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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Russia, Iraq, Syria, and Iran to share intelligence about the Islamic State

Sep 28, 2015 11:32 am By Robert Spencer

Obama and the French and the others in the Western coalition are merely carrying out cosmetic strikes against the Islamic State. Russia is now acting with Iran and its client regimes in Baghdad and Damascus to do something genuine to fight the Islamic State.

Obama won’t coordinate with Putin because of Assad: “American officials, who have long cast Mr. Assad as the primary source of instability in Syria, assert that the Syrian leader’s brutal crackdown provided an opening for jihadist groups and that the crisis cannot be resolved until a political transition is negotiated that requires him to leave power. But Russian officials see the Syrian government as a bulwark against further gains by groups like Islamic State and Nusra Front and sometimes suggest that the defeat of the Islamic State should come before a negotiated solution for the Syrian conflict.”

The U.S. position assumes that the Islamic State’s power and appeal is based on outrage at the crimes of Assad, and that therefore its support would melt away if Assad were gone. No one who has ever read anything that the Islamic State has published or any of the accounts of why people join it could hold this position, but of course the Obama Administration and the other governments of the West are committed as a matter of policy to ignoring and denying the ideological and religious appeal of the Islamic State. Since they maintain that the Islamic State is not Islamic, they have to find some other reason for its appeal to young Muslims worldwide; that reason is supposedly Assad’s atrocities.

Putin, by contrast, is more realistic. He realizes that the Islamic State has global ambitions and is by no means only devoted to removing Assad — as anyone who has ever paid the slightest bit of attention to them knows. Thus he knows that removing Assad will only strengthen the Islamic State, and that the Islamic State will be the chief force able to take advantage of that removal.

The U.S. position is based on fantasy. The Russian one is based on reality. The Iranian involvement is unfortunate, but now that Obama has concluded his disastrous nuclear deal with the mullahs, it can hardly be said that the U.S. has a better handle on the Iranian situation, either.

putinrouhani

“Russia Surprises U.S. With Accord on Battling ISIS,” by Michael R. Gordon, New York Times, September 27, 2015:

UNITED NATIONS — For the second time this month, Russia moved to expand its political and military influence in the Syria conflict and left the United States scrambling, this time by reaching an understanding, announced on Sunday, with Iraq, Syria and Iran to share intelligence about the Islamic State.

Like Russia’s earlier move to bolster the government of President Bashar al-Assad by deploying warplanes and tanks to a base near Latakia, Syria, the intelligence-sharing arrangement was sealed without notice to the United States. American officials knew that a group of Russian military officers were in Baghdad, but they were clearly surprised when the Iraqi military’s Joint Operations Command announced the intelligence sharing accord on Sunday.

It was another sign that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was moving ahead with a sharply different tack from that of the Obama administration in battling the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, by assembling a rival coalition that includes Iran and the Syrian government.

The effort, which Mr. Putin is expected to underscore in his speech at the United Nations on Monday, not only puts Moscow in a position to give military support to Mr. Assad, its longtime ally in the Middle East, but could also enable the Kremlin to influence the choice of a successor if Mr. Assad were to eventually leave power.

Russia’s moves are raising difficult questions for the Obama administration, which remains deeply conflicted about American military involvement in the Syria conflict. Ensuring that the Russian military and the United States-led coalition, which is carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State, “deconflict” and avoid running into each other is only part of the problem: The Obama administration and the Kremlin do not appear to agree even on the main reason for the conflict.

American officials, who have long cast Mr. Assad as the primary source of instability in Syria, assert that the Syrian leader’s brutal crackdown provided an opening for jihadist groups and that the crisis cannot be resolved until a political transition is negotiated that requires him to leave power. But Russian officials see the Syrian government as a bulwark against further gains by groups like Islamic State and Nusra Front and sometimes suggest that the defeat of the Islamic State should come before a negotiated solution for the Syrian conflict….

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Filed Under: Featured, Iran, Iraq, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Russia, Syria, United States Tagged With: Vladimir Putin


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Comments

  1. wildjew says

    Sep 28, 2015 at 11:52 am

    Did we hear Mr. Obama say, “There is no room for accommodating an apocalyptic cult like Iran’s”?

    • Angemon says

      Sep 28, 2015 at 12:02 pm

      Yes, we did.

      Makes you wonder, right?

      • wildjew says

        Sep 28, 2015 at 12:50 pm

        I think Obama was referring to Islamic State, the other apocalyptic cult he has accommodated.

        • Dr. Divinity says

          Sep 29, 2015 at 6:40 pm

          The obama chronicles….America Lost!!!!!

        • Rob Porter says

          Sep 29, 2015 at 9:58 pm

          Pretty much anything Obama firmly believes in is based upon the fantasy of what he wants to believe. I listened to his U.N. speech and it struck me that never before has such a complete duffer occupied the White House. Not even Jimmy Carter was quite this idiotic. As to his press secretary, Josh Earnest, and the imbeciles like Chris Quoma at CNN, the less said the better. Do these people ever read and have they powers of reason? I now seriously doubt it.

    • Jack Diamond says

      Sep 28, 2015 at 12:45 pm

      I heard “apocalyptic cults like ISIL.” But it’s only removing Assad that matters. Like his pals in Qatar, the House of Saud, and Turkey, Obama only has eyes for Assad. A policy that has had the same fruitful outcome ever since it was decided overthrowing the Shah was a great idea to advance liberty and human rights in the Moslem Whirled, and we which just can’t help but keep repeatin’ like a broken record. At least some historian will have good material for a new “March of Folly”–though it may have to be published samizdat at the rate things are going. “Apocalyptic cults” are the new black.

      • Jack Diamond says

        Sep 28, 2015 at 12:48 pm

        “which we” or witch we, what have you

      • Alex says

        Sep 28, 2015 at 3:08 pm

        Very interesting comment. We often see our western leaders ganging-up with such an obsession in their hate of a few other leaders (e.g. Syria’s Assad, Russia’s Putin, the former pro-Russia leader of Ukraine, etc.), to a point they get completely blinded by their hate (and ideology) and will stubbornly dismiss any possibility that, maybe, there is something broader going behind that they won’t see. Your example of supporting the throwing of Iran’s Shah is spot on.

  2. cs says

    Sep 28, 2015 at 11:58 am

    The geopolitical game was just raised by this Russian move. Obama must make his move to match Putin’s, what will come next is everyone’s guess.

    • wildjew says

      Sep 28, 2015 at 12:33 pm

      Obama is terrific at bullying weak-kneed, neutered Congressional Republicans. He’s not been good at bullying men.

      • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

        Sep 28, 2015 at 12:45 pm

        Add to that the fact that Republicans are good at being bullied. When insider RINO Kevin McCarthy is put in as Boehner’s replacement, it will be official that the Republican Party will continue in its cameo role of being a weak-kneed and neutered faux opposition party.

        • wildjew says

          Sep 28, 2015 at 12:57 pm

          Every Republican candidate who expects win the White House in 2016 should weigh-in saying he does not want to work with a patsy Speaker / Majority Leader in the House and the Senate — that did Obama’s bidding. Gov. Jindal last week said Mitch McConnell must go. Where are the others?

        • Rob Porter says

          Sep 29, 2015 at 10:12 pm

          One thing is abundantly evident, there is not an incumbent Republican Senator worth voting to the office of president. Marco Rubio can go on till the cows come home about what he will do, but the sad reality is that Donald Trump is right when dismissively saying that Rubio is “lightweight”. He is, and thus when sound basis came to light to impeach this wretch president, not least Benghazi and Obama consorting with the enemies of America, not least the Muslim Brotherhood, where was Marco Rubio – and the rest of these bright spark gutless wonders? What Robert Spencer has said about the Republicans now being the “stupid party” is evident, but they are not only stupid, they are convictionless, spineless and gutless, and not driven by deep conviction to do something for America.

      • cs says

        Sep 28, 2015 at 12:48 pm

        Yep, Iran is saying this all along, America is paper tiger…
        Now, how to react to that?

      • cs says

        Sep 28, 2015 at 12:49 pm

        Sorry, just to complete.
        America will have to raise the game now, or be chicken, it is a daring situation.

  3. Don McKellar says

    Sep 28, 2015 at 12:12 pm

    There are no good guys when it comes to Islam. But there is an intelligent way to deal with managing the variety of evil characters. Putin, like him or hate him, is once again showing his intelligence.

    The Islamic State is Obama’s baby octopus. He is responsible for its creation. He is responsible for its growth and power. His policies. His actions. His inaction. And the proud papa in denial is not done yet! They should have him on the Maury Povich show and they can do a DNA test. Maury can then make the announcement: “You ARE the father!”

    • Linde Barrera says

      Sep 28, 2015 at 5:13 pm

      To Don McKellar- I loved your 12:12 pm post of Sep. 28, 2015. I hope you won’t mind when I use the part “The Islamic State is Obama’s baby octopus” in my correspondence and conversation. Thank you! ?

      • Don McKellar says

        Sep 28, 2015 at 7:35 pm

        Thank you. I laughed when I typed it.

    • Brian says

      Sep 29, 2015 at 10:23 am

      ISIS is not Obama’s baby, it is ISLAM’s baby.

  4. John C. Barile says

    Sep 28, 2015 at 12:18 pm

    I’d rather directly arm the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq, and the People’s Protection Units in Syria, along with their Syriac Christian and [6000-strong} Arab tribal allies.

    • DeMolay says

      Sep 28, 2015 at 4:54 pm

      *this*

  5. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Sep 28, 2015 at 12:31 pm

    Off topic: Novel about Moslem takeover of France coming to America

    Michel Houellebecq, a well known French novelist has a book translated to English coming to America next month. It’s sold about a half million copies in Europe and has people talking. It is aptly named Submission, and the story is of political turmoil in near future France. The story line is that Marie Le Pen and her National Front party is set to win control of France, so the mainstream political parties there choose to back a Moslem running as the candidate of a party funded and operated by the Mo-Bro-Hood. Repulsed by Le Pen’s stupid antisemitism (inherited from her father), the Moslem ends up as the leader of France. He soon outlaws coed schools, and requires that Islam be incorporated in the curriculum. One character is an apolitical college professor, who upon learning that polygamy is allowed by Islam supports the Moslem’s campaign, helping him win.

    Some may recall that Houellebecq in a national interview called Islam the “stupidest religion,” and has lived under police guard since. I think maybe he figured what the hell, if I’m to be a prisoner of terror I may as well go full boat on the Moslem deal, what does he have to lose. The book has spurred debate in cultural and political circles in Europe about whether Submission’s scenario is actually possible. It was written, of course, before the most recent wave of Hijrah started, which based on the insane policy of Merkel, among others, is no doubt tilting the conclusion in favor of saying, “Yes, of course the premise of Houellebecq’s novel is feasible.”

    • Jack Diamond says

      Sep 28, 2015 at 1:37 pm

      I gather the book is more a despairing satire on the French elites and about the attraction (sexual and otherwise) for the new barbarians (much as so many adapted a little too easily to Nazi occupation). The protagonist is a typically disillusioned professor of literature who by the end, decides to convert to Islam as a good career move and because the idea of women submissive to men appeals to him. Then there’s, I take it, something of the “seductive” appeal of authoritarians and zealots for people who’ve lost strong belief in anything. Houellebecq is not the guy to be leading the Resistance, however.

      Look forward to reading it.

      • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

        Sep 28, 2015 at 1:57 pm

        You’re right, the review I read in the WSJ pointed out that the main thrust of the book is the decrepit 2-party system in France, and the ability of a disconnected ruling elite to sell out the people. That resonated with me cuz that sounds just like America. I too will buy and read it. There is a paucity of literature about Moslems, in fact the last such worthwhile book, Ariana, was also by a French writer.

  6. Voytek Gagalka says

    Sep 28, 2015 at 12:49 pm

    Saying that “the Islamic State is not Islamic” is of similar effective quality that the Obama administration is not American. Shall I add anything more?

    • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

      Sep 28, 2015 at 1:07 pm

      The administration is not American and neither is Obama. Unless you buy the obvious forgery he finally produced as “proof” that is. The news entertainers, of course, eagerly accepted it as proof. News entertainment superstar Bill O’Reilly has even taken to giving admonishing lectures to conspiracy theorists who were made to look like fools for doubting Obama’s origins in the first place. Bill likes to say he’s all about the facts. Define “facts” here, Bill.

  7. David says

    Sep 28, 2015 at 2:15 pm

    The NATO/US “alliance” with backwards and fading islamic dictatorships like Turkey,Sowdi A, gulf oil despots and other ENEMIES is dragging the US down to their level.
    When the Russians start actually attacking IS “degrading and destroying” them will the US, exposed for its hypocrisy, assist them or start transferring weapons to more Jihadists to shoot their planes down as the disgraced spoiler?
    Is there not one check-pants golfing General who will call-out the administration for its treason in supporting (indirectly) proven cannibalistic terrorist groups like al-nusra?
    Will the US find the courage to divest from this toxic relationship with its “jihad loving”
    “allies” or cower in the corner like an abused spouse?

    • Peggy says

      Sep 28, 2015 at 8:51 pm

      Obviously the US will back IS. Let’s not forget Afghanistan. When Russians were fighting the Taliban there who supported the Taliban? Yes, it was the US.
      So as far as the US is concerned, any enemy of Russia is good for the west and any friend of Russia is declared an enemy.
      They proved this in the former Yugoslavia too. They backed the wrong side and continue to do so. To do anything else will mean admission of stupidity or tretchery.
      So if Russia starts kicking butt the US just might fall into their ususal pattern again. For some reason Russia is seen more of an enemy than the real enemy. I wonder why.
      Russians are very compatable with the west. Normal Christian people who only want to assymilate and not destroy their adoptive country.

  8. Kenneth T. Tellis says

    Sep 28, 2015 at 2:30 pm

    The days for dithering are over as Russia makes alliances with Middle eastern countries and the USA is out of the picture altogether. Which means that the us is now isolated by Russia.

  9. Alex says

    Sep 28, 2015 at 5:28 pm

    I don’t see any solution to this conflict. If you strengthen Assad, you will strengthen a tyrant responsible for the murder of 500,000 people. Not very ethical. But at the same time, IS militants are expanding their territory. What is there to do?

    • Peggy says

      Sep 28, 2015 at 8:53 pm

      Maybe that “tyrant” had a good reason to get tough. Look what happens when there is no strong leader to keep the savages in check.

      • Alex says

        Sep 28, 2015 at 9:23 pm

        Sorry, but no need for quotation marks– he’s a tyrant and mass murderer.

        And you say that he needs to put “savages” in check. Ok– what about his own army of muslim savages? There are no good guys in this war. Assad’s army is made up of muslim militias coming to defend imam ali’s “honor”. We must not forget that.

  10. dlbrand says

    Sep 30, 2015 at 2:00 pm

    In Iraq, our “whiz” Generals, reasoned, paying those in the Iraqi resistance; many, with “our blood” on their hands; who, for a price (and, according to the Rules of Islam: “fight them until … or they pay the jizyah…”), will cease fighting us; and satisfied by our jizyah, fight our then-prime enemy, then, Al-Qaida in Iraq; was our path to victory.

    Victory we claimed and toted.

    Now, the same fools argue against Russia fighting IS. What’s the issue, no jizyah paid?

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