The truth about the US "war on ISIS"

Pentagon ready to train up to 15,000 Syrian rebels

Pentagon officials provided an update on Friday concerning the campaign being waged against militants from the so-called Islamic State and said the operation remains a ways from being over.

RT,

26 September, 2014

In a press conference from the United States military’s headquarters near Washington, DC on Friday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said the US-led campaign against the group also known as ISIS, or ISIL is still in its infancy, but continues to garner support from the international community. In order to succeed, however, an infantry of up to 15,000 fighters may need to be trained to take on the extremists.

The US began launching attacks at ISIS strongholds in Syria for the first time this week in addition to targets in Iraq, and Gen. Dempsey said at Friday’s presser that those efforts may have already begun to pay off.

This week’s strikes supplied by the US military and a coalition of five Arab nation partners disrupted the Islamic State’s command and control and logistics ability, Dempsey said, and has helped deny the militants the freedom of movement in the area following a months-long campaign that already allowed ISIS to take over towns across the region.

Sec. Hagel said that the Pentagon has so far launched 43 airstrikes in Syria and, combined with ongoing efforts in Iraq, will continue to strike targets as the international community comes together to fight ISIS as well.

In the few days since the US began striking Syria, Hagel said, “the governments of Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands have announced their intention to participate” in the American-led campaign against ISIS, with the UK’s parliament voting in favor of doing as much only moments before Friday’s briefing began at the Pentagon.

According to the US government, more than 40 nations — including Syria’s Middle East neighbors of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saud Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan — have so far pledged support to the anti-ISIS campaign. As the US continues to insist that American forces will avoid taking on a combat role on the ground in Iraq or Syria, however, the Pentagon officials acknowledged that a properly trained army must be assembled in order to conquer the Islamic State since an aerial campaign alone can’t solve the conflict.

“No one is under any illusion — under any illusions — that airstrikes alone will destroy ISIL,” Hagel told reporters. “They are one element of our broader, comprehensive campaign against ISISL.”

On his part, Dempsey said that neither an air assault nor a military campaign will truly win the war against the group, and that troops must be trained to fight ISIS on the ground while the US and other nations take a broader approach towards eradicating the extremists.

The US Central Command, Dempsey said, is actively working with "Iraqi military leaders to ensure that what occurs on the ground is their campaign, not our campaign,” and that the Pentagon continues to talk with leadership in neighboring Turkey “about their different ways to contribute to the coalition.”

On his part, Dempsey said that neither an air assault nor a military campaign will truly win the war against the group, and that troops must be trained to fight ISIS on the ground while the US and other nations take a broader approach towards eradicating the extremists.

The US Central Command, Dempsey said, is actively working with "Iraqi military leaders to ensure that what occurs on the ground is their campaign, not our campaign,” and that the Pentagon continues to talk with leadership in neighboring Turkey “about their different ways to contribute to the coalition.”

“Yes, there has to be a ground component to the campaign against ISIL in Syria,” the Joint Chiefs chairman said later during the briefing, adding that earlier figures pertaining to a group of 5,000 prospective US-trained forces may be but a fraction of what is truly required. Instead, he said, upwards of 15,000 combatants may need to be trained in order to take on the ever growing Islamic State.

“This will not be an easy or brief effort,” Hagel said. “We are at the beginning not the end” of the administration’s effort to degrade and destroy the Islamic State.

“This will not be an easy or brief effort,” Hagel said. “We are at the beginning not the end” of the administration’s effort to degrade and destroy the Islamic State.

Hagel and Dempsey’s remarks came two days after US President Barack Obama appealed before an international audience to assist in America’s anti-ISIS campaign during an address at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

“No God condones this terror,” he said of the group. “No grievance justifies these actions. There can be no reasoning – no negotiation – with this brand of evil. The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death.”

On Friday, Sec. Hagel said that “there has been no coordination, nor will there be, with the Assad regime,” suggesting the Pentagon will continue to launch strikes in Syria without the permission of that country’s president. “Nothing has changed about our position that has shifted our approach to Assad and his regime because President Assad has lost all legitimacy to govern,” he said

US/ISRAEL AIRSTRIKES ON SYRIA ARE NOT ABOUT ISIS

Post by Chris VanWyck.

The Truth About U.S. Air Strikes on Syria With Syrian Girl

'ISIS is CIA false flag op, pretext for war inside Syria & Iraq'

US military has confirmed that the US-led coalition have launched five airstrikes on the Islamic State militants.

Geopolitical expert William Engdahl joins RT to discuss this issue.

One person's view - 

“The Terrorists R Us.” The Islamic State “Big Lie”

The Criminalization of the United Nations

Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research,

25 September, 2014 

Under the auspices of the United Nations Security Council,  with president Obama chairing the Council session, the United States has called upon the international community to adopt strong measures, at national and international levels, to curtail the recruitment of Islamic State fighters.

What is not mentioned in the media reports is that the heads of State and heads of government  who have endorsed America’s campaign against the Islamic State, advised by their respective secret services,  are fully aware that US intelligence is the unspoken architect of the Islamic State, which is part of a vast network of  US supported “jihadist” terrorist entities.  Countries are either coerced into supporting the US sponsored resolution or they are complicit in the US terror agenda.

Lest we forget, Saudi Arabia, Qatar,  have been financing and training the ISIL terrorists on behalf of the United States.  Israel is harboring the Islamic State (ISIL) in the Golan Heights,NATO in liaison with the Turkish high command has since March 2011 been involved in coordinating the recruitment of  the jihadist fighters dispatched to Syria. Moreover, the ISIL brigades in both Syria and Iraq are integrated by Western special forces and military advisers.

All this is known and documented, yet not a single head of state or head of government has had the courage to point to the absurdity of the US sponsored United Nations Security Council resolution, which was adopted unanimously on September 24.

“Absurdity” is an understatement. What we are witnessing is a criminal undertaking under UN auspices.

While international diplomacy is often based on deception, US foreign policy lies are no longer credible. What we are witnessing is a total breakdown of established diplomatic practice.   The “Forbidden Truth” is that the Islamic State is an instrument of Washington, a US ” intelligence asset”. ISIL is not an independent entity, nor is it an “outside enemy” which threatens global security, as conveyed by the Western media.

While everybody knows this, the big lie prevails. The Lie becomes the Truth.

The  United Nations Security Council resolution calls upon member states to “suppress the recruiting, organizing, transporting, equipping” and financing of foreign terrorist fighters,”  Specifically, the resolution points to the “the particular and urgent need to implement this resolution with respect to those foreign terrorist fighters who are associated with ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant], ANF [Al-Nusrah Front] and other cells, affiliates, splinter groups or derivatives of Al-Qaida…” But are these not precisely the “opposition freedom fighters” trained and recruited by the Western military alliance in their quest to unseat the government of Bashar Al Assad?

United Nations Security Council Meeting, September 24, 2014, chaired by president Obama

The ISIL are the foot soldiers  of the Western military alliance. Their unspoken mandate is to wreck havoc and destruction in Syria and Iraq, acting on behalf of their US sponsors. The endgame is to transform countries into territories.

John McCain with leaders of Al Qaeda entities in Syria

Political leaders present at the UN Security Council session applauded the US counter-terrorism initiative. France’s  President Francois Hollande pointed to the fact that “terrorism has taken on another dimension, and it wants to conquer territory now.”

Several US allies including Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar which are currently involved in supporting ISIL and Al Nusrah are now involved in the US sponsored air raids allegedly targeted against the ISIL inside Syria.

Turkey and Jordan have borders with Syria. Saudi Arabia and Turkey have borders with Iraq.  The direct military involvement of these countries points to a scenario of escalation and sectarian warfare extending from the Mediterranean to Central Asia.

In this regard, Turkey has already announced that it will be involved in ground operations inside Syria and Iraq. The newly-elected Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu announced (a day prior to the UN Security Council meeting) that his government will be seeking the endorsement of the Turkish Parliament to intervene militarily in both Iraq and Syria.

What is at stake is a so-called “no fly zone” in disguise, a justification  to bomb Iraq and Syria under a counter-terrorism mandate, largely targeting the civilian population. The political architects of the Islamic State including president Obama, prime minister Cameron and their counterparts in France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, et al, are now waging a  military campaign against the Islamic State, which they themselves created. Boots on the ground are also contemplated. According to Iraqi government sources, the US will be deploying sending ome 13000 troops to Iraq.

The leaders of western countries are either utterly ignorant and stupid, or totally corrupt and complicit?  “The Terrorists R US.” Moreover, they seem totally unaware of the broad implications of their actions.

War propaganda is a criminal act under Nuremberg: Crime against the Peace. By upholding the lies and fabrications of US foreign policy, the mainstream media is complicit in war crimes.

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron is to bring the matter to the British parliament. The revocation of citizenship is contemplated in Britain as well as  in Canada for those suspected of supporting the jihadist movement.  While Britain’s Prime minister has called upon Her Majesty’s government “to restrict or rescind the passports of British jihadists … Home Secretary Theresa May has threatened to deprive those Britons already fighting with the Islamic State of their citizenship.” ,

Ironically, Prime Minister Cameron is complicit in facilitating and organizing within the UK the recruitment of British jihadists.  And indeed one might suggest, pending the formulation of criminal charges, that his passport should be revoked for “supporting the jihadist movement”.

George W. Bush stated in 2001, “you are either with us or with the terrorists.” The forbidden truth is that the US is involved in a diabolical  undertaking: it has created an Islamic terror network with a view to destroying sovereign countries and now it is waging a war against its own terror network. Without media propaganda, this military agenda under the guise of counter-terrorism would fall flat, collapse like a deck of cards.

The US president and his indefectible British ally “R the Terrorists”, they are the “state sponsors of terrorism”, with a view to waging a war of conquest.  The United Nations is complicit in this undertaking.

Expanding U.S. Strikes to 

ISIS in Syria, Has Obama 

Opened New Phase of 

"Perpetual War"?

The United States has launched airstrikes in Syria targeting the Islamic State, as well as members of a separate militant organization known as the Khorasan group. 

The Pentagon says U.S. forces launched 47 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles from warships in the Red Sea and North Arabian Gulf. 

In addition, U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps fighters, bombers and drones took part in the airstrikes. 

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 20 Islamic State fighters were killed in strikes that hit at least 50 targets in Raqqa and Deir al-Zor provinces in Syria's east. 

The United States says Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had either participated or supported the strikes against the Islamic State, which has seized swaths of Syria and Iraq. 

The United States acted alone against the Khorasan group, saying it "took action to disrupt the imminent attack plotting against the United States and Western interests." 

The Syrian government claims the United States had informed it of the pending attacks hours before the strikes began. Meanwhile, the United States has expanded its bombing of Iraq, launching new strikes around Kirkuk. 

To discuss this development, we are joined by two guests: Vijay Prashad, professor of international studies at Trinity College who has written extensively about the Islamic State, and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CodePink and author of "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control."