Paris under attack

[kscarbel2]

This is a major event. And yet, since this topic was posted on November 13, less than 500 people have elected to view it. Though my business admittedly gives me a more global scope, I still find the lack of interest among my fellow Americans shocking.

The friction between Islam and the western world, well..............

Many Americans are only interested in simple black-and-white explanations. However, the Muslim equation can't be laid out so simply........it's very complicated. But people need to make an effort to familiarize themselves, because as is, things are only going to get worse.

In the Middle East, Eastern and Western Europe, China, Africa and Southeast Asia (Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia), the people of the "peaceful religion" are causing unrest.

[kscarbel2]

On U.S. refugee rejection..........

'We don't make good decisions if it's based on hysteria or an exaggeration of risks,' said Obama, speaking from Manila.

The U.S. president further rebuffed Republicans and said, 'I cannot think of a more potent recruitment tool for ISIL than some of the rhetoric that’s been coming out of here during the course of this debate.'

'When you start seeing individuals in positions of responsibility, suggesting that Christians are more worthy of protection than Muslims are in a war-torn land, that feeds the ISIL narrative. It’s counterproductive, and it needs to stop,' he declared.

"Apparently they're scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America," Obama said.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall, I feel Obama has presented some valid points over the course of the Paris event.

However, I don’t feel most Americans are forming their opinions out of hysteria.

This is a Middle East problem. The Middle East isn’t our neighborhood. It is the dominion of the 22 (Muslim) countries comprising the Arab League.

If Syrians need to flee their country to a “safe haven”, I expect the remaining 21 countries of the Arab League to welcome them.

“When it comes to entry into heaven, the most noble in the sight of God are the most righteous and they may be honest, compassionate and helpful to others” Islamic beliefs

Meanwhile, there are millions of people around the world who have been waiting in line to legally immigrate into the United States. Should any Syrian refugees wish to immigrate to the United States as well, they can apply through the normal process at the U.S. embassy of their Arab League host country.

[thomastractorsvc]

This is not about immigration into the US it is about religious ideology and the fundamental change to western culture. This culture for the most part is based on a form of Christianity that allows for respect of human life, tolerance, respect and rule of law.

A people who do not have the same respect for human life, tolerance, respect and rule of law are fundamentally at odds and will not a assimilate into that culture except through generational and cultural change.

For whatever reason POTUS seems to be sympathetic to the ideological diffrence and is in direct conflict to our American/ western culture and his primary responsibility to Americans is to protect life and liberty.

Of the 2000 + Syrian refugees allowed into the US only 3% were Christian and over 95% Islamic. It is the Christians who are attacked and killed in Syria by the regime, ISIS and other rebel groups and the Christian Syrian is the lowest risk of terrorism according to the US GOV.

ISIS wants to destroy all western infidels and although some Americans would not want boots on the ground in the mid east how will they feel when that battle is on the streets of New York, Boston, Detroit or Minneapolis all city's with high Islamic community's thst have had ISIS sympathetic people.

POTUS needs to become a leader and pull together the Russians,French,Kurds and others to form a collaborative effort to fight and destroy them before the attacks are here in America. Provide a safe haven for the refugees in Syria and send them back to there home country where they will not have to assimilate into any other culture.

[kscarbel2]

This is not about immigration into the US it is about religious ideology and the fundamental change to western culture. This culture for the most part is based on a form of Christianity that allows for respect of human life, tolerance, respect and rule of law.

A people who do not have the same respect for human life, tolerance, respect and rule of law are fundamentally at odds and will not a assimilate into that culture except through generational and cultural change.

For whatever reason POTUS seems to be sympathetic to the ideological diffrence and is in direct conflict to our American/ western culture and his primary responsibility to Americans is to protect life and liberty.

Of the 2000 + Syrian refugees allowed into the US only 3% were Christian and over 95% Islamic. It is the Christians who are attacked and killed in Syria by the regime, ISIS and other rebel groups and the Christian Syrian is the lowest risk of terrorism according to the US GOV.

ISIS wants to destroy all western infidels and although some Americans would not want boots on the ground in the mid east how will they feel when that battle is on the streets of New York, Boston, Detroit or Minneapolis all city's with high Islamic community's thst have had ISIS sympathetic people.

POTUS needs to become a leader and pull together the Russians,French,Kurds and others to form a collaborative effort to fight and destroy them before the attacks are here in America. Provide a safe haven for the refugees in Syria and send them back to there home country where they will not have to assimilate into any other culture.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head.

I will say though that the Kurds are a double-edged sword. Turkey as well.......at times a good ally, but unhelpful when ISIS was forming.

It's an extremely complicated issue, but one the Middle East needs to work out on its own. We can't "make" the Middle East change, rather it has to want to change, and do it on its own.

As non-Muslim western outsiders, they're not going to listen to us. For decades, to each degree we tried to force change, elements simultaneously resisted.

Thus I say, only when the Middle East (Arab League) countries realize the necessity to help themselves and change, will peace blossom in the region.

[kscarbel2]

Vlad, correct me if I'm wrong.

My understanding is the Russian Air Force has been severely underfunded since the fall of the Soviet Union (although its gotten some funding in recent years).

This must be the first major overseas combat deployment in decades.

That the Russian military aircraft industry, as the least funded of the major world powers (since the fall of the Soviet Union), can create combat aircraft as good as it does with modest resources, is testimony to the excellence of its engineering teams. Not only that, it’s damning to the western aircraft makers.

The Russian Air Force in Syria....."Going Downtown"

[kscarbel2]

[kscarbel2]

[Apple dog]

This is just my opinion on the hnic and everybody has one.

When he was running for president at first he would not wear an American flag lapel pin.

He would not put his hand over his heart during the national anthem.

Numerous times he has got on Marine 1 or Air Force 1 without saluting the marine at the steps.

He is the first president since World War 2 ended not to go to Normandy beach to pay tribute to the troops and VJ day.

He is a devout Muslim the enemy.

He refuses to do anything to fight ISIS (Muslims).

Was late for the moment of silence after the Paris bombings at the G20 summit.

Will veto a bill to tighten the screenings of Syrian immigrants.

Says we are afraid of women and children.

Who gave him the say so that we will take the Syrians Muslims the enemy..

In my opinion this his way of trying to take down America by just letting the enemy on our soil.

It don't get any more un-American than that.

Ok my rant is over. Thanks for your time.

Sorry I forgot 1 thing. He will not go to the tomb of the unknown soldier on Memorial Day. I didn't vote for the a$$___e.

[david wild]

And after all this, O crap for brains wants you to know it's all our fault that no one likes us. If you would just open your arms and hug a Muslim all will be fine, peaches and roses, and the Libs suck up to this like a bee to honey. Oh and it's not O crap for brains fault because the Libs point out that he is Black when in fact no one else does. Stupidity know no color boundary, white, black, stupid is stupid and OBAMA is the poster child for stupidity.

[kscarbel2]

This is just my opinion on the hnic and everybody has one.

When he was running for president at first he would not wear an American flag lapel pin.

He would not put his hand over his heart during the national anthem.

Numerous times he has got on Marine 1 or Air Force 1 without saluting the marine at the steps.

He is the first president since World War 2 ended not to go to Normandy beach to pay tribute to the troops and VJ day.

He is a devout Muslim the enemy.

He refuses to do anything to fight ISIS (Muslims).

Was late for the moment of silence after the Paris bombings at the G20 summit.

Will veto a bill to tighten the screenings of Syrian immigrants.

Says we are afraid of women and children.

Who gave him the say so that we will take the Syrians Muslims the enemy..

In my opinion this his way of trying to take down America by just letting the enemy on our soil.

It don't get any more un-American than that.

Ok my rant is over. Thanks for your time.

Sorry I forgot 1 thing. He will not go to the tomb of the unknown soldier on Memorial Day. I didn't vote for the a$$___e.

And after all this, O crap for brains wants you to know it's all our fault that no one likes us. If you would just open your arms and hug a Muslim all will be fine, peaches and roses, and the Libs suck up to this like a bee to honey. Oh and it's not O crap for brains fault because the Libs point out that he is Black when in fact no one else does. Stupidity know no color boundary, white, black, stupid is stupid and OBAMA is the poster child for stupidity.

If you don't care for Obama, of course that's absolutely your right (I'm neutral on him).

A diverse range of opinions make BMT the leading truck website of its kind in the world.

However, vulgar insulting remarks, I feel, are uncalled for. First of all, it's demeaning to the BMT forum. I'm confident that we can all can speak on a higher plane than that. And second, like him or not, we should all still show a certain degree of respect for the President of the United States.

The problems in the Middle East, and the United States, have been going on for years, long before Obama was in the picture. So trying to blame him for the issues before us just isn't going to fly.

[thomastractorsvc]

Here is a video that will give you facts about the how and the why of Islamism and what is the ultimate goal is. This documentary is from around 2008, although it is a few years old it does a great job of explaining the Jihad movement and you will have a better understanding of what has been happening for the last 15 + years and where this movement is going.

[kscarbel2]

A few excerpts from Hillary Clinton's speech at the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday.

'Islam itself is not our adversary.'

'Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.'

Clinton mocked three words – 'radical Islamic terrorism' – that Republicans often accuse President Obama of purposefully avoiding.

Clinton instead referred repeatedly to 'radical jihadism' as a global scourge, but didn't explain how the concept of jihadism is consistent with the notion that followers of the world's second largest religion are uninvolved.

Blaming 'radical Islamic terrorism' for vicious attacks of the sort that killed 129 people last Friday in Paris, she said, 'is not just a distraction.'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Following Clinton's speech, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said:

'Hillary Clinton is the architect of the failed Obama foreign policy that has presided over a steep increase in radical Islamic terrorism and the rise of ISIS,' Priebus said.

'Rather than putting forward a new plan to defeat ISIS, Hillary Clinton offered soaring platitudes and largely doubled down on the existing Obama strategy.'

'Across the world, the Obama-Clinton foreign policy lies in tatters. From the failed reset with Russia, to the weak nuclear deal with Iran, to her State Department’s refusal to add Boko Haram to its list of terror organizations, Hillary Clinton has demonstrated she is the wrong person to take on and defeat the growing threats facing the United States.'

[kscarbel2]

In the fight against ISIS, Russia isn’t taking prisoners

RT / Op-Edge / November 18, 2015

The so-called Islamic State should have learned by now: they've picked a fight against the wrong guys. We have entered "take no prisoners" territory. For Russia, now all the gloves are off.

Especially after online terrorist magazine Dabiq published a photo of the alleged bomb that downed the Metrojet airliner killing 224 people: a crude device inside a can of Schweppes, placed under a passenger seat. Also published were photos of passports of Russian victims, allegedly taken "by the mujahedeen."

Their collective fate was sealed the minute the Director of the Federal Security Service Aleksandr Bortnikov told President Putin, about the Metrojet crash on October 31 in Egypt that: “We can say with confidence that this was a terrorist act.”

Caliphate goons may run – in the deserts of ‘Syraq’ and beyond - but they can’t hide, as per Russia’s presidential message: “We will search for them everywhere - wherever they are hiding. We will find them in any spot on the planet and we will punish them.” The message comes with extra enticement; the $50 million bounty offered by the FSB for any information leading to the perpetrators of the Sinai tragedy.

Putin’s message instantly turned heavy metal in the form of a massive, impressive Russian barrage over 140 Caliphate targets, delivered via 34 air-launched cutting-edge cruise missiles and furious action by Tu-160, Tu-22, and the Tu-95MC ‘Bear’ strategic bombers. This was the first time the Russian long-range strategic bomber force has been deployed since the 1980s Afghan jihad.

And there’s more coming - to be stationed in Syria; an extra deployment of 25 strategic bombers, eight Su-34 ‘Fullback’ attack aircraft, and four Su-27 ‘Flanker’ fighter jets.

The tanker truck riddle

At the G-20 in Antalya, Putin had already unveiled who contributes to ISIS’s financing – complete with “examples based on our data on the financing of different [iSIS] units by private individuals.”

The bombshell: ISIS’s cash, “as we have established, comes from 40 countries and, there are some of the G20 members among them.” It doesn’t take a Caltech genius to figure out which members. They’d better take the “you can run but you can’t hide” message seriously.

Additionally, Putin debunked - graphically – to the whole G20 the myth of a Washington seriously engaged on the fight against ISIS: “I’ve shown our colleagues photos taken from space and from aircraft which clearly demonstrate the scale of the illegal trade in oil.” He was referring to ISIS’s oil smuggling tanker truck fleet, which numbers over 1,000.

Acting on Russian satellite intelligence, the Pentagon then found tanker truck convoys stretching “beyond the horizon,” smuggling out stolen Syrian oil, and duly bombed 116 trucks. For the first time. And this in over a year that the ‘Coalition of the Dodgy Opportunists’ (CDO) is theoretically fighting ISIS. The only such bombing that happened before was by the Iraqi Air Force.

The US “strategy”, which Obama recently turbocharged, is to bomb (aging) Syrian oil infrastructure currently expropriated and exploited by ISIS. Technically, this is the property of Damascus, and thus belongs to the Syrian people.

And yet Washington seemed so far to be more focused on other “people” [Halliburton] who could make a bundle rebuilding the devastated infrastructure, disaster capitalism-style, in case “Assad must go” works.

Russia once again went straight to the point. Bomb the transportation network – the oil truck convoys – not the oil infrastructure. That will eventually drive oil smugglers out of business.

The key reason the Obama administration had not thought about this before is Turkey. Washington needs NATO member Ankara for the use of the Incirlik air base. And then there’s the sensitive subject of who profits from ISIS’s oil smuggling.

Turkish Socialist party member Gursel Tekin has established that ISIS’s smuggled oil is exported to Turkey by BMZ, a shipping company controlled by Bilal Erdogan, the son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At a minimum, this violates UN Security Council resolution 2170. Under the light of Putin’s message of going after anyone or any entity engaged in facilitating ISIS’s operations, Erdogan’s clan better come up with some really good excuses.

That jihadi boot camp

Putin’s vow to go after anyone or any entity that facilitates/collaborates with ISIS should logically imply a trip back to ‘Shock and Awe 2003’: the bombing, invasion and occupation of Iraq that created the conditions for the establishment of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, directed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi up to 2006.

The next significant step was Camp Bucca, near Umm Qasr in southern Iraq; a mini-Guantanamo where at least nine members of the future metastasis of al-Qaeda – Islamic State (IS) – was spawned.

ISIS/ISIL/Daesh was born in an American prison. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (a.k.a. Caliph Ibrahim) did time there, as well as ISIS’s previous number two, Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, and most of all ISIS’s conceptualizer: Haji Bakr, a former colonel in Saddam Hussein’s Air Force.

Hardcore Salafi-jihadist meet former Ba’athist notables and find a common purpose; an offer the Pentagon could not refuse and in fact - willfully - let prosper. GWOT (the Global War on Terror), after all, is a Cheney-Rumsfeld-coined “Endless War”.

The US neoconservative (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism) regime change obsession ended up bolstering ISIS’s reach in Syria.

The whole process exhibits multiple ramifications of imperial folly, past and future, that can be identified like splinters from a suicide bomb; from CIA-trained/weaponized, Wahhabi-drenched mujahedeen (“Reagan’s freedom fighters”) metastasizing into ‘Al-CIAada’, to Hillary Clinton admitting Saudi Arabia is a top source of terrorist financing.

Paris 2015 – as well as Sinai 2015 – essentially is a side effect of Baghdad 2003. Putin knows it. For now, the task is to annihilate ISIS once and for all.

.

[kscarbel2]

This is a must-read, to better understand how the Middle East arrived at its latest dire situation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How the US fueled the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq

The Guardian / June 3, 2015

The war on terror, that campaign without end launched 14 years ago by George Bush, is tying itself up in ever more grotesque contortions.

On Monday, the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting.

The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead with the trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition.

That didn’t only include the “non-lethal assistance” boasted of by the government (including body armour and military vehicles), but training, logistical support and the secret supply of “arms on a massive scale”. Reports were cited that MI6 had cooperated with the CIA on a “rat line” of arms transfers from Libyan stockpiles to the Syrian rebels in 2012 after the fall of the Gaddafi regime.

Clearly, the absurdity of sending someone to prison for doing what ministers and their security officials were up to themselves became too much. But it’s only the latest of a string of such cases.

Less fortunate was a London cab driver Anis Sardar, who was given a life sentence a fortnight earlier for taking part in 2007 in resistance to the occupation of Iraq by US and British forces. Armed opposition to illegal invasion and occupation clearly doesn’t constitute terrorism or murder on most definitions, including the Geneva Convention.

But terrorism is now squarely in the eye of the beholder. And nowhere is that more so than in the Middle East, where today’s terrorists are tomorrow’s fighters against tyranny – and allies are enemies – often at the bewildering whim of a western policymaker’s conference call.

For the past year, US, British and other western forces have been back in Iraq, supposedly in the cause of destroying the hyper-sectarian terror group Islamic State (formerly known as al-Qaida in Iraq). This was after ISIS overran huge chunks of Iraqi and Syrian territory and proclaimed a self-styled Islamic caliphate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate).

The campaign isn’t going well. Last month, ISIS rolled into the Iraqi city of Ramadi, while on the other side of the now nonexistent border its forces conquered the Syrian town of Palmyra. Al-Qaida’s official franchise, the Nusra Front, has also been making gains in Syria.

Some Iraqis complain that the US sat on its hands while all this was going on. The Americans insist they are trying to avoid civilian casualties, and claim significant successes. Privately, U.S. officials say they don’t want to be seen hammering Sunni strongholds in a sectarian war and risk upsetting their Sunni allies in the Gulf.

A revealing light on how we got here has now been shone by a recently declassified secret US intelligence report, written in August 2012, which uncannily predicts – and effectively welcomes – the prospect of a “Salafist principality” in eastern Syria and an al-Qaida-controlled Islamic state in Syria and Iraq.

In stark contrast to western claims at the time, the Defense Intelligence Agency document identifies al-Qaida in Iraq (which became ISIS) and fellow Salafists as the “major forces driving the insurgency in Syria” – and states that “western countries, the Gulf states and Turkey” were supporting the opposition’s efforts to take control of eastern Syria.

Raising the “possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality”, the Pentagon report goes on, “this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran)”.

American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria

Which is pretty well exactly what happened two years later. The report isn’t a policy document. It’s heavily redacted and there are ambiguities in the language. But the implications are clear enough. A year into the Syrian rebellion, the US and its allies weren’t only supporting and arming an opposition they knew to be dominated by extreme sectarian groups; they were prepared to countenance the creation of some sort of “Islamic state” – despite the “grave danger” to Iraq’s unity – as a Sunni buffer to weaken Syria.

That doesn’t mean the US created ISIS, of course, though some of its Gulf allies certainly played a role in it – as the US vice-president, Joe Biden, acknowledged last year.

But there was no al-Qaida in Iraq until the US and Britain invaded. And the US has certainly exploited the existence of ISIS against other forces in the region as part of a wider drive to maintain western control.

The calculus changed when ISIS started beheading westerners and posting atrocities online, and the Gulf states are now backing other groups in the Syrian war, such as the Nusra Front.

But this US and western habit of playing with jihadi groups, which then come back to bite them, goes back at least to the 1980s war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, which fostered the original al-Qaida under CIA tutelage.

It was recalibrated during the occupation of Iraq, when US forces led by General Petraeus sponsored an El Salvador-style dirty war of sectarian death squads to weaken the Iraqi resistance.

And it was reprised in 2011 in the Nato-orchestrated war in Libya, where ISIS last week took control of Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte.

In reality, US and western policy in the conflagration that is now the Middle East is in the classic mould of imperial divide-and-rule.

American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria, and mount what are effectively joint military operations with Iran against ISIS in Iraq while supporting Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen.

However confused US policy may often be, a weak, partitioned Iraq and Syria fit such an approach perfectly.

What’s clear is that ISIS and its monstrosities won’t be defeated by the same powers that brought it to Iraq and Syria in the first place, or whose open and covert war-making has fostered it in the years since. Endless western military interventions in the Middle East have brought only destruction and division. It’s the people of the region who can cure this disease – not those who incubated the virus.

[thomastractorsvc]

This is a must-read, to better understand how the Middle East arrived at its latest dire situation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How the US fueled the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq

The Guardian / June 3, 2015

The war on terror, that campaign without end launched 14 years ago by George Bush, is tying itself up in ever more grotesque contortions.

On Monday, the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting.

The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead with the trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition.

That didn’t only include the “non-lethal assistance” boasted of by the government (including body armour and military vehicles), but training, logistical support and the secret supply of “arms on a massive scale”. Reports were cited that MI6 had cooperated with the CIA on a “rat line” of arms transfers from Libyan stockpiles to the Syrian rebels in 2012 after the fall of the Gaddafi regime.

Clearly, the absurdity of sending someone to prison for doing what ministers and their security officials were up to themselves became too much. But it’s only the latest of a string of such cases.

Less fortunate was a London cab driver Anis Sardar, who was given a life sentence a fortnight earlier for taking part in 2007 in resistance to the occupation of Iraq by US and British forces. Armed opposition to illegal invasion and occupation clearly doesn’t constitute terrorism or murder on most definitions, including the Geneva Convention.

But terrorism is now squarely in the eye of the beholder. And nowhere is that more so than in the Middle East, where today’s terrorists are tomorrow’s fighters against tyranny – and allies are enemies – often at the bewildering whim of a western policymaker’s conference call.

For the past year, US, British and other western forces have been back in Iraq, supposedly in the cause of destroying the hyper-sectarian terror group Islamic State (formerly known as al-Qaida in Iraq). This was after ISIS overran huge chunks of Iraqi and Syrian territory and proclaimed a self-styled Islamic caliphate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate).

The campaign isn’t going well. Last month, ISIS rolled into the Iraqi city of Ramadi, while on the other side of the now nonexistent border its forces conquered the Syrian town of Palmyra. Al-Qaida’s official franchise, the Nusra Front, has also been making gains in Syria.

Some Iraqis complain that the US sat on its hands while all this was going on. The Americans insist they are trying to avoid civilian casualties, and claim significant successes. Privately, U.S. officials say they don’t want to be seen hammering Sunni strongholds in a sectarian war and risk upsetting their Sunni allies in the Gulf.

A revealing light on how we got here has now been shone by a recently declassified secret US intelligence report, written in August 2012, which uncannily predicts – and effectively welcomes – the prospect of a “Salafist principality” in eastern Syria and an al-Qaida-controlled Islamic state in Syria and Iraq.

In stark contrast to western claims at the time, the Defense Intelligence Agency document identifies al-Qaida in Iraq (which became ISIS) and fellow Salafists as the “major forces driving the insurgency in Syria” – and states that “western countries, the Gulf states and Turkey” were supporting the opposition’s efforts to take control of eastern Syria.

Raising the “possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality”, the Pentagon report goes on, “this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran)”.

American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria

Which is pretty well exactly what happened two years later. The report isn’t a policy document. It’s heavily redacted and there are ambiguities in the language. But the implications are clear enough. A year into the Syrian rebellion, the US and its allies weren’t only supporting and arming an opposition they knew to be dominated by extreme sectarian groups; they were prepared to countenance the creation of some sort of “Islamic state” – despite the “grave danger” to Iraq’s unity – as a Sunni buffer to weaken Syria.

That doesn’t mean the US created ISIS, of course, though some of its Gulf allies certainly played a role in it – as the US vice-president, Joe Biden, acknowledged last year.

But there was no al-Qaida in Iraq until the US and Britain invaded. And the US has certainly exploited the existence of ISIS against other forces in the region as part of a wider drive to maintain western control.

The calculus changed when ISIS started beheading westerners and posting atrocities online, and the Gulf states are now backing other groups in the Syrian war, such as the Nusra Front.

But this US and western habit of playing with jihadi groups, which then come back to bite them, goes back at least to the 1980s war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, which fostered the original al-Qaida under CIA tutelage.

It was recalibrated during the occupation of Iraq, when US forces led by General Petraeus sponsored an El Salvador-style dirty war of sectarian death squads to weaken the Iraqi resistance.

And it was reprised in 2011 in the Nato-orchestrated war in Libya, where ISIS last week took control of Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte.

In reality, US and western policy in the conflagration that is now the Middle East is in the classic mould of imperial divide-and-rule.

American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria, and mount what are effectively joint military operations with Iran against ISIS in Iraq while supporting Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen.

However confused US policy may often be, a weak, partitioned Iraq and Syria fit such an approach perfectly.

What’s clear is that ISIS and its monstrosities won’t be defeated by the same powers that brought it to Iraq and Syria in the first place, or whose open and covert war-making has fostered it in the years since. Endless western military interventions in the Middle East have brought only destruction and division. It’s the people of the region who can cure this disease – not those who incubated the virus.

Instead of posting opinion pieces why not post information that has facts based on what the actual US foreign policy and Rules Of Engagement are. You have been posting a lot of internet opt eds, that are written to provide support to your view that the US should not do anything in the middle east. We all understand it is shit storm that has been going on for many years but that does not mean that it will not impact the United States National Security and our way of life.

Provide fact as I have tried to do so we can contact and elect government officials that care about our nation. Right now we have two on the Left that flips back and forth depending on the audience and another that thinks Global Warming is the worst thing.

And there are few on the Right that talks just as unrealistic.

[Apple dog]

If you don't care for Obama, of course that's absolutely your right (I'm neutral on him).

A diverse range of opinions make BMT the leading truck website of its kind in the world.

However, vulgar insulting remarks, I feel, are uncalled for. First of all, it's demeaning to the BMT forum. I'm confident that we can all can speak on a higher plane than that. And second, like him or not, we should all still show a certain degree of respect for the President of the United States.

The problems in the Middle East, and the United States, have been going on for years, long before Obama was in the picture. So trying to blame him for the issues before us just isn't going to fly.

First off as Thomastractorsvc stated you need to post facts as David Wild, Thomastractorsvc and myself did. Not your left views. You must be one of those people that can't handle the truth. To bad.

David wild and myself in no way made derogatory remarks about anyone. If what we posted was bad Barry would have removed it.

No other president in the history of this great nation has give the enemy a free pass to American soil. So when a ISIS rebel shows up on your door step to put a bullet between you eyes thank Obama.

Don't tell me I need to show respect to a administration so corrupt it makes Watergate look like a boy scout event. I have ZERO respect for Obama and you.

[41chevy]

Here is the facts as I see them.

I respect the Office of the President but not the man or 95% of his cabinet or any of his / their actions. They in my eyes have done nothing good for this country as a whole, only caused division and mistrust between citizens. Nothing has shown me any reason to respect the man.

ISIS. Create a coalition, join with Russia. . . do what ever is needed but get the job done. Remove the R.O.E. and fight a total war. Let the Commanders in the field run it. Forget about the polls on how your decisions affect your political parties future, your agenda and the "donors you owe"

Putin is attacking ISIS' oil tanker trucks, their oil tanker ships (Russia destroyed 116 tanker trucks in a convoy of over 400 trucks) ISIS reportedly has access to 1000 tanker ships.

The White House feels we should destroy the oil fields and refineries, Russia says destroy their transport system and the refineries are basically useless. I agree.

Stop the open border policy and the " poor Syrian refugees". Their fellow Arabs can take them in.

Stop comparing the Syrians to the Japanese. The Japanese Americans, the German Americans and even some Italian Americans were detained. Right or wrong, our values, the times, media and people were much different in the WWII years. There was still Patriotism and a sense of Honor and Trust. Now a person who displays love of God and Country is someone the Government is afraid of.

I served, I was drafted and never thought about not helping my country. My only regret bout that time is that all the Campus Radicals, Flower Children and followers of Timothy Leary are the ones in power now and still haven't grown up.

I'll now climb off my Bulldog and quietly go to my corner

[Mack458]

As I understand it the US has been bombing tanker trucks that are hauling oil for ISIS. They reportedly drop leaflets because the trucks are only transporters trying to make a buck, the leaflets telling the drivers to stop and run. Their truck is then destroyed. While the French have hit ISIS targets, the US has been waiting to have them occupied and then hit them. We need to be involved but every other country has to have some skin in the game.

I think blaming any president for what has or has not been done, but they are making decisions based by the facts and recommendations they have at the time. If Kennedy would have listened to some of his advisers during the Cuban Missile Crisis and launched missiles, the Russians would have fire back. He made decisions on what he knew and felt was the right thing to do.

There are some very smart people on this site that is for sure. We need to respect each others opinions and be more civil. I for one have been attacked by David Wild on this site, and called things that I am not. If you don't agree with him, you are an idiot as far as he is concerned. He has a lot of hate - I think he needs a hug!

[41chevy]

The two big differences with JFK and BHO is 1) JFK wasn't a self centered egotist who knows he is the smartest one in the house. 2) JFK had military / combat experience and first hand knew the risks as did his advisers. BHO has Turn Coat Kerry for input. Paul

[kscarbel2]

Instead of posting opinion pieces why not post information that has facts based on what the actual US foreign policy and Rules Of Engagement are. You have been posting a lot of internet opt eds, that are written to provide support to your view that the US should not do anything in the middle east. We all understand it is shit storm that has been going on for many years but that does not mean that it will not impact the United States National Security and our way of life.

Provide fact as I have tried to do so we can contact and elect government officials that care about our nation. Right now we have two on the Left that flips back and forth depending on the audience and another that thinks Global Warming is the worst thing.

And there are few on the Right that talks just as unrealistic.

Most Americans, through no fault of their own, are unaware of the the full extent of what's actually occurring around the world. The international news is but one side of one page in their local newspaper. CNN, ABC and NBC kowtow to the government line.

So far as facts go, as I have already said, at any one time, the common people are only privy to around 15 to 20 percent of the facts on what's occurring in the world, who'd doing it, and why. The rest is hidden from view. I'm confident you're in agreement with that.

I did include a couple of op-eds from Reuters, Time and The Financial Times (excellent reporting) that I felt provided excellent insight. The op-ed above from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guardian is an excellent read (my opinion). The Guardian tends to report the truth, rather than sing the party line.

Of course, I also posted several key news articles.

[kscarbel2]

First off as Thomastractorsvc stated you need to post facts as David Wild, Thomastractorsvc and myself did. Not your left views. You must be one of those people that can't handle the truth. To bad.

David wild and myself in no way made derogatory remarks about anyone. If what we posted was bad Barry would have removed it.

No other president in the history of this great nation has give the enemy a free pass to American soil. So when a ISIS rebel shows up on your door step to put a bullet between you eyes thank Obama.

Don't tell me I need to show respect to a administration so corrupt it makes Watergate look like a boy scout event. I have ZERO respect for Obama and you.

I noted and respect the opinions (thoughts) expressed by you and David Wild. (facts?)

Given that you've never met me, and know nothing about me..........I'm surprised that you nonetheless can say that you have zero respect for me (your right, of course).

Left views? Sorry, you lost me there. My posts were only about presenting a more detailed picture of the significant situation unfolding (what CNN does not present).

David Wild's first post includes numerous derogatory remarks. I'm confident that he could have expressed his views on a higher plane than that.

[41chevy]

Most Americans, through no fault of their own, are unaware of the the full extent of what's actually occurring around the world.

Most younger Americans and Europeans could care less about any world events unless it affects their favorite app., singer, movie star or sale. Until it affects them directly.. it's life on the cloud. Paul

[kscarbel2]

Most younger Americans and Europeans could care less about any world events unless it affects their favorite app., singer, movie star or sale. Until it affects them directly.. it's life on the cloud. Paul

Paul, you couldn't be more right.

[kscarbel2]

The U.S. media is now shining a big spotlight on the Syrian refugee debate.

Supposedly, U.S.-bound Syrians are actual refugees, and not economic migrants the likes of what’s showing up on Europe’s door from countries other than Syria (4 out of 5 are not from Syria).

Much of the debate is over why the U.S. should take refugees when Middle East countries for the most part are not.

Arab League (and Gulf Cooperation Council) members Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the UAE have reportedly not taken in any refugees.

These Gulf States elected not to sign the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_relating_to_the_Status_of_Refugees).

Per Amnesty International, the six Gulf countries - Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain - have offered zero resettlement facilities for Syrian refugees.

The fact is that Gulf countries don't accept refugees for resettlement because none of their governments officially recognize the legal concept. Even in Jordan, Syrians fleeing the civil war are called "guests," the expectation being that they won't stay. (http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/09/20/441457924/gulf-states-fend-off-criticism-about-doing-little-for-syrian-refugees)

“I’m most indignant over the Arab countries who are rolling in money and who only take very few refugees,” Danish Finance Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen said in an interview this week at his office in Copenhagen. “Countries like Saudi Arabia. It’s completely scandalous. (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-04/syria-s-refugees-feel-more-welcome-in-europe-than-in-the-gulf)

However, Saudi Arabia last week offered to pay for the construction of 200 new Mosques in Germany (http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/fluechtlingskrise/die-golfstaaten-schotten-sich-gegenueber-fluechtlingen-ab-13789932.html).

The United Nations expects one million “refugees” to arrive in Europe by the end of 2015,

The European Commission expects 3 million to arrive in Europe by the end of 2016.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has 100,000 (air-conditioned) tents, sitting empty and available, that could perfectly house some 3 million Syrian refugees. Located in the city of Mina, they’re only used a few days a year for pilgrims heading to Mecca (http://www.sbs.com.au/news/gallery/which-arab-country-has-room-three-million-refugees-and-has-so-far-taken-zero-according-un).

There are millions of people around the world who have been waiting in line to legally immigrate into the United States. Should any Syrian refugees wish to immigrate to the United States as well, they can apply through the normal process at the U.S. embassy of their Arab League host country.

With the highest GDP Arab countries unwilling to take in refugees, fellow Muslims in distress, why should the U.S. accept any? The U.S. is by a wide margin the highest financial contributor to Syrian relief efforts at $4.5 billion - http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-boost-contribution-for-humanitarian-aid-to-syrian-war-refugees-1442858302 (so don’t expect our crumbling interstate system rebuilt anytime soon)

The U.S. already contributes FAR more to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) than any other country. (http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/the-countries-that-contribute-the-most-to-the-uns-refugee-agency--by90QvX64l)

This on top of the White House’s decision to increase the cap on [alleged] refugees to 85,000 in 2016 and 100,000 in 2017. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/john-kerry-says-u-s-to-admit-30-000-more-refugees-in-next-2-years-1442768498?tesla=y)

In the minds of many Americans, refugees are people that would return home after the conflict in their homeland has ended. However these people have no intention of returning home, and that makes them immigrants rather than refugees.

With millions of people around the world already waiting in line to legally immigrate into the U.S., the only proper course is for these Syrian (and other) immigrants to apply via the normal process at U.S. embassies abroad and wait their turn in line.

On top of free U.S. money ($4.5 billion) for Syrian relief efforts alone, the other issues are the costs to U.S. taxpayers to support incoming “refugees” for an unknown number of years (welfare), and the loss of U.S. citizen jobs.

.

[thomastractorsvc]

It is about the spread of Islam, if it was not the Middle East country's would welcome them the same as they did the Kuwaitis during the gulf war. Now this is sounding like a conspiracy theory or plot line from the showtime series Homeland, but it is not.

Follow the trail of the Muslim Brotherhood "Obama secretly backing Muslim Brotherhood" http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/3/inside-the-ring-muslim-brotherhood-has-obamas-secr/?page=all

"Is Saudi Arabia warming up to the Muslim Brotherhood?" http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/saudi-arabia-warming-muslim-brotherhood-150727121500912.htmlBackground on the Muslim Brother Hood

The Muslim Brotherhood created a manifesto about this that was found by the FBI during a raid and was made public as it was used as evidence trail. http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-judge-hands-downs-sentences-holy-land-foundation-case. Read the manifesto which can be found here and at other websites http://www.clarionproject.org/Muslim_Brotherhood_Explanatory_Memorandum shows the intent.

"Imam Says America, Europe Taking Muslim Refugees Will Only Help Spread Caliphate; Tells Muslim Refugees to Breed With Europeans"

https://youtu.be/cdHg9TADZyA