When last we checked in on the situation in Syria, ISIS (who a secret Pentagon document recently revealed was, and probably still is, considered a US “strategic asset”) was supposedly on the move, emboldened by recent successes in the ancient city of Palmyra and the conquest of Ramadi in Iraq, where, you’re reminded, Iraqi forces showed “no will” to fight according the Pentagon.
Recent reports also indicated that the militants may have commandeered 2,300 humvees [9] worth more than $1 billion when the group sacked Mosul last summer, a convenient “loss” for the US which can now justify four times that amount in arms sales to allies who will now need to counter a ‘better-equipped’ ISIS.
On the heels of Palmyra, Ramadi, and a suicide bombing at a Saudi mosque, the US military and Congressional war hawks have ratcheted up the calls for American boots on the ground in Iraq. More specifically, what’s needed is so-called forward “spotters” who will aid in making airstrikes more precise and thus avoid the type of collateral damage and failed bombing runs that have allegedly plagued the air campaign thus far. Or, as we put it [10] last week: Carefully worded trial balloons don’t get much better than that. You see, the problem is that we are accidentally killing innocent children on our bombing runs and that’s if we’re lucky enough to be able to drop any bombs at all which apparently we only do a quarter of the time, and the whole “problem” could be “fixed” by deploying a couple of “spotters” with laser pointers.
But no good narrative is complete without a series of multi-colored maps which usually depict [11] the enemy’s advance using various shades of red or orange or purple much like one might use to depict the spread of a deadly virus. That way, the public begins to equate the enemy advance with a rapidly proliferating biological threat.
[12]
[13]
Alas, none of this has yet created enough public support for a ground incursion in Iraq and Syria, which needs to come sooner rather than later because after all, Qatari natural gas isn’t going to pipe itself into Europe.
So we suppose that if the original plan was to wait on ISIS to make the final push into Damascus before claiming that the US “must take action” to expel the murderous black flag-waving hordes on the way to installing a more ‘agreeable’ regime, it might make sense to just skip a step and claim Assad and ISIS have now teamed up, that way, we can equate the two and kill two birds with one stone (or, more accurately, serve one CIA asset a burn notice and oust an ‘unfriendly’ regime with 10,000 marines).
Cue Reuters [14]:
The United States has accused the Syrian military of carrying out air strikes to help Islamic State fighters advance around the northern city of Aleppo, messages posted on the U.S. Embassy Syria official Twitter feed said.
Islamic State fighters pushed back rival insurgents north of Aleppo on Sunday near the Turkish border, threatening their supply route to the city, fighters and a group monitoring the war said.
[15]
Fighters from Levant Front, a northern alliance which includes Western-backed rebels and Islamist fighters, said they were worried Islamic State was heading for the Bab al-Salam crossing between Aleppo and the Turkish province of Kilis.
"Reports indicate that the regime is making air strikes in support of ISIL's advance on Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population," a post on the U.S. Embassy Syria Twitter account said late on Monday, using an acronym for Islamic State.
But the U.S. Twitter feed said Damascus had a hand in promoting Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot which has seized land in Syria and Iraq.
"With these latest reports, (the military) is not only avoiding ISIL lines, but, actively seeking to bolster their position," it said. Syria has accused its regional enemies of backing hardline insurgent groups.
If that sounds strange to you, that's because it is. Recall from the Pentagon document [16] mentioned above that a spokesperson for The Islamic State of Iraq called on "the Sunnis in Iraq to wage war against the Syrian regime regarding Syria as an infidel regime for its support of the infidel army Hezbollah and other regimes he considers dissenters like Iran and Iraq."
Now, apparently, ISIS and the Assad regime have inexplicably decided to ban together.
With these latest reports, #Asad [17] is not only avoiding #ISIL [18] lines, but, actively seeking to bolster their positon. #Syria [19]
— U.S. Embassy Syria (@USEmbassySyria) June 1, 2015 [20]
Here's more from Reuters:
Syrian officials have previously dismissed as nonsense allegations by Washington and Syrian opposition activists that the Syrian military has helped Islamic State's fight against rival Syrian insurgent forces.
"The Syrian army is fighting Islamic State in all areas where it is present in Syria," a military source said.
And the US again:
Reports indicate that the regime is making air-strikes in support of #ISIL [18]'s advance on #Aleppo [21], aiding extremists against Syrian population
— U.S. Embassy Syria (@USEmbassySyria) June 1, 2015 [22]
For their part, the 'moderate' Syrian opposition claims "it is fact" that Assad is now aiding ISIS and in fact has been doing so for the better part of two years. From Islam Alloush, a spokesman for the Islamic Front, via The Guardian [23]:
“Yesterday, the regime bombed Mare’a (which was held by the opposition) exactly at the same time when Isis was attacking us, and this helped them greatly."
“It has become a matter of fact since 2013 that the Syrian regime has bombed us to stop us fighting Isis properly. Isis have never attacked Syrian planes. They owe their success to the regime.”
Draw your own conclusions, but if one wanted to speed up the process of bringing about regime change in Syria, one way to do so would be to claim that Assad and ISIS are now working together in an attempt to crush the opposition.
That way, increased US military "support" could be justified by claiming that the barbarous ISIS hordes are now teaming with a regime that allegedly uses chemical weapons on its own people, thus creating a murderous Frankenstein monster by sewing together the ISIS bogeyman and the 'maniacal' Assad regime and trotting it out to the public as justification for yet another US ground war.