McCain right about hole in ISIS plan

 Robert Robb:

 'I usually disagree with John McCain about foreign policy. He is the nation's foremost advocate of a muscular U.S. role in the world. I'm generally skeptical of U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts and disputes.

 However, McCain does have a point, and a very important one, about an incongruity in the announced Obama administration approach to fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

 The administration is vague about this, but the clear inference is that the United States plans to assist FSA when it fights ISIS and try to stay out of its fight with Assad.

 This has problems, logically and practically. If the United States is counting on FSA to be the force that ultimately "destroys" ISIS, how can we stand aside while Assad's forces diminish its fighting capability? And if we are providing air support to FSA fighting ISIS in Syria, how can we not provide air cover for it against attacks from Assad's forces?

 McCain's preference, of course, is for the United States to go all in and provide FSA the training, equipment and air support needed to prevail against both ISIS and Assad.'

The U.S. Should Arm The Free Syrian Army

 Obviously the date of 2010 is wrong. Maybe this will provide a new conspiracy theory that the US was funding an insurgency before the Syrian revolution began. The understanding of the balance of forces is right.

 'The Free Syrian Army is not perfect, but we should’ve armed them back in 2010 when they first began to ask for it. Secretary Panetta, Secretary Clinton, General Dempsey and General Petraeus all asked and recommended to the President in the summer of 2012, literally two years ago, that this organization be armed, equipped and trained, and he said no. We’d be much better off in Syria today if we had done such a thing, because it is the only organization that has taken on ISIS.

 The Free Syrian Army knows that both ISIS and the regime are both bad for Syria. This is a secular organization [that] wants to be inclusive with its government, does not want an Islamist state, and wants a democratic form of government.'

Six Steps Short of War to Beat ISIS

 Phyllis Bennis:

 'Arming the so-called “moderate” opposition in Syria doesn’t mean supporting the good guys. It means sending arms to the Free Syrian Army which, according to the New York Times, “went on to behead six ISIS fighters…and then posted the photographs on Facebook.” '

 The New York Times* says so, but the NBC report** does not, and I can't find anyone else who does.

 Clay Claiborne's latest, How a 24hr truce to pick up bodies became a non-aggression pact between ISIS & Syrian rebels,*** is about a similar story "being spread like wildfire by groups that hitherto have shown little concern for the 200,000 Syrians that have died in the last three years as a result of dictator Bashar al-Assad's vicious attempts to cling to power."
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/world/middleeast/american-fighting-for-isis-is-killed-in-syria.html]
**[https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/american-douglas-mcauthur-mccain-dies-fighting-isis-syria-n189081]
***[https://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-24hr-truce-to-pick-up-bodies-became.html]

Obama's air strikes won't deter Islamic State

 "I don't really understand this sudden fuss about Isis. They killed people, but Bashar has been killing for the last three years. But nobody seems to be interested in that anymore."

 "Instead of bombing ISIS from the air, we need support inside Syria to fight. It's the only way. Once Assad is gone, we'll deal with ISIS ourselves."

The Golan Heights May Drag Israel Into the Syrian Civil War

 Assad's never going to win the war, and there still is a Free Syrian Army. An Israeli is quoted as saying the Syrian army has been more dangerous for Israel than the current jihadists, but I don't see any evidence of that, and the article points out that the crossing was peaceful when Assad was in control.

 ' "The Syrian army has two divisions on its side of the Golan—Division 61 south of Kunetra and Division 90 north of Kunetra," says Idan Avni, a correspondent for Israel Radio. "But Assad has more urgent battles, in Aleppo, Damascus, etc. These guys over here haven’t received anything from him in months. No supplies, no arms, nothing. So they defect or surrender to the rebel side, or they simply lay down their arms and go home."

Kunetra and the border areas south of it are controlled by jihadists that are dominated by Jabhat al-Nusra. Further north, more moderate anti-Assad groups, like the Free Syrian Army (FSA), hold territory, as do members of the Druze sect.'

Free Syrian Army: From neglect to resurrection?

 This is why there is a problem with ISIS, not because the Americans created them.

 'The one group that stood out was the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which was created on July 29, 2011, when the peaceful opposition to President Bashar Al Assad became an armed insurgency.

 Washington demurred when Riyadh readied shoulder-fired missiles and anti-tank launchers, and vetoed such transfers. The FSA’s fighting hands were thus tied allegedly because Western powers were not sure if some of these lethal weapons would fall under extremist control. In time, sophisticated American-made anti-tank missiles reached the FSA, though Al Nusra and, more recently, Isis boasted more advanced weapons. Timidity towards the FSA, ostensibly because its leaders maintained correct ties with moderate Islamist factions, translated in an entirely different outlook for Syria.'

The Syrian Holocaust Branch 215

 'Due to the unimaginably -horrible testimonies and pictures sent to us from Branch 215 (Raid Squad), we will try, in this report, to shed light on Branch 215 which alone has more than 7,500 detainees all of whom experience daily the most brutal and horrible torture.'

Robert Fisk on Isis campaign

 Fisk is just talking out of his arse now. Also in CounterPunch along with 'Obama Declares War on Syria'*, which doesn't bear reading either.

 'Then there’s the reinvention of the “moderate” Syrian opposition which was once called the Free Syrian Army – a force of deserters corrupted and betrayed by both the West and its Islamic allies – and which no longer exists. This ghost army is now going to be called the “Syrian National Coalition” and be trained – of all places – in Saudi Arabia, whose citizens have given zillions of dollars to al-Qaeda in Iraq, Isis, Isil, IS (you decide on the acronym), Jabhat al-Nusra and sundry other bad guys whom Obama now wants to “vanquish from the earth”.'
*[http://www.counterpunch.org/…/…/obama-declares-war-on-syria/]