Some of Patrick Cockburn's nonsense has been amended, he's not pretending Turkey is encouraging ISIS and al-Nusra since he interviewed the Turkish prime minister. The reason ISIS have been able to get through to the Qalamoun from Eastern Syria is that Assad's forces let them through, something that never enters Cockburn's worldview where they are deadly enemies.
"Isis has been advancing towards the city of Homs as well as gaining strength south of Damascus and at al-Qalamoun, close to eastern Lebanon."
He takes an American general as the authority to say that the time to arm moderate rebels has passed. He conflates ISIS and the rebels against Assad, and asserts that they and al-Nusra dominate the opposition without ever saying what other forces they are. The Syrians wanting to overthrow Assad with a democracy and those fighting to enable that dream are invisible to him.
"Retired US General James Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week that in the war against Isis, the US has a “strategy-free” stance. He said that in Syria, America’s political objectives were uncertain and the time for supporting “moderate” Syrian rebels had passed. The Syrian armed opposition is increasingly under the control of Isis and its rival, the al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra."
Cockburn doesn't repeat his call for an alliance with Assad, it is increasingly implausible as Assad has done so little to fight ISIS since Cockburn said they couldn't be stopped without a deal with Assad. He restricts himself here to saying that only the jihadists would benefit if the bombing and torture stopped. It is meaningless to say the Americans want rid of Assad if they plan to do nothing about it. It is not the Syrian Army that maintains the Assadist state and its terror now, but foreign soldiers and the shabiha gangs, noone should mourn the death of such a state.
"The aim of the US and its allies is to defeat Isis, but also to get rid of Assad, though his fall would probably lead to the break-up of the Syrian army and benefit Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra."
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