Getting It Right in Fighting ISIL
| Wayne MADSEN | 14.09.2014 | 00:00 |
President Obama and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attempted to craft a so-called «coalition of the willing» to help the United States fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in both Iraq and Syria. Obama was only able to enlist the support of the fragile new Iraqi government, the battered Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. The latter «partner», Saudi Arabia, has been ISIL's main benefactor. Obama also foolishly said he wanted to arm the «Free Syrian Army», even though many of its original members joined ranks with ISIL and its ally, the Al Nusra Front after being trained and armed by CIA and U.S. military teams in Jordan and Turkey.
Of the countries Obama and Kerry approached for their coalition, two - Jordan and Turkey - said no to launching attacks on Syria from their territory. Even the United Kingdom said they would not participate in attacking ISIL positions in Syria. As many as 300 British citizens are said to be fighting for ISIL in Syria and Iraq.
Due to pressure from the Israel Lobby in the United States, a group that always puts the interests of Israel ahead of the quite different and often opposing interests of the United States, Obama missed an opportunity to create a truly effective coalition that could carry out Obama’s wish to «destroy» ISIL. Obama and Kerry continue to cling to the notion that they can simultaneously destroy ISIL in Syria and vanquish the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the same time. Such ideas are fanciful and not grounded in reality. The Saudis were the source of the chlorine and sarin gas attacks on Syrian civilians and it was Saudi Arabia that nurtured Al Nusra and ISIL. The notion that a few Syrian government defectors who live in expensive hotels in Istanbul on a Saudi credit card represent any sort of «army» is ludicrous.
It is also clear that Saudi Arabia and Israel have been coordinating their efforts to support ISIL in Syrian, especially around the Golan Heights where Israeli Defense Force personnel have been providing cross-border support to ISIL guerrillas who seized control of Syrian army positions, as well as UN peacekeeping sites. CIA director John O. Brennan, a major supporter of the Saudi kingdom, has reportedly taken part in discussions between Saudi national security adviser Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a major supporter of Al Qaeda cells in the United States prior to 9/11 as spelled out in the redacted 28-pages in a Senate Intelligence Committee report; Saudi intelligence chief Prince Khalid bin Banda; and Israeli Mossad chief Tamir Pardo. In his recent prime time television speech, Obama said he wanted to curtail support for ISIL. However, he can only do that by threatening severe sanctions and other punishment on Saudi Arabia and Israel, ISII's two main friends in the Middle East.
ISIL has served as a propaganda windfall for the Israelis. Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein told Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Slobotka in Prague that Europe will soon understand Israel's problems with Hamas because ISIL is coming to Europe. Edelstein used ISIL, an Israeli and Saudi creation to topple the government in Damascus, to threaten Europe with terrorist attacks. Edelstein also warned the Czech prime minister against upgrading relations with Iran. Israel's only weapon is to use fear to intimidate not only smaller countries like the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Montenegro, but larger countries like Germany, France, and the United States.
For President Obama there is only one coalition that to eradicate ISIL that makes any sense. And the coalition that is needed most certainly cannot include Saudi Arabia, which has actually volunteered to train «Free Syrian Army» members to fight ISIL. It is more appropriate to say that Saudi Arabia wants to recruit more Free Syrian Army personnel to join ISIL, not fight against them. Obama would have everyone believe that the Wahhabist Saudi army and National Guard would take up arms against fellow Wahhabists who make up ISIL. In fact, the Saudi military exists for only one reason and that is to protect the extended Saudi royal family, nothing more and nothing less.
America’s natural coalition partners against ISIL are those who have already demonstrated their willingness to take on the radical takfiri Wahhabists: the Syrian armed forces, Lebanese Hezbollah volunteers who have fought against the Sunni radicals in Syria; Kurdistan’s peshmerga forces; Iran and members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who have assisted the Kurds and Turkoman fight ISIL in Iraq; Russia; and President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, who threatened to destroy the ISIL «bastards.» Obama could enlist Egypt if he drops his pretense of attacking ISIL in Syria and at the same time enlist Syrian opposition «moderates» to overthrow Assad. The Egyptian military, which rules Egypt, has been a longtime ally of the Syrian government under both Hafez and Bashar Assad.
There are other potential allies for a realistic campaign to rid the world of ISIL. The United States should abandon the ill-thought plans to re-federate Yemen under a silly plan drawn up by State Department neocons with close ties to Israel. Doing so, would bring South Yemeni independence restoration forces and Shi'a Zaidi Houthi rebels in north Yemen on America’s side to wipe out Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has provided men and other support to ISIL.
Senator John McCain and his Senate «shadow», Lindsey Graham, along with their neocon and Israel Lobby and Saudi influence-peddling friends would cry out against any American rapprochement with the Shi’a Islamic forces of Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria to take on ISIL but this is a case where the interests of Israel and Saudi Arabia are diametrically opposed to those of the United States,. President Obama, who does not have to face another election, is in a unique position to use his «bully pulpit» of the U.S. presidency to slap down McCain, Graham, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his entourage, and Saudi shills like the American Petroleum Institute lobby. These individuals and groups would have the United States belled more of its military personnel and treasury pursuing cockamamie policies in the Middle East designed only to protect the interests of Israel and the Saudi kingdom.
By abandoning cooperation with the Arabian peninsula's oil-rich potentates, America, after defeating ISIL, could turn its attention on ousting the Islamist radicals who have seized control of Tripoli, Libya. To do so should not involve the Libyan expatriates who were plucked from CIA-financed comfort in northern Virginia, Paris, and England to become to new Libyan government after the brutal ouster of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. Rather, America must stand ready to bring back into power in Libya some of the major supporters of Qaddafi. Some Qaddafi officials must be freed from prison. A stable Libya could then serve as a springboard to attack Wahhabists who have seized control of parts of northern Nigeria and Cameroon under the Book Haram banner and who have engaged in brutal terrorist attacks in Mali. The United States must also make common cause with the Tuaregs of Mali who want their own homeland of Azawad.
These are the steps that must be taken to right the wrongs committed by Obama’s incompetent interventionists who aided in turning the Middle East upside down.
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