ISIS forces have begun a long-anticipated westward offensive into Syrian government territory, hitting the central Homs Province and attacking a major military airport in the area.
The rebel Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed ISIS was also attacking targets in the nearby Hama Province, and had killed 74 soldiers there over the course of a three-day battle.
Syrian officials hadn’t confirmed any military death tolls yet, but alleged a “massacre against civilians” in the course of an ISIS attack on a village in Hama.
ISIS has occasionally tested Syrian defenses in the central provinces in the past, but this latest round of offensives is seen as a more significant one, and may indicate this is ISIS’ preferred target for territorial growth in Syria right now.
Right now, ISIS territory in Syria is mostly in Deir Ezzor and Raqqa Provinces, and they also hold small portions of Hasakeh and Aleppo Provinces. In recent months they’ve tried to expand deeper into Aleppo and Hasakeh against Kurdish targets, but with mixed results.
I wonder if our (US) Government will ever get the clue that it made a horrible mistake in committing itself to "regime change" several years ago — against a Syrian government which in fact not only has never been a threat to our national security, but which was and is one of the very few secular governments in the Middle East. Because of that inexcusably stupid choice, our Government has helped foster massive violence throughout Syria — and has increasing found itself embroiled in a many-sided conflict which has resulted in our Government's effective alliance with the very Al Qaeda-related terrorists whom we have supposedly been fighting against since 9/11/01. And the stupidity extends over the Syrian border to Iraq, where our Government cannot admit the obvious fact that it shares with Iran a common interest in fighting against Al-Qaeda-related Sunni extremist terror organizations now occupying large parts of Iraq as well as Syria. Like Syria, Iran is not now and never has been a real threat to our national security; yet our Government persists in clinging to its decades of demonizing Iran, even though any moderately informed and honest observer must admit that the only real threats to our national security now come from Sunni extremist Al Qaeda affiliates and offshoots such as ISIS, al Nusra, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, etc. It is long past time to stop pretending that it is in our national interest to effect "regime change" in Syria and/or Iran, when the fact is that both of those governments share with us a common interest in curbing and eliminating Sunni extremist terrorist organizations such as the one (Al Qaeda) which in fact attacked our nation on 9/11/01 and have vowed to do so again.
A forthright and sensible statement. Sadly, the USG is neither forthright nor sensible, but rather hopelessly subverted, and driven to adopt a foreign policy of world domination by the Neocons acting as agents of the Israeli government in their pursuit the Zionist program.
I have a theory on this, which I don't recall seeing proffered elsewhere (which doesn't mean it hasn't happened). In the earliest stage of Jewish immigration — in hindsight, "invasion" seems more apt — the Zionists needed a great power patron to enable and protect them while they built up their numbers and militarized so they could defend themselves. The British, the Balfour Declaration, and Mandate Palestine completed that stage of the program.
Then, when the British left — driven out actually — the Zionists needed to win the war of conquest and enlarge and consolidate their holdings. With their military preparations, post-holocaust world sympathy, intense lobbying at the newly-formed UN, and a bit of help from their American friends they succeeded with stage two.
Stage three was security in the longer term: in particular, ***protection during the period of development of their infant state***. The war of conquest and the dispossession of the Palestinian population was certain to create, and did indeed create a fierce Arab hostility, against which the Zionists knew they would have to continuously and successfully defend themselves until it subsided, however long that might take.
To achieve that, they essentially "poodled" the United States into the role of their defender, and infected it with the very sort of militarism that Ike warned against. The Straussians hitched themselves to Scoop Jackson and promoted American military expansion. Post war triumphalism and burgeoning anti-communism provided fertile ground, while the Israeli -funded American Zionist Council morphed into AIPAC as it lobbied the USG into becoming Israeli-occupied territory. The Scoop Jackson crowd and the growing Zionist influence in DC became today's Neocons and American foreign policy became the world domination of the Wolfowitz doctrine. All to keep America bulked up militarily and at the beck and call of "the special relationship". They sought to have the US dominate the world and in so doing, keep it safe for Israel, and they've succeeded for 66 years.
Have the Zionists and Israel done this to the great detriment of the United States of America? You decide.
Don't worry. Everything is going according to plan. The USG has maximized instability in the region, which justifies continued US military involvement to provide profits for arms manufacturers and military contractors, and career advancement for very important people in the military and National Security State. Assad continues to be weakened, and ISIS now sits astride the former supply lines from Iran through Iraq and Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel's takfiri allies in ISIS and al-Nusra are set to take on Hezbollah when the time is right, so that Israel can safely occupy Southern Lebanon and steal the water from the Litani River.
See? All according to the flawless plan. Too bad for those journalists and others that ISIS beheaded, but that's war, you know — collateral damage. Besides, they weren't embedded.