Posted on 08/19/2014 1:17:09 PM PDT by elhombrelibre
BEIRUT -- As the U.S. military strikes ISIS militants in Iraq, Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces have significantly stepped up their own campaign against militant strongholds in Syria, carrying out dozens of airstrikes against the group's headquarters in the past two days.
While the government in Damascus has long turned a blind eye to the expansion of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq, which now calls itself simply the "Islamic State," in Syria -- in some cases even facilitating its offensive against mainstream, U.S.-backed rebels -- the group's rapid march on towns and villages in northern and eastern Syria is now threatening to overturn recent gains by government forces.
While ISIS militants have so far concentrated their attacks against the Western-backed fighters seeking to topple Assad, they have in the past month carried out a major onslaught against Syrian army facilities in northeastern Syria, capturing and slaughtering hundreds of Syrian soldiers and pro-government militiamen in the process.
On Monday, ISIS fighters were closing in on the last government-held army base in the northeastern Raqqa province, the Tabqa air base, prompting at least 16 Syrian government airstrikes in the area in an attempt to halt their advance.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
""I think they (Syrian government) are finally realizing that their Machiavellian strategy of working with the Islamic State group against the moderates did not work so well, and so they have started to fight it," said Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.""
This war reminds me of Monte Python’s Dandis Moore redistribution of wealth skit.
Utter propaganda to pretend that Assad instead of Obama worked with ISIS.
For quite a long time now, we’ve been told by Putin and Assad supporters on FreeRepublic that one of the reasons they supported Putin is that he supports Assad. As the story went, Assad was a real anti-Al Qaeda fighter. He was a defender of our Lord Jesus Christ, Christians in Syria, and a swell dude. Yet the reality is that Assad’s been in an alliance against with ISSIS againt the non-al Qaeda fighters. Assad’s been aligned with ISIS (the al Qaeda on steroids bunch) for a long time now. Obviously, Vladimir Putin, President for Life, retired KGB Colonel of 16 years, son of a secret police father who faithfully served Stalin, and all round neat guy without a shirt, as the story went was the great defender of humanity, the Russian Orthodox Christian Faith, and the dumbed down Russian chauvinism of the Putinistas. But he was also unconcerned that Assad was, to put it mildly, pursuing a war against those whose crime it is to want Assad and al Qaeda defeated. That’s why some of us oppose Assad, Putin, and Obama.
“ugh silver!.. I won’t have in me house!”
Yeah, if you cannot believe Putin and Assad who can you believe?
>>”I think they (Syrian government) are finally realizing that their Machiavellian strategy of working with the Islamic State group against the moderates did not work so well, and so they have started to fight it,” said Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
I guess they assume people really are stupid enough to believe this. They’re probably right.
You’re a weird one. You think that Assad lies more than 0bama?!
Please, tell me all of your preconceived notions about how the world is working. This should be entertaining.
Assad is a secular socialist, as was Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi) these dictators are/were not nice people but they kept the Muslim crazies at bay and allowed the non-Muslims (AKA Christians) to live a relatively peaceful life. Since the US intervention in Iraq, Libya and Syria the Christian populations of these places have been decimated. I’m not a great fan of Assad but it’s idiocy to think that getting rid of Assad will make things better in Syria or that the US is not the real cause of this whole problem. Our actions have destabilized that whole region.
I did not say that Assad lies more. But he is lying. Obama lies constantly, too.
So you don’t believe that Assad laid off of the Islamists and hit the FSA instead until recently? And you do know that Assad helped transfer al Qaeda fighters into Iraq to kill Americans during the removal of Saddam, right? And using your logic we would have never wanted the Soviet Union to break up because they kept the lid on Islamists.
“So you don’t believe that Assad laid off of the Islamists and hit the FSA instead until recently?”
FSA and ISIS are one in the same in my eyes and Assad can’t deal with all of the US funded terrorists at once so if he prioritized in such a way as to inconveniences the US then he played it smart as it has now forced the US to kill its own terrorists that have gotten out of control.
“And you do know that Assad helped transfer al Qaeda fighters into Iraq to kill Americans during the removal of Saddam, right?”
We had no business going into Iraq and Iraq had no Al Qaeda fighters there until we went in, does not matter who “encouraged” them to go into Iraq as they were going there because we invaded.
“And using your logic we would have never wanted the Soviet Union to break up because they kept the lid on Islamists.”
The economics of socialism eventually kills the host, the Soviets found that out and so will we. And yes it would have been better to have someone like the soviets “keeping a lid” on them.
If FSA and ISIS are the same, why do they fight each other?
I didn't write that al Assad encouraged them. I wrote that he helped them. He assisted them in killing Americans. Are you okay with that? I suspect you are.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.