US Gains Against ISIS?

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

That's the storyline the CIA house organ Washington Post wants readers to believe, saying "new policies adopted by the Trump administration" enabled "reclaim(ing) (n)early a third of" ISIS-held territory in Iraq and Syria."

WaPo's source? State Department official Brett McGurk, appointed by Obama, remaining under Trump as the so-called special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS.

Fact: America supports ISIS, al-Qaeda, its al-Nusra offshoot and other terrorist groups in the Middle East and elsewhere - used as imperial foot soldiers.

Fact: ISIS terrorists in Mosul, Raqqa and elsewhere were redeployed elsewhere, not defeated.

Fact: Russia, Iran, Syria and Hezbollah comprise a real anti-terrorist coalition, alone responsible for gains made on the ground against ISIS, al-Nusra and other groups.

Fact: They remain serious threats because of US, NATO, Israeli and other foreign support. Their heavy weapons don't materialize out of thin air. 

Fact: They're supplied cross-border from Turkey, Jordan and Israel, by airdrops and by other means.

Fact: WaPo, citing McGurk, claiming dramatic gains against ISIS is a complete fabrication.

Fact: The best way to defeat all terrorist groups is by cutting off material support. Without it they'd wither and fade away.

Fact: Washington redeployed most ISIS fighters in Mosul to Syria. In the battle for Raqqa, they were shifted southeast to Deir Ezzor. They're sent where Pentagon commanders and CIA officials want them used.

McGurk claimed "key changes" in combating ISIS under Trump, citing a "campaign of annihilation."

Fact: Defenseless civilians are being "annihilated" in Iraq and Syria, not ISIS fighters, discussed in earlier articles, a new one today, discussing continuing systematic massacre of noncombatants by US terror-bombing.

WaPo: "Among the successes of the current policy…are the near-cessation of civilian displacements inside Syria and Iraq, and the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians to their homes in places previously occupied by the Islamic State."

Syrian forces, greatly aided by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah alone deserve credit for liberating hundreds of cities, towns and villages, permitting the return of displaced civilians in some areas.

In Mosul, Iraq, there's nothing to come back to, the city terror-bombed to rubble, perhaps thousands of civilian corpses yet to be discovered, victims of imperial ruthlessness.

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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

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