Robert Fisk, in his latest piece in The Independent, suggests that the Assad regime is luring Obama into its web. It very much looks like the US, and its allies, have been wrong-footed. Yet again!
The tragedy of it all is that there can be no doubt that IS is a force to be reckoned with and somehow or other has to be stopped in its tracks - but the actions now underway, and to come, confronting IS won't achieve whatever objective there now is in tackling IS, whilst at the same time "costing" the lives of many in the armed forces and subjecting those countries involved in the war-effort to spending a staggering amount of money.
"Syria has asked Washington to engage in military and intelligence collaboration to defeat their mutual enemy Isis, inviting US congressmen and senators to visit Damascus to discuss joint action against the jihadis who threaten both America and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
It’s an offer that President Barack Obama will have to refuse – but not without some embarrassment. After deciding to bomb the forces of Isis, which calls itself Islamic State, in Syria as well as Iraq, Mr Obama was confronted by Vladimir Putin’s warning that any such unilateral action in Syria would be “an act of aggression”.
The US President will now have to explain yet again why he cannot collaborate against America’s “apocalyptic” enemies with a Syrian regime which he has also sworn to overthrow – even though this regime is fighting exactly the same enemies.
The letter to the US House of Representatives pointedly invites Congress and Senate members – who last year condemned the Syrian government for chemical attacks in the suburbs of Damascus – to collaborate “to save Syrian and American lives from a possible dirty bombing terror attack” by Isis, Jabhat al-Nusra and other groups.
The Syrian offer, contained in a letter yesterday from Mohamed Jihad al-Laham, the Speaker of the tame Syrian parliament – addressed, among others, to John Boehner, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader – also claims that the “moderate” Syrian opposition which the US has promised to aid and train is identical to the jihadi groups supporting Isis, (or Isil as the Syrians prefer to call it, using another of the organisation’s acronyms)."
The tragedy of it all is that there can be no doubt that IS is a force to be reckoned with and somehow or other has to be stopped in its tracks - but the actions now underway, and to come, confronting IS won't achieve whatever objective there now is in tackling IS, whilst at the same time "costing" the lives of many in the armed forces and subjecting those countries involved in the war-effort to spending a staggering amount of money.
"Syria has asked Washington to engage in military and intelligence collaboration to defeat their mutual enemy Isis, inviting US congressmen and senators to visit Damascus to discuss joint action against the jihadis who threaten both America and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
It’s an offer that President Barack Obama will have to refuse – but not without some embarrassment. After deciding to bomb the forces of Isis, which calls itself Islamic State, in Syria as well as Iraq, Mr Obama was confronted by Vladimir Putin’s warning that any such unilateral action in Syria would be “an act of aggression”.
The US President will now have to explain yet again why he cannot collaborate against America’s “apocalyptic” enemies with a Syrian regime which he has also sworn to overthrow – even though this regime is fighting exactly the same enemies.
The letter to the US House of Representatives pointedly invites Congress and Senate members – who last year condemned the Syrian government for chemical attacks in the suburbs of Damascus – to collaborate “to save Syrian and American lives from a possible dirty bombing terror attack” by Isis, Jabhat al-Nusra and other groups.
The Syrian offer, contained in a letter yesterday from Mohamed Jihad al-Laham, the Speaker of the tame Syrian parliament – addressed, among others, to John Boehner, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader – also claims that the “moderate” Syrian opposition which the US has promised to aid and train is identical to the jihadi groups supporting Isis, (or Isil as the Syrians prefer to call it, using another of the organisation’s acronyms)."
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