In comments that seemed to have been designed to justify a continued US
military presence in Syria, US Special Envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition
James Jeffrey claimed ISIS in Syria are only defeated where US ground troops are, and that ISIS is still active in parts of Syria, particularly south of the Euphrates.
This narrative would make sense on a very superficial level, if true,
because US forces in Deir Ezzor Province are in the Kurdish-held
territory, further north, and the Syrian military and its allies took
areas south, near the river itself.
The problems, however, are that there haven’t been reports of ISIS being
active in this area of Syria south of the Euphrates. Even if there
were, the US has one of its largest bases in Syria in al-Tanf, which is
in this area, and the US has carved out much of that area as a no-go
zone for the Syrian military.
ISIS presence in Syria is at this point virtually non-existent, and to
the extent there are any at all, they are scattered about in the desert
in Deir Ezzor Province. This spans both US-held territory and some areas
where the Syrian military is, but so long as ISIS remains in the
desert, no one appears to have any interest in coming after them.
These people are insane. They are trying to keep the dead ISIS horse alive, to justify any military intervention anywhere. In fact, US has not defeated ISIS anywhere. Bombing of Mosul, Raqqa or Kirkuk did not defeat ISIS. It just killed many civilians. ISIS was defeated by Syrian forces, Lebanese, Turkish and Iraqi forces on respective borders. And Iraqi and Iranian forces in Iraq. What was left in the picket where US forces were present ended up in refugee camps US protected abd did not allow anybody to have access to. MBS and UAE cut of funds and supply of Salafi preachers and experiences fighters. With no money, arms and foid — they were done. And the lies never ended. Syrian Kurds did not fight ISIS but local rebellions if Arab population of Euphrates valley and Deir Azzor that was afraid of remaining under Kurdish control — even though Syrian Arabs are over 90% of population. Provocations were purposeful — like introducing Kurdish in schools. Knowing full well that Arabs want to be under Assad rule — they are creating provocations to stir up rebellions and call it — fighting ISIS. Now, they want to expand the mission to “help” — Africa perhaps. But now they will have to fund rebellions, without MBS help. UK has been funding Al-Qaeda in Syria all along and even now is trying to insert itself into Idlib situation. Now US and UK are using UN. The minute you allow UN to “bring aid” you are creating a beachhead for Western meddling. It just happened in Idlib where UN aid building was presumably bombed by Syria and is asking for investigation. The objective is to force Syria and Russia to accept Idlib HTS into Constitutional Committee so the UK sponsored terrorists and their White Helmets will wreak havoc in negotiations for peaceful end to Syrian crisis. But Turkey is foiling this plan. Slowly peace deals are cut between Damascus and non-HTS groups creating bigger corridors of areas free from HTS — while nobody is accepting Al-Qaeda. Turkey controls rebel groups that split from HTS. Now, HTS has no means of resupply — and cannot hit those groups back. Which will not stop US and UK from trying to meddle and save their darlings till the last breath.
There’s one country you totally forgot, Bianca – Russia. Russian air and ground forces did most of the fighting against ISIS and destroyed their camps and supplies. The Syrian forces would’ve lost had Bashar Assad not invited the Russians in, followed by Iranian advisers/trainers.
No I did not forget. All the global powers and some European countries still thinking they are global powers have been there from the moment US took an aim at Iraq, following the unsuccessful attempt by US sponsored Saddam Hussein to defeat Iran. The manufactured Kuwait crisis brought into global focus the apparent bipartisan consensus in US to reshape world order. Simultaneous crisis in the Middle East, Balkans and post-Soviet region signaled the end of post WWII world. The end of Cold War was just the beginning of anti-Russia campaign.
The intervening years, interventions and chaos have reshaped the world, particularly consolidated the strategic directions of two largest Eurasian powers — Russia and China. And I would say many other regional Asian countries in danger of being swallowed by the the order. Besides Iran, Turkey, Pakistan. Afghanistan and several Central Asian countries came under increasing pressure by the increasingly blunt and undiplomatic American leadership. Even the usually smooth British style did not soften it — quite to the contrary, London started to sound just as crass.
Bombing of Yugoslavia and secession of Kosovo were a breaking point. A new organization was set up to challenge the American world order and promote a new one.
Fast forward, Syrian crisis brought about the opportunity for the new powers to step out of the mostly diplomatic role into a military role.
Russia came in not only to put an end to the use of large proxy forces as means of bringing down governments — but to bring about regional consensus in support of Syria’s sovereignty. The outcome is a strong intelligence sharing center in Baghdad, with Iran, Iraq and Russia participating. The coordination among the peace guarantors — Iran, Turkey and Russia has been exquisite. Iran’s support for much maligned Shia in the region, while Russia was a comfort to much abused Christians in the area. Turkey played a very important role, even though much of the commentary misses it — prejudice against Turkey runs high, blinding observers from noticing changes. From breaking up ISIS string of conquests along the border, a corridor was cut by Turkish army between border and Al-Bab preventing US sponsored Kurds from expanding control to Afrin. This would have been an absolute disaster. Today, US backed Kurds cannot control Iraqi border with Syria, leaving US with little leverage in Al-Tanf.
What has changed is the following. It has been proven that — short of an outright occupation — American ally supported Wahhabi cults, and their cruelty are not capable of destroying a country that has military support and regional assistance, both diplomatic and economic. And in case of Syria, the proxy forces were already well infiltrated and kept population hostage. What made the difference in both Syria and Iraq? Once they were supported by solid intelligence, they started winning against Islamists of all stripes. Also, helpful were self- defense groups, like Shia, Christian and Palestinian militias in Syria, and Shia in Iraq. This ensured local support, and provided even better intelligence.
I feel we need to give a great deal of credit to armed forces of Iraq and Syria. They endured cruelty of ISIS designed to crush their morale, hit their families, and destroy cohesion. It did not work — and this is a model countries like Venezuela can implement. And it will be easier, as the inly division that exists is the tension between the mostly urban descendants of European colonists and native Venezuelans. As for Iran, they also do not have a substantial divisions like those present in Syria and Iraq. Thus, less problems with internal divisions.
Which means that to attack Iran, only military options are on the table. But the dilemma is — what kind of option . Each and every has major risks. Thus twitching in the face of decisions. However, the danger is mostly in hastiness and poor grasp of what is happening. Not that this has ever been a problem. Living with the sense of invulnerability has led to inventing facts on the ground to justify whatever actions. This has fundamentally changed, with the accompanying confusion — and the ever increasing internal divisions not choosing means and not caring of outcomes. A character of our elites on display.
What a shameless lie. ISIS & Al Qaeda only thrive where USA is present.
As ussual….delussional.
Members of ISIS will eventually move into the US mainland. It’s clear the US hasn’t wiped out ISIS but to the contrary it has supported them, tho’ it does seem at times the US will attack ISIS for positive media coverage. But you can’t casually kill your proxies whenever it suits and expect no retaliation.
The US supported ISIS when Obama was President, Mick, not with DJT in the White House.
Last December, DJT announced a withdrawal of ALL US troops from Syria, but the withdrawal was sabotaged by Pompous Pompeo and Bonkers Bolton, who got their orders from Tel Aviv.
Trump is the commander in chief. If there are still US troops in Syria, it’s because he wants them there. Pompeo and Bolton aren’t reasons, they’re excuses.