Smoke 'em If You've Got 'em

I used to think a scorecard was what I needed. Now I know that won't even help me.

The Syrian foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the United States informed Damascus’ envoy to the United Nations before launching airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria.

The ministry issued a brief statement, carried by Syrian state media, saying that “the American side informed Syria’s permanent envoy to the U.N. that strikes will be launched against the Daesh terrorist organization in Raqqa.”

  Global News

How very thoughtful.

The airstrikes hit targets in and around the Syrian city of Raqqa and the province with the same name, activists said, adding that there were casualties among Islamic State militants on the ground. U.S. officials said the airstrikes began around 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT), and were conducted by the U.S., Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

THIS is our coalition of the willing these days. Our partners.  (Human Rights Watch and CIA summaries below.)

I work with a woman who says she thinks Obama is secretly part of a terrorist organization. With confederates like this coalition, one can begin to see why the yahoos might think that.

Without their consent, Syrian officials have said such airstrikes would be an act of aggression against Syria and a breach of the country’s sovereignty.

However, U.S. officials have ruled out direct co-ordination with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.

I’m confused. So all we had to do was “inform” Damascus that we were about to launch air strikes to avoid being seen as an aggressor “in breach of the country’s sovereignty”?

The whole thing smells.  I marvel there is a back room big enough to accommodate all the dealing.

[Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group,] said about 20 air strikes hit Raqqa province, adding there were casualties among jihadi fighters, mostly on checkpoints. He said that in addition to the city of Raqqa, there were strikes on the towns of Tabqa, Ein Issa and the border town of Tel Abyad on the border with Turkey.

Assad has been attacking that area himself, which is said to be an ISIS stronghold.

Government critics, and increasingly some supporters, complain that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces allowed the foreign-led ISIS to gain strength and establish its proto-state over the past year, focusing the army’s attacks more on Syrian-led militant groups whose main aim is to oust the president. ISIS has a broader goal, to remake the Middle East and establish an Islamic caliphate.

  NYT

In all fairness, I’d think that if he didn’t focus on the groups whose aim is to oust him, he would not be in a position to deal with ISIS. At any rate, he probably can’t come out and say he’s enlisted the help of the US, who has undoubtedly been instrumental in helping ISIS weaken Assad.

We create ‘em so’s we can fight ‘em.

Mark Twain would no doubt by this time have made up his mind whether the world is ruled by smart people putting us on or imbeciles who really mean it. We are all ruled by madmen.

Last week, U.S. officials told CNN that the military had everything in place it needed to strike ISIS inside Syria and was awaiting Obama's go-ahead to do so.

  CNN

It’s good to be king. No Congressional authority necessary. Oh, wait. He  claims to already have it from back when Bush invaded Iraq. There was a deal HERE, wasn’t there? Congress doesn’t want to be responsible, so they sit back and let Obama go out on his own.  And there is plenty of fear and militarism in this country to back him up (until it goes south big-time).

"This is the punch in the nose to the bully that we talked about on the playground," former Delta Force officer James Reese said. "ISIS is the bully, and we just punched him in the nose."

I don’t suppose there are any grownups around to handle this mess.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Coalition  (which looks like a good fit for us):

Bahrain (who would like to continue being able to buy arms from us)

Qatar (with whom apparently the Saudis are in proxy wars in Libya, but never mind)

Saudi Arabia 





Jordan



UAE