Tell Me Again Why We’re Involved?
During the last two months, there have been armed clashes between two Syrian rebel factions on the northern outskirts of Aleppo. The area is contested territory, and apparently both factions want to possess it.
One of the groups is called Fursan al Haq, or “Knights of Righteousness”. They previously controlled the territory, but in February were displaced by “Syrian Democratic Forces” that moved into the area from the east.
This wasn’t an isolated occurrence, either. Similar clashes have been reported earlier this month in the town of Azaz, and in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood.
Here’s the “punch line”: Fursan al Haq is backed – an armed – by the CIA. The Syrian Democratic Forces? They’re backed and armed by the Pentagon.
Yeah, you read that correctly. Two of the Syrian rebel groups the US has backed to oppose Assad are currently fighting each other instead.
Sheesh. When the factions we back start fighting each other, you really have to wonder if we’re backing the right groups – or if we even have a freaking clue about what’s really going on in Syria.
As I’ve said repeatedly: perhaps Syria is indeed a case of, “Better the Devil you know . . . than the Devil you don’t.” IMO, other than countering Da’esh and its allies we have “no dog in the fight” in the Syrian Civil War. And had we not involved ourselves in Syria, I suspect Assad’s regime would have done a much better job taking care of Da’esh and its allies than we’ve done so far – at least in Syrian territory.
This article from The Virginian-Pilot gives more details. IMO it’s worth a read.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Foreign Policy, Military issues, Syria, Terror War
I got nuttin’. I’m still banging my head on the table. I know for sure it will feel much much better when I stop.
Well, Arab Spring… good bad guys, bad good guys, Assad must go and we will help you get rid of him(with flowery speeches, until we get caught doing nothing). We have to do something. Just no boots on the ground, well except for certain types of boots.
Obama took a bad situation and turned it into one of the worst Cluster Fucks in world history, and as a result has emboldened Islamic Extremism Globally.
It all began with his speech in Cairo promoting revolution in one of the most stable governments in the region. Not to mention an ally of ours.
Must. Not. Bang. Head. On. Keyboard.
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Fuck it. Rope off the country, drop in a few tons of napalm and a few rifles, kill whatever survives Thunderdome.
We not only have no dog in the fight, the dogs in the fight all want to kills us once they’re done killing each other.
Instead of rope, how about a wall around the border that’s at least 15 feet higher than the tallest mountain peak in the country.
Then fill it to the top with water.
This is one of the few times that actually do want to get into the Wayback machine and go back to the 1960s. Maybe start over.
I keep saying ‘this, too, shall pass’. I just don’t know when.
Maybe B. Hussein 0bama took it upon himself to see just how badly he could fuck the Middle East up, and so far he’s done at least Jimmeh Kahtuh X15.
The idea that “anyone but Assad” was a smart play should have been crushed in light of the “anyone but Saddam” fiasco we’re still experiencing.
It’s not all that surprising that the CIA and the Pentagon are fighting a proxy war with each other in the middle east, for all our talk of inter-agency cooperation we still see regular stupidity over jurisdictional pissing matches.
I’ve no idea why we’re involved either, it’s not as though we’re making anything better we’re just helping fund the misery.
Supposedly that’s not who we are as a nation, funding the bad guys who create havoc in neighborhoods…instead of funding tribal warfare groups maybe it’s time to consider more appropriate options. There are several of them, some more palatable than others.
We shall see which path our illustrious leaders choose for the nation. I remain unconvinced that either party is capable of doing something that will actually stabilize the region and move those people out of the dark ages. Especially in light of our love of the Kingdom…arguably some of the worst people in the region and our nation loves them. Hardly evidence of our benign and benevolent national character.
If we’re going to supply both sides, can we at least charge fair market value for the weapons and maybe turn a profit?
Well, at least we now know what happened to the raises in Social Security and VA disability comp, right? What’s next? Raising the tax on food again?
Yet in theory it sounds so good…let ’em all kill each other, let God sort ’em out. (Somehow that sounds familiar…)
Sounds like one of those survivor TV shows except real people are dying, so it isn’t stupid.
The middle east is complicated. Maybe we should back Assad. Why not? We have backed everyone else so far and we don’t have a policy that a human can explain so why not him? It would piss off the Israelis, that does seem to be a consistent US Government Policy. Everyone would be confused, they would stop fighting and stand around waiting to see what entertaining and outrageous thing we do next. Putin would demand that everyone in the Kremlin show their underwear labels.
That is not my circus. Those are not my monkeys.
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