

The Obama administration has rejected that idea because it would put U.S. forces on the same side as Assad. The administration says Assad must leave power, although officials have said he could remain for a period of "managed transition."

The Russian strike hit a small rebel base for staging forces and equipment in a desolate, unpopulated area near the border. About 180 rebels were there as part of the Pentagon's program to train and equip fighters against Islamic State.

When the first strikes hit, the rebels called a U.S. command center in Qatar, where the Pentagon orchestrates the daily air war against Islamic State.

U.S. military commanders called their Russian counterparts on a special hotline set up to ensure the two countries' pilots will not mistakenly run into – or fire upon – one another as they conduct daily bombing runs in the skies above Syria.

Two Navy fighter jets were scrambled from one of two U.S. aircraft carriers stationed in the Mediterranean Sea. The U.S. pilots visually identified the pair of Russian jets,which briefly left the area but returned once the American planes went for additional fuel.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter briefly addressed the incident with reporters at the Pentagon, saying the U.S. military was attempting to “clarify the facts” on why the communications channel wasn't “professionally” utilized.

Pentagon officials have said in the past that the U.S. military would defend forces it trained if they were threatened inside Syria by Assad’s government.

“This was an attack on forces, first of all, that were fighting ISIL,” Carter said, using an acronym for Islamic State. “Obviously that's the first thing that's problematic about this Russian conduct."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to confirm the attack Friday, telling reporters it was difficult to distinguish different rebel groups from the air.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said Moscow’s air campaign is aimed at Islamic State. But the strikes, instead, have focused on moderate opposition forces and to some extent on the Nusra Front, a group aligned with Al Qaeda, according to analyses by U.S. intelligence officials. The Russian military has launched a relatively small number of airstrikes against Islamic State, mostly for propaganda purposes, U.S. officials say.

Putin has called for a broad international coalition to fight Islamic State, including the United States and other Western countries already waging airstrikes on the militants. He has insisted, however, that Assad be involved

in the campaign and that any foreign interventions be subject to the approval of the Syrian leader, whom he has described as a bulwark against terrorism.

“It's about ensuring Assad's hold on power and weakening his enemies,” said Dmitry Gorenburg, a senior research scientist on Russia at CNA, a think tank based in Arlington, Va. The Russians feel that “having accomplished a great deal in the north, there's no reason not to do something similar in the south,” he said.
RuAF used cluster munitions against US-backed New #Syria|n Army near al-Tanef border crossing
via Ali Rahabi

Did Shoigu inspect the Su-34 that bombed #US-backed rebels shortly ago, virtually under the eyes of a US F-18?! ...

So US air force jets over al-Tanf all had to refuel at the same time an Russian jets attacked again?! ...
Rather watching Russia bomb, hu?!

"We tried but failed to give cover" seems to me the Obama admin's way to say: "Of course, we couldn't stop them from bombing. Want WW3?!"

Appears the Obama WH and their spin doctor Rhodes have now formally admitted their so called successful IS and Syrian strategy is an abject failure and they will go down in history as being complicit in major genocide costing well over 500,000 Syrians their lives while the Obama WH continued to think they were more intellectually smarter than all of the "hated DC FP establishment"....

Obama administration pushes back on StateDept dissent on Syria policy, rules out military strikes on Assad.

White House Rejects Internal Critique of Syria Policy
Foreign diplomats add their voices to protest cable sent by dozens of State Department officials
http://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-rejects-internal-critique-of-sy…

Was the last chance for Obama to truly prove himself worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.....

Sad for those US service personnel losing their lives in the name of "no strategy" and in even in the end will they will not be able to defeat IS......as they truly lack the support of Syrian Arab Sunni's as they are being bombed into the dust to "prove the hated DC FP establishment is wrong"....

Heck he is even unwilling to defend his very own "proxies" and he is asking the Arab Sunni ME and global Sunni community to "trust" the US in the future.....???

Obama's utter lack of action is basically now allowing Turkey, KSA and the other regional Sunni/Arab players a chance to fully engage and support the AQ Syrian group JaN and the moderate FSA to role now unhindered by US demands and or actions and the arms and money are flowing as they no longer are listening to Obama/Kerry.

The Syrian AQ (Jan) is growing in strength and power and rolling well on the battlefield against the Iranians the chief supporter of Assad AND they are gaining a high level of respect from the FSA and the Syrian civil society and from the regional players as at least they are fighting for Syrians against Assad and actually little notice even against IS.......

This rebellion has now shifted into attacking Iran who has been supporting Assad as they believe that by defeating Iran they defeat in the end Assad and Russia and they are probably true in the end.

EVEN the US SOF are in trouble as Turkey will never allow SDF/YPG/PKK to control any territory along their southern border to Syrian nor allow the Kurds to take and control Arab Sunni land and or link into Afrin canton.

That is something even Obama must now fully understand....