Obama is "concerned" about Russia sending troops to fight ISIS. I thought he would have been happy.

Kerry worried that Russian troops might inadvertently fire on US personnel training the "good" rebels. I thought we established that there weren't any, and most of them move between ISIS, Al Qaeda and other groups with newly received western weapons, selling hostages to each other etc.


Recently Obama has been calling for a regime change re Assad. Right when ISIS is is the most powerful group there. The only logical explanation is that Obama is trying to shoehorn ISIS into Syria. As one writer pointed out, it's like saying you are trying to defeat the powerful Viet Cong, and also calling for the collapse of the South Vietnam government. Something is fishy with the message he is giving.

Obama is concerned because Russia may succeed where USA failed and defeat ISIS.

Syria is a critical ally of Russia because they provide Russia with a port in the Mediterranean. Without Syria Russia would have no base in the region.

Furthermore, if Russia succeeds in Syria Iraq may request their services to wipe ISIS out of Iraq. That would be a blow to USA and Saudi Arabia.

Germany and France are welcoming Russia's actions as a positive force against ISIS.

Ah Ha! I think I have it. This makes sense:

From the first sudden, and quite dramatic, appearance of the fanatical Islamic group known as ISIS which was largely unheard of until a year ago, on the world's stage and which promptly replaced the worn out and tired al Qaeda as the world's terrorist bogeyman, we suggested that the "straight to beheading YouTube clip" purpose behind the Saudi Arabia-funded Islamic State was a simple one: use the Jihadists as the vehicle of choice to achieve a political goal: depose of Syria's president Assad, who for years has stood in the way of a critical Qatari natural gas pipeline, one which could dethrone Russia as Europe's dominant - and belligerent - source of energy, reaching an interim climax with the unsuccessful Mediterranean Sea military build up of 2013, which nearly resulted in quasi-world war.

The narrative and the plotline were so transparent, even Russia saw right through them. Recall from September of last year:

    If the West bombs Islamic State militants in Syria without consulting Damascus, LiveLeak reports that the anti-ISIS alliance may use the occasion to launch airstrikes against President Bashar Assad’s forces, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Clearly comprehending that Obama's new strategy against ISIS in Syria is all about pushing the Qatar pipeline through (as was the impetus behind the 2013 intervention push), Russia is pushing back noting that the it is using ISIS as a pretext for bombing Syrian government forces and warning that "such a development would lead to a huge escalation of conflict in the Middle East and North Africa."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-23/secret-pentagon-report-reveals-us-created-isis-tool-overthrow-syrias-president-assad

Assad may be bad, but at least he was contained. ISIS is a bit more ambitious. The refugee crisis you see now could get a whole lot worse.

I told you Obozo was incompetent, International Policy is beyond him. Race baiting and playing Golf are about all he is good at.

freediver wrote on Sep 13^th, 2015 at 7:54pm:


The US needs to get serious about destroying ISIS. Currently they are only interested in fighting ISIS in terms of protecting the regime in Baghdad. Across the border, they have been more than happy to let ISIS continue their battle against Assad virtually unimpeded. In Palmyra for example, huge numbers of ISIS troops and equipment crossed open desert in full view of US air surveilance to conquer Assad's forces there. The US could have annihilated them if they wanted to. But they are still committed to their goal of seeing the overthrow of Assad.

That may be changing though. There are indications that the US is finally resigning themselves to the reality that Assad is likely to remain in power - at least over a reduced area of control. Two major developments have reaffirmed this: 1. The final defeat of opposition forces on the Daraa Front, and the reports that foreign forces have withdrawn their support for the rebels involved in this offensive. This is significant because these rebels were the only rebels that western forces were prepared to support (at least openly). And 2. - the increased build up of Russian supplies to the Assad forces, and credible reports that Russian forces will soon be on the ground supporting regime forces, that is if they aren't already (source).

Its high time that the US develop a coherent strategy that gels with the realities on the ground. Defeating ISIS is a worthy goal, but they have to be serious about it - even if this involves agreeing on some understandings with Assad - if not actual cooperation. And an absolutely critical component of this will be pulling their neighbouring allies in line: put some serious pressure on Gulf Nations as well as Turkey to stop their support for ISIS.

Read cheney's new book if you want to get some breadth of the problems in the middle east and how they could be fixed.  Anyone with a memory should realise the middle east was fine when bush finished up his turn.  Obama is a radical president trying to push his left wing agenda at every turn - that means ultimately diminished trust for the US and its evil 'capitilist' ways and empowering a muslim caliphate.  Left wingers have the same goals as Muslims - they want submission to a central governing authority.  So look at the last few years in the middle east - muslim revolutitionaries like Muslim Brotherhood, Iran and yes even ISIS have been made allies and encouraged to expand.  Do you really think the ragtag ISIS would stand 5 minutes against an organised modern military.  Haha what a joke.  10 abrahams would roll them back to the stone age.  So here enters Russia.  Funnily enough the stabilising force. Interesting to see what is portends.

... wrote on Sep 13^th, 2015 at 1:49pm:


You mean Russia would sort them out like they did in Afghanistan?.