The Obama Administration continues to insist that its strategy in Syria is “working,” but the setbacks on the ground are growing more dramatic by the day, and the Syrian Revolutionary Front, one of the largest “vetted, moderate” US-backed rebel forces, has been effectively wiped out.
The Revolutionary Front was routed by both ISIS and al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra in recent days, and has now surrendered outright after the fall of Deir Sinbal, agreeing to hand over all their weapons and bases to Nusra.
Those weapons, it should be made clear, include US-provided anti-tank missiles and GRAD rockets, and adds to the sizable cache of American weapons now in the hands of US enemies in Syria.
Nusra and ISIS had been at odds for most of the year going into the US war, but the administration’s decision to attack the both of them has driven them into a growing coordination, and turned the already massive ISIS into an even bigger group with even more international contacts.
The US had been backing groups like the Revolutionary Front with an eye toward eventually installing them as the new Syrian government, but even with US and GCC bankrolling, they never grew beyond comparatively small factions within the overall, Islamist-dominated rebellion.
That didn’t stop the US from throwing larger amounts of more advanced weaponry at them, despite it being fairly obvious that either ISIS or Nusra could take them out at any time.
There wasn’t much need for ISIS or Nusra to do so until the US expanded its war into Syria in September, and that made US allies on the ground huge targets for enemies they were not able to defeat.
The administration will no doubt downplay the defeat of the Revolutionary Front, having distanced themselves from the existing moderate factions with an eye toward eventually creating their own rebel group.
Yet the same problems loom large if and when that new group is created, as it will presumably be made up of recruits from the same feckless fighting forces, and awash in the same US armaments that didn’t work this time.
The US policy of throwing weapons and funds at such factions has not only failed, it has failed spectacularly, giving ISIS and Nusra a steady stream of advanced weapons to loot from smaller forces.
Not only has the administration clearly not learned that lesson, but the plan to create a new rebel force seems destined to repeat it, on an even larger scale.
Obama's manipulative politics in Middle East once again proven to have the USG finger all over creation of ISIS, a saudis barbarian regime where european as well as American oil companies happy to see their success in Iraq and Syria, so is Joe Biden who wanted for Iraq to be divided but Prince sultan Bandar beat him to it.
Another reason for the US to all out support Assad and provide them with weapons, intelligence, etc.
Jason, you said: "Not only has the administration clearly not learned that lesson, but the plan to create a new rebel force seems destined to repeat it, on an even larger scale." Perhaps we are the ones not learning the lesson, Jason, perhaps everything is really going as planned, that is, to create total chaos in the region, no? That certainly would be what Israel would like, and it doesn´t take any imagination to understand that America is doing it for Israel.
This so called fight of words between the Israeli and US governments may just be smoke and mirrors, while they work together to help Israel take over the region. Haven´t they both proven themselves to be less than trustworthy over the years? Why should we take their diner waitress haggling seriously? Yes, perhaps the ME is really going as planned.
Perhaps at the beginning…but it looks very out-of-control and regardless of intent, I don't think that Israel is as safe now as it might have been a year ago. As have many of the USG's plans over the past 13 years, this "plan" as you posit seems to be like a snowball coming down the hill, picking up speed and power but no longer manageable by the politicians in DC.
I think this game should come to an end. America is damaging their own interest as they create a terrorists group then fight them.This game is going on since Russian march in Afghanistan.
We are powerless as media is not independent and follow the interest of the Govt. of west.
This is part of the 'New world Order' Chucky Hagel boasted about. The ultimate goal of the
USG is to have both sides wipe each other out in 'endless' wars, while the MIC will continue
to swindle US taxpayers out of cash for its bogus wars for empire and profit.
Hagel's arrogance is nothing new. Our planet has seen uncounted regimes rise and fall.
USG empire will become just another regime to bite the dust like those before it.
All these Congress people that voted to give these weapons and money to these Rebels. Which now many of these weapons are in the hands of extremist. They should all be fired or arrested.
War — A quest for satisfaction going in the reverse direction
Like all things in life, war has a purpose, to resolve a battle over who deserves what?
Therefore, as no one deserves anything, as this day of life if far more then anyone deserves, a war is absolute futility with both sides battling to achieve an impossible goal, to satisfy their perception of what they deserve when the more spoils of war their able to take only inflates their perception of what they deserve.
Take the greatest war in the history of man, World War Two, for the moment the ruling elite of Empire USA realized their victory, the perception of what they deserved became so inflated that to stop Russia from expanding into Asia, they A-bomb destroyed 220,000 civilians in Japan.
For our perception of what we deserve, this is our goal to achieve, our high watermark in life and it controls every aspect of our mind, character and personality.
So, the goal of society is to convince everyone that they deserve less of everything and mostly nothing, as such a universal frame of mind would make wars and global warming impossible, what with everyone gaining their greatest pleasure from giving all they can give.
I wonder how long it will take McCrazy and Grahamcrackers to waddle to the podium and declare for all the hear, "No, wait, we meant the other moderate rebels!!"
I wonder also, now that the ISIS/ISIL is better equiped with the newly received US weaponry, if McCain and his traveling circus will still feel safe flying into the region. I don't know but wouldn't be surprised to learn that there were surface-to-air missiles in the US taxpayer provided weapons. One of the major problems with spreading dangerous weapons everywhere is you have no control over what or whom they are used against.
And with the US reputation in the toilet, one can only assume that the US is high on the retribution list for all the nasty war crimes we've delivered on the indigenous peoples of the ME. To paraphrase some religious nutcase, "You reap what you sow."
Can I get an Amen?
Amen!
“… perhaps everything is really going as planned, that is, to create total chaos in the region”
Exactly right. The non-MSM takes great pleasure in calling out the administration as a bunch of buffoons with an inept foreign policy. But that accepts everything we see at face value. What exactly are USG foreign policy objectives?
The administration has told us that the battle against IS would be a 30-year war. From that perspective, the war machine is functioning perfectly. Creating chaos, playing all sides of conflict, and drop shipping weapons to everyone, either directly, “accidentally” (air drops to IS), or by proxy (Syrian Revolutionary Front surrendering).
The primary foreign policy goal is sustaining and expanding the Empire, while inhibiting any other country from rising – the Wolfowitz Doctrine. The primary export is war and weapons of war. Trade policy is to diminish sovereign control, expand the corporatocracy, and control / exploit global resources.
Creating chaos, rupturing sovereign states, proxy wars, financial malfeasance, assassinations, torture, global drug cartel, police/surveillance state, all part of the plan.
The US is the most dangerous country on the planet.
Will those who battle for change — Please stand up?
Empire USA has a criminal intent and all because it opposes any kind of change. For it supports a criminal Shia government that intends to continue slaughtering the Sunni tribes and to deny the Kurds any right to be part of the democratic process.
The Kurds want no change, as they love the Western way of doing things, as evidenced by all the Western war materials they have received in exchange for their oil.
A most corrupt Shia government forbids all change, actually strives to exterminate anyone who even asks for change. For they have hoarded all political power from days of occupation until now and stability in corruption can only be achieved in this way.
Comes now the Islamic State with a moral intent to turn upside down anything and everything that pertains to the moral realm of things.
(1) For divorce court would be abolished guaranteeing to each man a wife for life.
(2) No teenage boy would be allowed to drool over the curve and shape of any woman’s buttock.
(3) No one would be allowed to enrich themselves upon the misery of the ignorant.
(4) In every Western democracy the educated upper half hoards all the wealth. This would be abolished.
(5) In every Western democracy the laboring-class is kept impoverished by starvation wages. This would be abolished.
(6) In every Western democracy the big banks establish a monopoly over the economy. In the Islamic State there are no big banks.