On September 8th, Secretary John Kerry announced that “We [The United States] unquestionably mark a major milestone for Iraq, and what President Obama has made clear will be a cornerstone of our efforts against ISIL.” Kerry said that Iraq “has overcome the obstacle of ethnic and sectarian divides and the Iraqi parliament approved a new inclusive government.” Not to take anything away from this difficult achievement, however, the work has just begun.
Secretary John Kerry’s Press Conference
This new inclusive government now must pull all of Iraq’s tribal leaders and community business communities together for a chat to make sure they can and “will unite for a strong Iraq … to give those communities a chance for the future that all Iraqis desire and deserve.” From a historical perspective, it will take more than a chat. It will be heated discussions that could breakdown into disputes then cavernous divides if they do not have strong leadership and civil society guidance.
Tomorrow Secretary Kerry travels to the Middle East to continue building the broadest possible coalition of partners around the globe to “CONFRONT, DEGRADE AND ULTIMATELY DEFEAT ISIL.”
President Barack Obama will continue to lay out “The Strategy” on Wednesday.
For anyone who is confused, ISIL is old school for ISIS or their most recent transformation into “The Islamic State”. The US speech writers just haven’t been able to keep up with the two name changes ISIS has stepped through as they have morphed into a “Super Terror Organization.” Both President Obama and Secretary Kerry nor the rest of the US team is caught up with The Islamic State. ISIS might even be getting some kind of twisted entertainment out of the fact that the US is about to hunt a group that no longer exists, at least in the eyes of The Islamic State (aka ISIS).
The War on Terror – Is ISIS The Result
Secretary Kerry goes on to say in his press conference that almost every country on this earth has a role in eliminating the ISIL (sic) threat and the evil that it represents.
According to Kerry this global team is already being built to take on the mission: “CONFRONT, DEGRADE AND ULTIMATELY DEFEAT ISIL (sic) which he says, “will be built not just in a matter of days or weeks, but it will be built to endure for the months and perhaps even the years to come.”
Who is ISIS (previously known as ISIL)?
Who Is On Board With “CONFRONT, DEGRADE & DEFEAT”?
- Canada is sending military to advise and assist the Kurdish Military
- Albania is providing military equipment [to Kurdish Military]
- France and the United Kingdom are providing military equipment and humanitarian aid. The destination is not declared.
- Japan and Austrailia have agreed to provide humanitarian aid, and Austrailia has agreed to take thousands of refugees from both Iraq and Syria.
- Kuwait and Saudi Arabia provided and continue to provide large amounts of humanitarian aid.
- The GCC has committed to shut down any funding that is flowing from those countries to terrorist organizations in Iraq or Syria.
Secretary Kerry stated that more is expected to come from the UN General Assembly later this month.
There seems to be no sense of urgency – thousands of people could have been killed by then.
The “CONFRONT, DEGRADE & DESTROY” plan emanated from a meeting last week of NATO partners. It is not a bad plan so far, and certainly should continue to build. However, the United States who is consistently the leader of all of these plans, routinely misses the mark when thinking about how to deal with “This Islamic State” and shut them down.
- The end game to rid ISIS from Syria and Iraq cannot take years
- Eradication of “The Islamic State” as an operational terrorist organization that is massacring thousands routinely in Syria and Iraq must happen quickly
- The longer it takes to pull a coalition together and plan confrontation, the more time ISIS has to counter-plan
- President Bashar al-Assad has not, is not now, and will never be a partner in the eradication of “The Islamic State.” He has already sold himself to satan. Both Assad and Iran are in bed with ISIS. This cannot be said in strong enough terms. Trusting Assad as a partner puts innocent Syrian lives in danger
- The Syrian FSA, including some IF groups, should immediately be armed to fight against The Islamic State
- Assad does not have a reliable military force left. The United States or other military air force could do the Syrian FSA a great service by disabling all military air fields in Syria, and also disabling all helicopters so they cannot lift off
- This would stop Assad’s ability to parachute supplies to his military that is cut off on the Damascus – Aleppo highway
- It would help to even out the playing field in Syria, and stop Assad from killing children on a daily basis
- The plan cannot exclude eradicating “The Islamic State” in Syria first and foremost. If not, these satanic-like terrorists will ebb back and forth across the open land that was once the border between Syria and Iraq, affirming that ISIS has “broken the Sykes Picot Agreement of 1916.”
There seems to be a false belief that Syria is a lost cause because the Syrian Free Army is made of lay persons, and Assad’s military is highly trained. This is false. A high percentage of the FSA are defectors from Assad’s military who come battle practiced and have Syria regime intel; but to be honest they also were lay persons when they were “recruited.”
Assad’s military is tired and weakened. Many of his assistance from Iran and other nations like Russia has gone home. He depends on ISIS to act as a divergence … when Assad wants to go left he works out with ISIS to pull the FSA right. This is how it has worked since ISIS came to Syria. It is why they were brought to Syria, by Iran and Assad for the specific purpose to save Assad’s “throne.”
