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.
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
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
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."
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