The Myth of Defeating ISIS by US and Proxy Forces
by Stephen Lendman
The US created and supports ISIS, al-Qaeda, its al-Nusra offshoot in Syria, and other likeminded groups.
Used as imperial foot soldiers, they’re deployed to various locations in US war theaters. Along with NATO, Israel, the Saudis, and other imperial partners, Washington recruits, arms, funds, trains and directs these jihadists.
The strategy began in the 1980s by enlisting Mujahideen fighters (today’s Taliban) against Soviet Russia in Afghanistan.
According to Iraqi security expert Abbas al-Ardawi, Washington’s embassy in Baghdad is used jointly by the US and Israel to plot terrorist attacks in Syria, Iraq, Occupied Palestine, and elsewhere regionally.
Iraqi security expert Hafez Al-e Basharah said ISIS elements are located at US bases in Iraq and Syria, given safe haven and training.
Since taking office in January 2017, Trump falsely said ISIS was defeated at least a dozen times. In early February saying “(w)e’re knocking the hell out of ISIS…We have defeated ISIS in Syria” was and remains pure fantasy.
DLT knows only what his handlers tell him, along with rubbish reported by Fox News, his favorite TV channel.
Once boasting via Twitter that he “know(s) more about #ISIS than generals do,” he may not know that the US supports the scourge it pretends to oppose.
The US created undemocratic/Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as imperial proxies to topple Assad and partition the country.
On Saturday, an SDF spokesman falsely said ISIS suffered “total elimination” and “a 100 percent territorial defeat” – the notion dismissed by Damascus as utter nonsense.
The US pretends to be combatting its scourge while using its fighters as imperial foot soldiers in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, elsewhere regionally and beyond.
On Saturday, Syria’s UN envoy Bashar al-Jaafari said the following:
“There has never been an Islamic State. It is not ‘Islamic,’ and it is not a ‘state.’ (Its elements are) a bunch of terrorists, gathered from all over the world and sent to Syria from our neighboring countries, namely Turkey, sponsored by the international intelligence services, including the CIA and the British (MI6),” adding:
The threat of ISIS “is not over yet in Syria.” Government and allied forces (namely, Russia, Hezbollah, and Iranian military advisors) alone are genuinely combatting its scourge.
The US and its imperial partners support its fighters, along with focusing on terror-bombing Syrian infrastructure and massacring countless tens of thousands of civilians.
Separately, earlier reports about withdrawal of US forces from Syria were and remain greatly exaggerated. Statements by Pompeo and Bolton affirmed the Trump regime’s intention to maintain a military presence in Syria and Iraq – Pompeo earlier saying “America will not retreat until the terror fight (it supports) is over.”
Operating from 18 or more bases in Syria, many others cross-border in Iraq, indefinite US occupation of both countries is planned – including northern and southern parts of the Syrian Arab Republic, part of the US scheme to partition the country, oust Assad, or at least greatly weaken him.
Days earlier, the Wall Street Journal said around 1,000 US troops will remain in Syria indefinitely. An unnamed Pentagon source said 1,500 US forces will remain in the country’s north – along with hundreds more in southern areas bordering Iraq and Jordan.
On Saturday, Israeli military intelligence-connected DEBKAfile (DF) claimed “the US has substantially boosted its military strength in” Syria and Iraq, adding:
The boosted strength in both countries bolstered “Trump’s statement that the time has come to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan.”
US troops in Syria and Iraq also aim to counter an Iranian presence in Syria, along with the strong alliance between both countries, according to DF.
A Final Comment
According to Syrian media, 21 people in the northern Hama countryside village of al-Rasif were hospitalized with choking symptoms from poison gas inhalation – following shelling of the village by US-supported terrorists.
In mid-March, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the following:
“There are alarming reports, which say that (al-Nusra terrorists) together with the White Helmets, are getting ready to stage chemical agent attacks, planning to accuse the Syrian government of using chemical weapons,” adding:
“Terrorists are establishing arms caches in the Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia and Hama provinces.”
On Saturday, AMN News said “jihadist(s) likely used chemical weapons to attack (the Syrian villages of) Aziziyah and Raseef.”
A similar Southfront report said “unknown militants launched several munitions containing toxic substances at the residential areas in the government-held towns of al-Rasif and al-Azizah in the northern Hama countryside…21 civilians…intoxicated (by) the attack.”
“The injured civilians are reportedly suffering from itching in their eyes and skin as well as burns in their throats. The symptoms are identical to the side effects of some chemical weapons, like mustard gas.”
Syrian forces were wrongfully accused of earlier CW attacks, perhaps the same to follow from the latest one.
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