A year after Obama's failed effort, on the Queen's instructions, to launch airstrikes against the Assad government in Syria, he's at it again, as part of the British Empire's global drive to unleash war to surround and sink Russia and China. But it's not at all clear who else—if anybody—is on board with this insane policy.
* Great Britain: Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the U.K. would not take part in airstrikes against ISIS forces in Syria—although Prime Minister David Cameron stated the contrary.
* U.S. Congress: There is a growing chorus of voices on both sides of the aisle demanding that Obama go before Congress for authorization for war, as the Constitution requires. The demands for declassifying the 28 pages of the 9/11 report are also increasing.
* U.S. military: Gen. Dempsey's view is well-known: an attack on ISIS won't work without coordinated action with regional allies, and it requires Obama going before Congress—neither of which Obama intends to do. More retired military officers are also speaking out against Obama's plan.
* Germany: The government has said they will take no part in the air strikes, which presumably means they won't man AWACS that are flying surveillance flights either.
* Turkey: Kerry met with Turkish leaders at the end of this week, but, according to Reuters, he ran into "Ankara's reluctance to play a frontline role [which] highlighted the difficulty of building a willing coalition for a complex military campaign in the hear to the Middle East." The best lipstick an unnamed senior State Department official could come up with the put on this pig, was: "The Turks have played an extraordinary role on humanitarian aspects of the situation ... and they are going to play and have been playing a pivotal role in our efforts to crack down on foreign fighter facilitation and counter-terrorist finance."
* Iran: Kerry doesn't want them involved, because they are "a state sponsor of terror"—which sounds more like a description of the U.K., the Saudis, the U.S. under Obama, Turkey, etc.
* Gulf Cooperation Council: At a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Sept. 11, they concluded their communique with a not-very-convincing promise of what they would do: "As appropriate, joining in the many aspects of a coordinated military campaign against ISIL."
The way John Kerry summed up the situation on Sept. 12 in Ankara was as follows: "It is entirely premature and frankly inappropriate at this point in time to start laying out one country by one country what individual nations are going to do." Kerry travels to Cairo today, to try to work his magic there, and then goes to a meeting in Paris on Sept. 15 to try to cobble something together. Reuters opined: "It remains far from clear what role individual nations will play."
Military Weighs In on Obama's Anti-ISIS Strategy
At least two former commanders of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Anthony Zinni (ret.) and Adm. William Fallon (ret.), have examined President Obama's strategy for confronting ISIS in Iraq and Syria and have found it wanting. "I am confused," Zinni told the Tampa Bay Tribune in an interview Friday. He said that he was not confident that indigenous combat forces will be sufficient. "Who are we leading?" he asked. "Will it be the Kurds and Iraqis and Syrian opposition and American lead and American command and control? The long tent pole in this is that more than just having the U.S. equip and advise, how does this go down? The most important part is ground forces to eject ISIS (Islamic State) from Iraq."
Fallon largely agreed with Zinni. "I think the idea you can do it all with airstrikes is ridiculous," Fallon told the Tribune. "It is not going to work. You can hold them off. Keep them from massing or taking more territory. But you have to put some boots on the ground. Whose boots and what ground remains to be seen."
Fallon also noted that the problem is political. "Absent a government the people believe in, the whole thing is a waste of time," said Fallon. "If the new government is not inclusive, then you can whack moles, but in terms of an enduring result, their government is going to have to do something. You can't drop in from the outside. We already tried this a couple of times."
Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson, also a member of VIPS, blasted Obama's strategy as a waste of time. "We have not learned a thing in 80 years," he said. And, interestingly enough, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Dushanbe, tajikistan, according to Xinhua, that the idea of eradicating terrorism by airstrikes alone is "naive." He added: "Fighting terrorism needs organized planning, bilateral and multilateral cooperation and elimination of economic and cultural poverty."
