United States played role in creating ISIS, Syria’s Assad says

And here’s a third sentence I know to be true: This can’t end well. But I have spent time in Paris.

According to retired Gen. Jack Keane, the attacks indicate that the terror group is taking advantage of its safe haven in Syria and Iraq to plot attacks overseas. They’ve now announced that one of the perpetrators of the atrocity in Paris was himself registered as a refugee.

“Degrading this source of revenue will reduce ISIL’s ability to fund their military and terrorist operations”, said Col. Steven Warren, the spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Baghdad, using another acronym for the group.

The official, like others from the Iraqi and US intelligence agencies who have first-hand knowledge of the IS chemical weapons program, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive information.

As ISIS plots to carry out a potentially horrific terror attack on NY City, it’s worth looking at what President Obama didn’t do the week following the Paris attacks that killed 129 people. The first French reprisal air strikes against IS’s Syrian “capital”, Raqqa, were indeed launched within two days.

The Islamic State is also adept at using social media to make grandiose claims of victory and issue dire warnings of revenge. One of the justifications for the recommendation was that they were beginning to see the rise of al-Qaeda-related elements in Syria. In contrast to the previous administration, which put American soldiers in harm’s way with little thought for why they were fighting, and what their goals should be, and how they might achieve them, President Obama has been extremely reticent to commit substantial numbers of ground troops to wars that have no clear exit strategy. And – what a joy for the Islamic State! This is a clash of civilizations… The answer, of course, is “war”. A number of presidential candidates like Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush have called for accepting Christian refugees only. You can’t be more black and white than that.

In response to last week’s attacks in France, national leaders called for global solidarity in an effort to stamp out the Islamic State’s reign of terror. Nationalist, anti-immigration parties have been strengthened. Republicans blame her tenure as Obama’s secretary of state for much of the Mideast turmoil. Earlier this week at the G20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey, Obama denounced the suggestion of “religious tests”.

The clause says that in the case of an “armed aggression” on any member state the other countries have “an obligation of aid and assistance by all means in their power”. Incredibly, the president wants 10,000 Syrian “refugees” to be admitted to the United States on top of the 1,854 who are already here.

Europe’s experiment with open borders collided with radical Islamic terrorism on Friday, producing the most bloodshed in Paris since WWII. Yet the American national security state has essentially been built and funded to protect you from that danger alone. French officials say several dozen people have been killed in shootings and explosions at a theater, restaurant and elsewhere in Paris. They came from the five million-plus Algerian community in France, for many of whom the Algerian war never ended, and who live today in the slums of Saint-Denis and other Algerian banlieues of Paris. I’ve actually met them. Or would it likely have the opposite effect, guaranteeing more terrorism and strife? In the meantime, the road toward a more locked-down, secretive, governmentally intrusive, less democratic world is being well paved.

Think of what the USA military does when it heads out to destroy those gray zones as the Kobane or Sinjar Strategy. Aerial footage released by the military showed airstrikes hitting a column of oil tankers in the Syrian desert, and sections of a large oil refinery bursting into flames. I’m going to take you into the bowels of the civil war in Syria, but there’s a lot of fighting to the north and east of the city of Aleppo, pretty far from where the Americans are operating with the [Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or] YPG. But if this indeed is so, and let us presume it is, it signals a major shift in strategy by ISIS. The Islamic State is no longer gobbling territory and in fact has lost a bit, but its leaders can still claim to have established and defended an Islamic “caliphate” that serves as magnet and inspiration for jihadist militants around the world. Rather than sending USA ground combat troops, he is waiting for the emergence of local fighters who can do the job.