"Islamic militants crush tribal uprising in Syria" by Bassem Mroue | Associated Press August 12, 2014
BEIRUT — Islamic militants have crushed a tribal uprising against their rule in eastern Syria after three days of clashes in a string of villages near the border with Iraq, killing and beheading opponents along the way, activists said Monday.
The videos are fake, the incubators were fake, fireworks were faked, I mean, this drumbeat of propaganda we have been getting to the exclusion of so many other things is deafening.
I guess they really think we will believe another false flag, something so horrific who could question?
That's the whole point.
Let me tell you a little story: I remember a day almost 13 years ago, hitting the books for a very important assignment during the second week of college and late in the afternoon a 47-story building dropped down and I walked by the TV and thought "What a bloody mess down there today," not knowing the horrible things that would spring from the dust(?).
I wasn't thinking what I saw or heard from the news channels that day was a lie or an illusion. Had them on all day because this was a major event. I was opposed to war from the start, even in Afghanistan. How was killing more people going to make it right? But I accepted the CIA-Duh blowback theory by a guy who I never heard of before and moved on with my life.
Anyway, wasn't until later, years later in fact, that I heard about David Ray Griffin's book "A New Pearl Harbor," and even longer before I got more clues (hint) about that September (hint) morning, and once you fill in the missing links to 9/11 (hint, hint, hint) the eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room (hint) is the ma$$ media that does the dancing for Israelis (hint, hint). It's the kind of thing that can make thermite go nuclear, or so I've seen in some places. I guess that's too hot even for me.
That's the only place left to go if indeed martial law is to be instituted and an official WWIII begun, no?
The fighters from the Islamic State group control huge swaths of territory in eastern and northern Syria and are fighting rival rebels, Kurdish militias, the Iraqi Army, and the Syrian Army for more territory.
Well, not anymore.
Meanwhile, at least 10 people, including four children and two women, were killed Monday when Syrian forces dropped explosives-filled barrels from a helicopter over the Bab Nayrab district of Aleppo in northern Syria, activists said. Many others were buried under the rubble of buildings, they said.
Yeah, the true terrorist is the Syrian government and.... wait a minute.... rubble, Gaza.... Gotta stop a minute. Head swirling from the stench of bs.
The Syrian army regularly dropped the so-called barrel bombs over populated areas in rebel-held territory. Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial capital, has seen heavy fighting since rebels seized part of the city in 2012.
The civil war in Syria, now in its fourth year, has continued to bleed while attention has shifted to conflicts in Gaza and Iraq.
The Islamic State group, which consists mainly of foreign fighters, has taken over much of northern and eastern Syria as well as western and northern Iraq.
Have they? Assad had beaten back all comers, but that was before SILLY was armed in Iraq to where they had fled from.... Syria!
The group has declared a self-styled caliphate in territory it controls along the Iraqi-Syrian border, imposing a harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
Really winning people over from what I read, too. It's sort of a state of stasis (hint).
The armed revolt by the Shueitat tribe in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour was the first sign of local resistance by tribesmen to the Islamic State group since its fighters swept into the province.
In other words, they are regular people sick of a few handfuls of western-financed terrorists making life miserable.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Turkey-based activist Thaer al-Deiri said Monday that Islamic State group fighters regained control of three villages from the Shueitat tribe after being expelled earlier this month.
The Observatory said Islamic State fighters beheaded two tribesmen after they fled to the nearby village of Shaafa. It had no immediate word on other casualties in the area.
After the fake videos where they are sawing mannequins, I dunno.
Clashes over the past two weeks left more than a dozen people dead on both sides.
The clashes in eastern Syria came as Islamic State fighters tightened their siege of a major military air base in the town of Tabqa in the northern province of Raqqa. The air base is the last army position in the Raqqa province that is an Islamic State stronghold.
The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said the group was bombarding the base with artillery and appears to be preparing to storm it.
Last week, Islamic State fighters seized the nearby Brigade 93 base after days of heavy fighting. Late last month they captured another base in which they took dozens of prisoners, some of whom were later beheaded and their bodies paraded in one of Raqqa’s main squares.
Yeah, that is a dam (hint, hint) war crime.
--more--"
"Islamic militants seize 2 northern Syrian towns" by ZEINA KARAM | Associated Press August 14, 2014
BEIRUT — Extremists captured two key towns and several villages near Syria’s northern border with Turkey on Wednesday after pushing out rival fighters in fierce clashes, opposition groups and activists said.
The towns, in Syria’s Aleppo province, are the latest prize for Islamic State militants who have carved out a self-styled caliphate across vast swaths of eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq.
Activists said fighters from the group captured the towns of Akhtarin and Turkmanbareh after fierce clashes with mainstream rebels who are fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. The militants also took a string of nearby villages over which they had been fighting, including Masoudiyeh, Dabiq, and Ghouz.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 31 rebels and eight Islamic State group fighters were killed in the clashes. The Observatory relies on a network of activists inside Syria for its information.
Yeah, they are a major source for my paper which is why I always dismiss what they say.
The capture of Akhtarin has strategic significance as the town is ‘‘the gate to the northern countryside of Aleppo,’’ said a local rebel commander who uses the nom de guerre Abu Thabet.
It seems the Islamic State’s ultimate goal, he said, was to reach Marea, a town a few miles to the west that is considered a stronghold of the Islamic Front as well as Azaz, a town next to the Bab al-Salama border crossing with Turkey.
The Islamic Front is a powerful alliance of rebel groups battling against the Islamic State group.
‘‘They launched an all-out offensive for Akhtarin on Tuesday and the clashes lasted all night,’’ said Abu Thabet, whose moderate Aleppo Swords brigade is affiliated with the Western-backed Free Syrian Army umbrella group.
I wish the West would quit f***ing around in these countries, and I'm sure the people there do to!
He said the mainstream rebels, including the Free Syrian Army, were in chaos — encircled in Aleppo province by Syrian government forces on one side and the Islamic State group on the other side.
Those are the guys the U.S. is also supporting.
Fighters from the Islamic State, an al Qaeda breakaway group, control huge swaths of territory in eastern and northern Syria and are fighting rival rebels, Kurdish militias, and the Syrian army for more. In neighboring Iraq they are batting Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters as well as Iraqi government troops.
Also Wednesday, the international chemical weapons watchdog said all 640 tons of Syria’s precursor chemicals for sarin gas that had been transferred to the US cargo vessel MV Cape Ray have been destroyed.
They dumped it all in the Atlantic.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said the Cape Ray has now begun to neutralize the remaining Syrian chemicals on the ship — 22 tons of sulfur mustard.
The remaining 772 tons of chemicals removed from Syria are being destroyed at land-based facilities in Finland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
I'm sure the citizens of those nations are happy to know that.
So when is the EUSraeli Empire going to destroy their own stocks?
--more--"
"Syrian government forces capture key Damascus suburb; Activists report rebels forced to flee hideouts" by Ryan Lucas | Associated Press August 15, 2014
BEIRUT — Syrian government troops captured a fiercely contested suburb of the capital Thursday after five months of heavy fighting, flushing rebels from their last hideouts and quickly moving to crush pockets of resistance in the surrounding countryside, activists and state media said.
The fall of Mleiha, about 6 miles southeast of downtown Damascus, marks the latest setback for rebels around the capital. During the past year, the opposition has watched as one stronghold after another has either slipped into government hands or been forced to strike lopsided truces.
What? What? What?
The military’s campaign around Damascus has succeeded in pushing the rebels farther from the heart of the city, while also strengthening President Bashar Assad’s once-shaky hold on the capital.
And taking it away from their will to fight.
Those gains, coupled with significant victories elsewhere in Syria in recent months, have swung the momentum in Syria’s 3 ½-year-old conflict firmly in the government’s favor.
That so flies in the face of the other reports I'm reading. WTF?
In the country’s north and east, however, government forces have fallen back in the face of an advance by the extremist Islamic State group, which has seized several military bases and outposts and killed hundreds of soldiers and progovernment fighters.
This isn't silly anymore. It's deadly serious, and this "news" sucks.
The group, which has declared a self-styled caliphate in areas straddling the Iraq-Syria border, continued to advance in the northern Aleppo province Thursday after seizing a string of towns and villages a day earlier, activists said.
That's bet.... ter.... ????
Mainstream rebels in the divided city of Aleppo, already squeezed by Assad’s forces, now fear the advancing militants. The city, once Syria’s commercial capital, is carved up between rebel and government-held districts and has seen heavy fighting since rebels seized parts of it in 2012.
Ah, divide and conquer with two terror groups. Nice strategy!
Syria’s Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, issued an appeal for US military assistance to stop what it said was a two-front attack by Islamic State fighters and Assad’s forces.
They all are, and Obummer is on the way!
‘‘The FSA [Free Syrian Army] needs an immediate surge of military aid in Aleppo, or the city and its residents will be obliterated,’’ said Oubai Shahbandar, a Washington-based senior strategist for the group.
Bye.
The coalition also acknowledged defeat in Mleiha on Thursday, saying the rebels had withdrawn in the face of attacks by government forces and allied Shi’ite militiamen.
Assad’s forces have waged a ferocious offensive since April in an attempt to dislodge rebels from Mleiha, pounding the besieged town daily with airstrikes and artillery.
You know, like what the US is doing in Iraq or what the Kiev junta is doing in Ukraine.
Both sides placed a premium on controlling Mleiha because of its strategic location near the highway to the Damascus airport and its proximity to the opposition stronghold of eastern Ghouta.
Government troops backed by fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah, a Shi’ite militant group, finally seized the town Thursday, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on activists inside Syria.
I was wondering when they were going to get around to mentioning that help.
‘‘Mleiha is under government control, but there is still fighting in the areas surrounding the town,’’ said Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman.
--more--"
Related:
ISIS Melts Into Lebanon
ISIS Expanding
Lebanese Lick ISIS
That's why that agenda faded a bit:
Lebanese Hezbollah fighters kill explosives expert in Syria
Lebanon gets more weapons from US
Related:
ISIS Melts Into Lebanon
ISIS Expanding
Lebanese Lick ISIS
That's why that agenda faded a bit:
Lebanese Hezbollah fighters kill explosives expert in Syria
Lebanon gets more weapons from US
Oh, they a friend now?
So when Israel attacks them we will go to defend, right? Airstrikes on Tel Aviv and the whole bit?
Looks like Syria beat US to the punch:
"Syrian airstrikes target Islamic State group" Associated Press August 18, 2014
BEIRUT — Syrian government warplanes pounded an Islamic State group stronghold as well as other towns controlled by the extremists, conducting a wave of airstrikes Sunday that killed at least 11 people, activists said.
For more than a year, President Bashar Assad’s air force rarely targeted territory controlled by the Islamic State group in northern Syria, instead focusing on mainstream rebel groups. But government jets have begun hitting the extremists more regularly since the jihadis overran much of neighboring northern and western Iraq in June.
Even in that context, the intensity of Sunday’s air raids appeared unusually high, with at least 25 strikes hitting the group’s stronghold of Raqqa in northeastern Syria, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
But not as high as what the US has delivered to Iraq.
This isn't silly, this is SHIT!!!!!! Soory!
Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said 14 of those raids targeted a military court and other buildings used by the group.
He said at least 31 Islamic State members were killed in Raqqa and about 40 were wounded. He said there were an additional 22 civilian casualties, but he didn’t have an exact breakdown of the dead and wounded.
The Local Coordination Committees, an activist collective, also reported the airstrikes on Raqqa but put the death toll early in the day at 11. Differences in casualty figures are common in the immediate aftermath of attacks.
Yeah, whatever.
They didn't get that Somali guy, did they?
Both activist groups also reported government airstrikes on Islamic State-controlled areas in Deir el-Zour province bordering Iraq and Aleppo province bordering Turkey, including the towns of Akhtarin and Dabiq.
--more--"
Related:
Turkey’s prime minister wins presidency
And after the rigged election:
"Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has steered Turkish foreign policy both as foreign minister and as Erdogan's adviser since 2003. In June 2015, when Erdogan hopes to secure a strong majority that would allow the party to rewrite the constitution and change Turkey's political system to a presidential one. Davutoglu's record as foreign minister, however, has been a mixed one. Praised in his early years in office for efforts to befriend Turkey's old foes and raise the country's international profile, critics say his "zero problems with neighbors" policy has since unraveled, leaving Turkey with very few allies in the Middle East."
But they are friends with Israel despite the flotilla fiasco.
But back to Syria:
ISIS Tunneling Into Israel From Syria
Ha-ha-ha.
"Syrian air base falls to Islamic State fighters" Associated Press August 25, 2014
BEIRUT — Islamic State fighters captured a major military air base in northeastern Syria on Sunday, eliminating the last government-held outpost in a province otherwise dominated by the jihadi group, activists and state media said.
Tabqa airfield — home to several warplane squadrons, helicopters, tanks, artillery, and ammunition bunkers — is the third military base in the area to fall to the extremists since last month.
I'm surprised they got beat on the battlefield the last two weeks.
Those victories are part of the Islamic State group’s aggressive push to consolidate its hold on northern and eastern provinces, while also expanding the boundaries of its self-styled caliphate straddling the Syria-Iraq border.
The jihadis launched their long-anticipated offensive last week to seize the sprawling Tabqa facility, located some 25 miles from the extremists’ stronghold in the city of Raqqa along the Euphrates River.
After several failed efforts to breach the walls in recent days, Islamic State fighters managed to punch through and storm the air base Sunday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Government warplanes carried out waves of airstrikes to try to beat back the attack, but those ultimately proved unable to stop it.
Only US warplanes can do that! WOW!!
‘‘Some of the Syrian regime troops pulled out, and now the Islamic State is in full control of Tabqa,’’ said Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman. ‘‘This makes Raqqa province the first to fully fall out of government hands.’’
Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, also said the extremist group was in control of Tabqa.
Islamic State fighters had been closing in on the base for weeks.
--more--"
Notice they never attack nearby Jordan?
Oh, right, that is one of the areas from which they are coming:
"US officials say Syria key to defeating Islamic State" by Michael R. Gordon and Helene Cooper | New York Times August 22, 2014
Another peddler of lies.
WASHINGTON — As US warplanes kept up attacks on Sunni militants in Iraq on Thursday, American military and civilian officials said the Islamic State cannot be defeated unless the United States or its allies take them on in Syria.
That's been the plan for the propaganda all along. Not funny.
“This is an organization that has an apocalyptic end-of-days strategic vision that will eventually have to be defeated,” said General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Dempsey said at a joint news conference with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that this would not necessarily require airstrikes by the United States, but Hagel appeared to leave open that possibility by saying, ‘‘We’re looking at all options.’’
I can only do what did back last year and PREEMPTIVELY CONDEMN the WAR CRIMINAL ASSAULT on SYRIA -- now with this flimsy excuse rather than Assad gassed his own people nonsense.
The US military believes the Islamic State has a highly mobile force that may number as many 17,000 fighters and can move across the Iraq-Syria border with impunity.
17,000 and all that area to cover? Of course, they are not mobile anymore. US airstrikes have dammed (hint) that up.
To counter recent advances by the militant group, the Pentagon said Thursday that US warplanes conducted six more strikes on Islamic State targets near the Mosul Dam, destroying three Humvees, another vehicle, and several improvised explosive device emplacements.
The attacks brought to 90 the number of airstrikes conducted by the fighter jets, drones, and bombers that the United States has unleashed on the Sunni militants since President Obama authorized the strikes.
There have been 20 attacks since the militants beheaded American journalist James Foley in Syria and threatened to behead others if the United States did not stop the airstrikes.
What an ass-et.
Obama has harshly condemned the slaying, and Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement declaring that the group “must be destroyed.”
Then stop funding and creating them with allies.
Thus far, though, Obama’s military strategy is aimed at containing the Islamic State rather than defeating it, according to Defense Department officials and military experts.
Need to keep the "enemy" out there for many rea$ons.
Wary of expanding the US military campaign in Iraq, the administration has balked at committing more extensive air power.
PFFFT!
The gruesome execution of Foley has drawn a raw, emotional reaction from members of Congress in both parties, with some urging Obama to redouble the fight against it.
“Seldom is the descriptor ‘evil’ applied with perfect accuracy as it is with this monstrous group,’’ said Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California.
Not even going to type it.
Several Republicans are criticizing Obama for not doing more. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said, “President Obama continues to appear unwilling to do what is necessary to confront ISIL and communicate clearly to the American people about the threat ISIL poses to our country and to our way of life.”
Hagel said Thursday that while US airstrikes have helped Iraqi and Kurdish forces regain their footing, the militants can be expected to regroup.
I have no doubt! They are EVERYWHERE yet NOWHERE, like GHOSTS EXHUMED from the GRAVE time and again.
The abilities of the Iraqi and Kurdish forces facing Islamic State fighters remain limited, and similar shortfalls are seen in the moderate Syrian opposition facing the militant group across the border.
Dempsey said the Islamic State forces can be contained but not defeated without attacking it in Syria.
Meaning SYRIA (with help from Russia and Iran) will be fingered for the nuclear 9/11 false flag being set for Chicago. It's already in place; it's only waiting for the green light from this government.
The US military is conducting reconnaissance over Syria, but attacks by drones or manned strike aircraft on Islamic State positions there had not been ordered.
The order has been prepared and is waiting for signature.
The president sent a Special Operations team into Syria last month in a vain effort to rescue Foley and other hostages held by the Islamic State.
So BOOTS "were" on the GROUND in SYRIA (in a violation of national sovereignty, I might add)!!
Another step that some experts recommend to challenge the militant group is an accelerated program to train, advise, and equip the moderate opposition in Syria as well as Kurdish and government forces in Iraq.
Been doing that already.
As shown during the initial US military mission to rout Al Qaeda and the Taliban from Afghanistan after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, US airstrikes would be more effective if small teams of Special Operations Forces were deployed to identify Islamic State targets and call in attacks.
Under the cover of the FOLEY FRAUD!
Deploying such teams is believed to be one option the Pentagon is considering. But no teams have been deployed, according to officials.
Except for Foley, and yeah, sure, as if this military is to be believed!
Now I'm laughing! It's like a flashback from the 1960s, except it is no longer a credibility gap -- there is NO CREDIBILITY LEFT!
The United States has used the strikes in part to protect Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan’s regional government where the United States has a consulate. And it has used air power to help Kurdish peshmerga fighters and soldiers from the Iraqi government’s counterterrorism service retake the Mosul Dam.
US airstrikes have also been used to try to protect the thousands of desperate Yazidi civilians who were ushered from the sanctuary they sought on Mount Sinjar.
Yeah, who it turns out were not in any dam (hint) danger anyway. You've been had again, Americans!
And where is the help for GAZA?
According to news releases from the US Central Command, the Islamic State has been using captured US equipment, including Humvees and at least one MRAP, or mine resistant, ambush-protected vehicle.
Then why did they start losing? Not know how to use it?
US officials caution that intelligence experts are still in the process of assessing the Islamic State’s strength and that pinning down the precise number of its fighters is difficult in part because it is not easy to identify who is a core member of the group and who might be sympathizers fighting alongside them.
This IS SILLY! Who wrote this!?!
It is estimated the group has about 17,000 fighters.
But how do they know? They don't!
--more--"
"In Syria, US vows to do as ‘necessary,’ including airstrikes" by Peter Baker | New York Times August 23, 2014
I don't think the name matters as much as the spewing organization.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is debating more robust intervention in Syria to break the back of the extremist group that has destabilized neighboring Iraq and killed an American, including possibly direct US military action, officials said Friday.
A year after President Obama stepped back from a bombing campaign in Syria, US officials are giving new thought to airstrikes by fighters, bombers, and unmanned drones.
A top security adviser to the president vowed Friday that the United States will “do what is necessary” in Syria to protect American interests and said that direct military action was possible against the Islamic State militant group.
Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, said the Islamic State had become an increased threat to the United States, a threat the government takes seriously.
He is someone I do not. How can you, dammit (hint).
“If you come against Americans, we are going to come after you,” Rhodes said.
That's why we created you!!!!
He declined to say whether the president was considering expanding airstrikes to include Islamic State targets in Syria as well as in Iraq, where raids began this month.
“We’re actively considering what’s going to be necessary in dealing with that threat,” Rhodes said. “We’re not going to be restricted by borders.”
Then it is a VIOLATION of INTERNATIONAL LAW!!
Related:
"The officials, who asked not be named while discussing sensitive internal deliberations, said they expected that Britain and Australia would be willing to join the United States in an air campaign, and countries likely to be enlisted to provide support for possible US military operations include Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, officials said. The officials said they also want help from Turkey, which has military bases that could be used to support an effort in Syria. Turkey is a transit route for foreign fighters traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State.
Why are they not stopping them?
Administration officials said they are asking Ankara to help tighten the border. The administration is also seeking intelligence and surveillance help from Jordan and financial help from Saudi Arabia, which bankrolls groups in Syria fighting President Bashar Assad.
Related: Saudi king warns of terrorist threat to Europe, US
I guess he would know.
Kinda makes you laugh were it not so serious.
On Monday, the Pentagon began surveillance flights over Syria to collect information on possible Islamic State targets as a precursor to airstrikes, a senior official said....
Thought that was something worthy of note so you know where we are headed, readers.
Obama’s top military advisers have said the Islamic State cannot be defeated unless the United States also goes after the group inside Syria. The president did not rule out that possibility, but said that if he were to expand the military mission, he would consult with members of Congress, who are due to return to Washington in early September; however, the president did not commit to seeking a vote from Congress if he were to decide to proceed with military action."
Won't Syria have something to say about that even if Congress does not?
No sense going through the same hassle as last year this time, huh?
I think the AMERICAN PEOPLE are going to have a LOT TO SAY come NOVEMBER?
Or has the nuclear false flag that will destroy Obama's hometown on September 11th, 2014, lead to martial law and the cancellation of elections?
General Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that the only way to defeat the Islamic State was for the United States or its allies to take the fight to the militants inside Syria.
“This is an organization that has an apocalyptic end-of-days strategic vision that will eventually have to be defeated,” Dempsey told reporters. “Can they be defeated without addressing that part of the organization that resides in Syria? The answer is no.”
Seems like I have seen that before.
Rhodes, speaking on Martha’s Vineyard, where the president is vacationing, said repeatedly Friday that the administration will do what was necessary in Syria to protect US interests, using language similar to Obama’s when he announced the airstrikes in Iraq.
He's on vacation during all this? Like Bush?
“The American people understand that this president is very deliberate about military action,” Rhodes said. “American people also understand that there are some threats that have to be dealt with.”
What I understand is I have a lying, war-mongering government that serves banks and Israel.
Rhodes declined to say whether the administration would have to seek additional legal authority to conduct airstrikes or other military action inside Syria. He promised that the president and his staff will consult with Congress.
No vote this time.
“We will take whatever action is necessary,” Rhodes said. “We will take direct action against terrorists that threaten the United States.”
The death toll from three years of Syria’s civil war has risen to more than 191,000, the United Nations reported Friday.
The figure, covering the period from March 2011 to April 2014, is the first issued by the UN’s human rights office since July 2013, when it documented more than 100,000 killed.
The high toll is a reflection of the brutality of Syria’s conflict, which has transformed into a complex, multilayered war where various factions fight against one another.
None of which is worse than the ISIS brand.
It also reflects the recent surge in deadly attacks by the Qaeda-breakaway Islamic State group targeting rival militant groups, mainstream Western-backed Syrian rebels, and Kurdish militiamen in northern Syria as it seeks to eliminate opponents and consolidate its hold.
Eliminate its dam (hint) supporters, too.
Navi Pillay, the UN’s top human rights official, said the new figures are so much higher because they include additional killings from earlier periods, as well as deaths since the last report. The exact figure of confirmed deaths is 191,369.
‘‘Tragically it is probably an underestimate,’’ she said.
--more--"
"Obama faces new call for action in Syria" by Julie Pace | Associated Press August 24, 2014
WASHINGTON — For three years, President Obama has resisted the pull of potential US military action in Syria. He has held firm even as the civil war’s death toll climbed toward 200,000, the Syrian government used chemical weapons against civilians, and Islamic State militants strengthened amid the chaos.
BUT?!!!?
Now Obama must decide whether the extremist group’s killing of American journalist James Foley, as well as the broader threat the group could pose to US interests, should change his view.
Pressure is coming from his own military leaders to go after the Islamic State inside Syria. But he must weigh that against his aversion to the risks that could come with plunging the United States into a country torn apart by an intractable internal conflict.
Will just have to clean up the mess or put out the fire or whatever defining moment it is this time.
White House officials have suggested that airstrikes in Syria are an option, though the officials say specific military proposals have not been presented to the president.
‘‘We’re actively considering what’s going to be necessary to deal with that threat, and we’re not going to be restricted by borders,’’ said Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser. ‘‘We’ve shown time and again that if there’s a counterterrorism threat, we’ll take direct action against that threat, if necessary.’’
Even before Foley’s killing, Obama found himself on far different footing in the Middle East than he probably expected in the sixth year of his presidency.
After running for the White House on a pledge to end the Iraq war and then making good on that promise in late 2011, Obama thrust the US military back into Iraq this month with a limited airstrike campaign against Islamic State targets.
Obama has said he will not send US combat troops to another ground war in the Mideast. But expanding the airstrikes in Iraq and broadening them to include Syria could mean a lengthy American military commitment in the region that could consume much of Obama’s remaining time in office.
‘‘What we should have learned over the past dozen years in that part of the world is that the use of military power is very unpredictable,’’ said Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Surprised to see him get a quote.
That may be particularly true in Syria, where President Bashar Assad’s government is warring with opposition forces. Unlike in Iraq, the battle lines are more clearly drawn. Syria has a host of military players in close proximity to each other, including the Islamic State, the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, mainstream Western-backed rebels and pro-government forces.
The Islamic State is among the groups fighting Assad, meaning a US campaign to weaken the extremists could strengthen a leader the White House has sought to push from office.
Obama could try to counteract that uncomfortable dynamic by also taking strikes against Assad, though that could put the United States on the hook for the kind of long-term commitment to rebuilding Syria that he has tried to avoid.
Did you SEE THAT?
The risks are no less troubling if Obama allows the Islamic State to continue having unfettered access to a safe haven in Syria. Politically, it could bolster the argument from his critics that he is overseeing an American retreat on the world stage. It also could give the militants space to strengthen and become a threat not just to US interests in the region, but also to the United States at home.
When is the false flag, the 13th anniversary of 9/11?
Obama’s own military leadership made clear in recent days that the threat from the Islamic State cannot be fully eliminated without going after the group in Syria, as well as Iraq.
‘‘This is an organization that has an apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision and which will eventually have to be defeated,’’ said Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ‘‘Can they be defeated without addressing that part of their organization which resides in Syria? The answer is no.’’
I've seen that before.
Syria’s civil war has spilled over into neighboring countries and has involved several militant organizations, including Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah movement, which backs Assad.
To White House critics, the unappetizing options for countering the insurgents in Iraq are the result of Obama’s own foreign policy missteps.
They argue that he gave extremists an opening by not doing more to reach an agreement with the Iraqi government to leave US forces in the country after 2011. They say his decision to not provide heavy weaponry to more moderate rebel groups in Syria also helped facilitate the Islamic State’s rise.
Except they were arming them both through proxies, etc.
Obama’s advisers say the responsibility for stemming the rise of the Islamic State does not rest solely with the United States.
Yeah, we saw who they wanted to be included in the coalition.
--more--"
Also see: Most Americans Now Support Airstrikes In Syria, Poll Shows
That is not only silly, it's ridiculously absurd and ludicrous.
