A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria

[Lauren Johnson]

Russia looks to be playing a powerful diplomatic card by entering into Syria with some force. By publicly saying Russia calling on the US to fight a publicly recognized a common enemy. Every nation knows the US/NATO and it's subsidiaries sponsors the IS. For the US continue to support the IS, it will have to risk confrontation with Russian (and possibly Chinese) forces. Obama will have to choose whither or not to take the risk. I think the Syrian and Ukrainian fronts in the war against Russia are seen as essential to win.

May 1 2006 - Biden: Split Iraq into 3 different regions

The senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposed Monday that Iraq be divided into three separate regions Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni with a central government in Baghdad.In an op-ed essay in Monday's edition of The New York Times, Sen. Joseph Biden. D-Del., wrote that the idea "is to maintain a united Iraq by decentralizing it, giving each ethno-religious group ... room to run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge of common interests."

2012 Defense Intelligence Agency document: West will facilitate rise of Islamic State "in order to isolate the Syrian regime"

THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA (HASAKA AND DER ZOR), AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE SUPPORTING POWERS TO THE OPPOSITION WANT
...
ISI COULD ALSO DECLARE AN ISLAMIC STATE THROUGH ITS UNION WITH OTHER TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS IN IRAQ AND SYRIA, WHICH WILL CREATE GRAVE DANGER IN REGARDS TO UNIFYING IRAQ AND THE PROTECTION OF ITS TERRITORY.

The U.S. plans, all along, were and are to create a "Sunni state" entity in west Iraq and east Syria. Whether this entity is a salafist Islamic State or has some other form of government seems to be irrelevant to U.S. foreign policy planners like Vice President Joe Biden.

The war on the Islamic State that Obama declared was thereby never serious. It is just an excuse to justify further meddling in the Iraq and Syria. But that U.S. tactic underestimates, or willingly creates, dangers to other countries as the Islamic State is a breeding ground for international terrorism. The U.S. unwillingness to attack the Islamic State has been noticed:
International coalition only simulating anti-terrorist efforts in Middle East Russian FM

"Regrettably, all attempts of the international coalition to counter the terrorist group Islamic State look more like some demonstrative steps, an attempt at simulating anti-terrorist activity," [Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova] said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

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@Hayder_alKhoei
Pesh commander on ISIS supply line b/w #Syria & #Iraq: coalition can see it very clearly. Why don't they do anything? I don't know.Jordanian officer describes seeing Isis convoys crossing b/w Iraq & Syria on an almost daily basis. "But we're not allowed to hit them"

The U.S. and its "coalition" of Islamic State financiers and sympathizers are unwilling to remove the Islamic State entity. Even now, when the possibly catastrophic consequences of its installation become more and more visible, the attitude is one of willful ignorance. Others are therefore taking up the task and they mean business.
@MicahZenko

Yesterday, Syrian aircraft conducted 25 airstrikes on ISIS targets. In past week (Sep. 12-18), US-led coalition conducted 26.
Iran News Round Up - September 18, 2015

IRGC Major General Safavi claimed that Russia is in sync with Iran regarding regional crises, including Syria. The Supreme Leader's Senior Military Advisor accused the U.S., Israel, and "some Arab countries" of deploying "rented terrorists" to Syria to overthrow President Bashar al Assad.

A while ago the Iranian commander tasked with the fight against the Islamic State, Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani, informed the military leadership of the Russian Federation about the state of the Syrian and Iraqi armies and the situation on the ground. He requested additional support. The Islamic State has attracted some 2,500 fighters from the Russian Federation, mostly Chechen. The return of these fighters to Russia could initiate a renewed terror war against the Russian state. This danger compels Russia to act.

Four Russian fighter jets deployed in Syria: US official

Russia has deployed four fighter jets to an airbase in Syria where it has been building up forces in recent weeks, alarming Washington, a US official said Friday.

Russian elite units on the land of Zabadani, Homs, Hama and Aleppo

by Elijah J. Magnier"Al-Rai" learned that "Special Elite Russian combat forces arrived to Hama, Aleppo, Homs, Damascus, as well as Zabadani to monitor, participate and study the military map on the field and suggest future workflow combat plans. These Special Forces submit to the operating room suggestions to determine the full plan to start the flow of further Russian special combat forces and troops on the battlefield all over the Syrian map where it is necessary".

This development will be the largest Russian external military intervention since Afghanistan in 1979.
A very senior field commander around Zabadani city said that "there are small Russian combat units, mostly sniper unit that we call the "Ivan unit", another reconnaissance unit, a unit of urban warfare, and advanced missiles unit in the area of ​operations run by the Syrian Army. "

Russia, and Iran, now mean business and are actively intervening. China may join that coalition to fight the Uyghur separatist Turkey smuggled to Syria to join the Islamic State. The recent movements have already led to a retreat in the often repeated old U.S. line that "Assad has to go" before any real negotiations about whatever can begin.

Kerry declared that "Assad has to go" but said there was some flexibility in the "modality" and timing of his departure."We've said for some period of time it doesn't have to be done on day one, or month one, or whatever," he said.

"Or whatever ..."

Prediction: Bashar Assad will still be President of Syria when Barack Obama is no longer the President of the United States.

But that was only part one of the issues at hand. The real question is if the United States is willing to give up on its plans for the "salafist principality" to partition Syria and Iraq and to start a serious fight against the Islamic State. The alternative for the U.S. and its allies is to use the Islamic State to create another Afghanistan like quagmire for the now deployed Russian troops.
But doing so would also create the possibility of alike consequences: another 9/11. What will Obama or whoever handles him decide?

Posted by b on September 19, 2015 at 01:55 PM | Permalink