Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tim Drayton]

There is lots of different stuff ‘all over the internet’. For example:

Assad’s Forces May Be Aiding New ISIS Surge
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/world ... .html?_r=0

Assad Policies Aided Rise of Islamic State Militant Group
http://www.wsj.com/articles/assad-polic ... 1408739733

U.S. embassy in Syria accuses al-Assad of helping Islamic State
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/ ... 433244005/

Insurgents claim Assad aiding Islamic State group
http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-worl ... ate-group/

I am not saying it is necessarily true, just because it is on the internet, even if all of the above quotes come from gilt-edged sources, but it is an angle that merits serious consideration, and I think the reality is far too complex to allow for any single simple conspiracy theory.

[Tim Drayton]

Another aspect of this affair is the way that many former Baathists are currently involved in DAESH in Iraq:

In light of this history, it is reasonable to surmise that the ex-Baathists flying the ISIS flag today are covertly working to undermine ISIS’s caliphate and eventually achieve their own political goals. The Former Regime Loyalists (FRLs) may be allowing ISIS to do the hard work of fighting and carving out a Sunni-dominated tribal nation from Damascus to Fallujah to Mosul. Once that geographic goal has been achieved, it should not take much to depose the caliph and eliminate ISIS.

The FRLs and Sunni tribal leadership have clearly demonstrated that the personal aspirations of 7 million Iraqi Sunnis can be a serious political cudgel. If the central government doesn’t play ball, ISIS can march on Baghdad until a deal is made for regional autonomy, money or independence. If the Shiite government defeats ISIS (or if the Sunni community turns against it), the FRLs can just step away and continue to wield power in their communities. Either way, they win.

On the other hand, ISIS did make the FRLs swear oaths of loyalty to the caliphate, and they will certainly take a dim, beheading-filled view of any covert plans to undermine their reign. The FRLs will proceed cautiously. Both ideologies can coexist as long as there is a Shiite-Iranian-American axis to rally against. Baathists are still Muslims, and they have shown that they can feign piety as long as it’s convenient.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015 ... loyalists/

[Tim Drayton]

Isn’t a bit odd that the US is killing the very people it is alleged by some to be supporting?

More than 10,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed since an international coalition began a campaign against the group in Iraq and Syria, the US says.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32990299

[Get Real!]

How the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... syria-iraq

[Paphitis]

How the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... syria-iraq

Well things change very quickly.

If Bush supported them and created them, we will know destroy them.

It's a bit like being God. He create, and He can destroy!

[Paphitis]

Isn’t a bit odd that the US is killing the very people it is alleged by some to be supporting?

More than 10,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed since an international coalition began a campaign against the group in Iraq and Syria, the US says.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32990299

Yes, the Air Campaign has been hugely effective so far. Just need someone to finish the job off on the ground.

There are growing calls for additional troops on the ground undertaking combat roles.

[Tim Drayton]

How the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... syria-iraq

A quote from the above:

That doesn’t mean the US created Isis, of course, though some of its Gulf allies certainly played a role in it – as the US vice-president, Joe Biden, acknowledged last year. But there was no al-Qaida in Iraq until the US and Britain invaded. And the US has certainly exploited the existence of Isis against other forces in the region as part of a wider drive to maintain western control.

The calculus changed when Isis started beheading westerners and posting atrocities online, and the Gulf states are now backing other groups in the Syrian war, such as the Nusra Front. But this US and western habit of playing with jihadi groups, which then come back to bite them, goes back at least to the 1980s war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, which fostered the original al-Qaida under CIA tutelage.

Yes, the US and its other Western allies were partly instrumental in creating the conditions that lead to the birth of DAESH. This is a long way from saying that the US single-handedly created DAESH and continues to support it, as some seem to be alleging. The West has yet to learn that playing with political Islam is playing with fire and it will come back to burn them.

[Tim Drayton]

Isn’t a bit odd that the US is killing the very people it is alleged by some to be supporting?

More than 10,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed since an international coalition began a campaign against the group in Iraq and Syria, the US says.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32990299

Yes, the Air Campaign has been hugely effective so far. Just need someone to finish the job off on the ground.

There are growing calls for additional troops on the ground undertaking combat roles.

My feeling is that Iran is being groomed for the job. First DAESH has to be allowed to complete its task of eliminating all other actual/potential opposition and to commit so many crimes against humanity that Iran will be cast as the good guys when they come in and finish them off.

[Get Real!]

Idiotic author/article of the week...

"U.S. Shoots Itself In the Foot By Accidentally Arming ISIS"

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/06/0 ... vWRqP.dpuf

I assure you that the US never does anything "accidentally" and especially repeating the same "accident" a dozen times!

[Paphitis]

Idiotic author/article of the week...

"U.S. Shoots Itself In the Foot By Accidentally Arming ISIS"

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/06/0 ... vWRqP.dpuf

I assure you that the US never does anything "accidentally" and especially repeating the same "accident" a dozen times!

Provide the evidence.

You see old chap, it's one thing for you to "assure us" but the world don't work that way. We require evidence and maybe, should this evidence exist, it should be provided to the US Federal Court System which I am sure would be very interested in this factual information you might have that the US is actively arming and supporting ISIS whilst at the same time bomb the crap out of them. With "allies" like this, who needs enemies right?