24 August 2014

Turkey - ISIS - US - a tough love/hate triangle for State Department

After the barbarous beheading of James Foley, President Obama responded with a fiery speech:


Oops, sorry, a printing error, this picture should have been placed next, since the speech preceded the golfing affair:


Now that we are settled as far as visual aids are concerned, here is the speech:
This afternoon, an angry President Obama addressed the execution of American reporter James Foley at the hands of Islamic State militants, declaring "no just god would stand for" the group's actions "yesterday and every day." Foley, he said, "was taken from us in an act of violence that shocks the conscience of the entire world."

ISIS (also known as ISIL), Obama said, "has no ideology of value to human beings. Their ideology is bankrupt."

"People like this ultimately fail," he said. "They fail because the future is won by those who build and not destroy, people like Jim Foley."

While Obama offered no specific, altered course of action in Iraq, "There has to be a common effort to extract this cancer so it does not spread," he said. "The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to protect our people. We will be vigilant and we will be relentless."
Etc.

The Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, echoed the sentiment, but with a twist:
At a Pentagon briefing, Hagel called ISIS' extremist ideology "barbaric," but warned that the group poses a dire threat that must be taken seriously.

"[ISIS] is as sophisticated and well-funded as any group that we have seen. They're beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology, a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess. They are tremendously well-funded," he said.
The twist is in that Hagel doesn't mention the expected demise of ISIS, warning instead about sophistication, military prowess and tremendous funding of these barbarians.

And even the foreign policy expert, Secretary of State John Kerry, had said something or other on Twitter...
“ISIL will be destroyed/will be crushed,” Kerry tweeted, using the acronym for an alternative name for ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
Destroyed or crushed, ISIS or ISIL - at least I hope that all three above mentioned VIPs mean the same outfit, cause both ISIL and ISIS acronyms have many meanings, if you care to google a bit. Be a pity if University of Florida's Integrated Student Information System or Indian Society of International Law get a few Hellfires under their tails because of a misunderstanding between all the departments involved.

Anyway, the intent is clear and all the right words were said. Meanwhile there aren't any specific plans behind these words, but this is why these three gentlemen have the might of the Pentagon and its military thinkers and planners behind them. So, I guess, the dark forces of ISIS should be shaking in their stylish black outfits. Or should they?

But the high and mighty say things high and mighty, they don't have to go into boring details. People on the ground, however, like the State Department spokesman Marie Harf in this story, have to do the dirty work, selling bullshit explaining some difficult angles that their bosses just don't have time for.
In another heated exchange between State Department spokesman Marie Harf and AP reporter Matt Lee, the issue of whether any governments are funding ISIS / ISIL is proving to be a hot button issue. In this particular exchange, Qatar is the focus but other countries – specifically Turkey – should start getting spotlighted soon.
Qatar and Turkey again. How interesting. Be it Hamas with their particular thing about the Zionist entity and its eradication, or ISIS with their universally homicidal agenda, the same names pop up. And not just where generous financing is concerned (Qatar), but where logistics support and even training on the ground (Turkey) is being provided.
Along those lines and independent from Vermeulen’s findings, Shoebat.com posted a video of Terrorists (ISIS) crossing from Turkey into Syria with weapons and walking right past Turkish soldiers:

Last month, Shoebat.com reported on the ISIS fighter who proudly proclaimed that their success would not have happened without the support of Turkey.

Let’s not forget the leaked audio recordings of high-ranking Turkish officials in which they conspired to have ISIS / ISIS launch an attack on a revered Turkish Islamic tomb of Suleiman Shah and then use that event to launch Turkish forces into Syria. The Turkish government was also implicated in the attacks on Armenian Christians in Syria, as Shoebat.com reported.

As for Harf, she has repeatedly asserted that Turkey is a “Close NATO Ally”.
A high and mighty confusion, a "close ally" that is ever ready to stub you in the back and a poor unappreciated spokesperson who is just trying to do her job.

All in all it's probably better to be a POTUS... and the devil may care!

50 comments:

fred lapides said...

While I do love this site and know it is anti-Obama, nonetheless, note that Obama on vacation keeps on top of what is taking place and does address key issues. And our Hose of Reps? gone all summer and while in DC, do nothing but propose to sue the president.
That said, the new Islamic state is encouraged and funded by two Am allies, Turkey and Qatar, and armed by Iran.
Now Snoopster, if you were the CEO, what would you do? dump two allies, one a member o fNATO or what? Advise, please.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Correction: not anti-Obama specifically, just anti-politician in general, no matter what color, creed or gender. All of them are ... substitute your favorite curse.

As for advise: I have enough headache with our own dumkopfs, and even here I don't have anything clever to advise...

Dick Stanley said...

At least stop giving them billions for arms, which have a way of winding in the hands of Hamas and assorted other terrorists such as ISIL. As for King Scold, also known as the Great Divider, he should please stay on vacation. Likewise the Hose (good one!) of Reps. The less either of them do the better.

Dick Stanley said...

Dawkins and Reason? Amazing notion. As for Einstein, I thought he invented the earth. Gravity was just part of the deal.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Ain't it the truth! A libertarian in the making, which is always nice to behold!

SnoopyTheGoon said...

You might be surprised how many top scientists are not exactly atheists, while not exactly religious too.

KatieNorcross said...

Dawkins is the poster child for aborting a defective child.

Sennacherib said...

"You might be surprised how many top scientists are not exactly atheists, while not exactly religious too."
The good ones will admit that it is an unknowable subject, something that humans are not mentally equipped to encompass .

Dick Stanley said...

A made Libertarian, for sure.

Dick Stanley said...

Absolutely. I have known a few. They just dare not talk about it, if they want to keep their jobs and research grants.

Dick Stanley said...

Not really. I misspoke (miswrote?).

Dick Stanley said...

That's weird, the mathies. But I doubt such surveys are reliable, since any sort of religious admission , while the Dawkins types are playing enforcer, could be a career-killer. Also there's the famous Einstein quote about G-d not "playing dice with the universe" which he said didn't mean what it sounded like but didn't explain very well why not.

Dick Stanley said...

Dawkins is an idiot.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Yeah. Proliferation of cheaply created laws is rather an environmental pollution than a good trend.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Possibly.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Oh well, these two Jews were rather closer to joking than the other way around. As is fitting.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Militant whoever are not good in the moral area. True.

fred lapides said...

OK..for me a Libertarian is simply an anarchist with a blow tie. Which laws would you keep and which give up? I assume you vote and so you do have some imput in what gets done or doesn't...The conservatives, closer to what I think is your position, now bitch about laws and big govt but remain on the taking end of govt goodies from yes, my taxes, for my state sends more tax money in to the feds than it gets back and the conservative state take more out than they put in...I am subsidizing those socialists!
Please send me a refund check

David Sigeti said...

Dick, your statement that, "any sort of religious admission, ..., could be a career-killer," is just utter nonsense. I know plenty of scientists who are believers and most of them are doing just fine.

David Sigeti said...

Oh, and the "G-d does not play dice," quote from Einstein has nothing to do with G-d, actually. It was just Einstein's way of objecting to the intrinsic stochasticity (randomness) of Bohr's formulation of quantum mechanics. Einstein preferred a picture of the universe much more like the classical "clockwork" universe of Newton.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Refund? I thought the governments everywhere took this word out of the dictionary ;-)

Your parallel between Libertarians and anarchists makes me rethink my position on the latter. No, not really, the other difference is the poor hygiene habits practiced by the anarchists.

As for the difference between paying and receiving states: I can't weigh in on that, sorry.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

True. That phrase is between the few that remained in my poor memory since putting that diploma on the shelf.

fred lapides said...

the House is not keeping on top of things...they are on the usual summer break.

how many mneetings missed ande who are the credible sources and what did his predecessor miss since he was the president with most awol of all modern presidents.
the Hose passes bills that neither the senate nor the pres will pass and the house stop bills that the senate and the pres want...tit for tat
favors islamists is simply your bias against him....he has okd requests over and over for arms for Israel

and alas sold arms to Qatar
you esxpect him at this moment to announce we are taking out nukes in iran? do you believe Am approves? Congress?

I have served a few times in our military so count me out for that war...we are trying to get Iran NOT to develop bomb. I prefer to give that a chance.

Yitzchak Goodman said...

There is a sophisticated command and control center built into the President's golf-club.They now have the problem of his hitting the ball with the wrong end relatively under control. War with Kyrgyzstan was averted . . .

Yitzchak Goodman said...

I thought Newton invented gravity. That was before duct tape.

Dick Stanley said...

And I know more than a few scientists here in Texas (of all places) who are suspicious of colleagues who talk religion in any context. You can believe, certainly, but you'd better keep it to yourself.

Rob Miller said...

Hello Fred,
Again, you assume the president is keeping up on things and the House isn't even though both are on break. Revealing that you mentioned the house ( which is Republican dominated) rather than congress as a whole, which I did in my original comment.

I suggest you do a search on 'president missing intel briefings.' See what you think. Letelky, he simply been reading memos and has announced his preference for those that can be dealt with via a check box, 'agree' 'disagree' or 'no comment'.

If you look at the president's foreign policy, you will see that a preference for Islamists is a common thread in his intervention in Libya, his championship of the Muslim Brotherhood, his arming and training of what was then called ISIS (which I notice you failed to comment on), his attempting to force a ceasefire and save Hamas..and the number of influential Muslim Brotherhood tied advisers in his administration, of whom Robert Malley, Rashad Hussain, Mohammed Elibiary and Arif Alikhan are only a few.

Then there's also the Administration's 'declination to prosecute' decision in what would have been the second Holyland Foundation trail, decision that allowed most of CAIR's leadership to skate on what would have been an almost certain convictions for laundering money for Hamas.

And the huge amount of money Hamas has received via US Aid.

You're also perhaps not aware of Obama's de facto arms shipment cut off to Israel when he first took office, although you probably know he wants Israel to retreat to indefensible borders, redivide Jerusalem and create half a million Jewish refugees for the new Hamas/Fatah entity.

As for Iran, they have been gulling the West on their rogue nuclear weapons program for almost a decade now, and I think even you have to admit that there has been no progress in terms of diplomacy in getting them to stop, while the centrifuges keep spinning. Nor will there be.

If you can't see that Iran is the key to this situation, well and good, we simply disagree. But once Iran goes nuclear, you may want to count yourself out of what happens, but the choice will no longer be yours to make.

Regards,
Rob

David Sigeti said...

Cows???

fred lapides said...

we have huge base in Qatar, close to where Hamas ceo hanging out! they fund terror of course

David Sigeti said...

Oh, "utters" - "udders". Got it.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Now they only have to find the right ISIS/ISIL...

SnoopyTheGoon said...

You are trying to say that there was a time when duct tape didn't exist? Nah...

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Yes, there is the rub. I don't know how White House is going to solve that issue, but it needs a solution.

Dick Stanley said...

They do, indeed, fund terror and with our billions, too. We could have moved that base to pacified Iraq by now but for our precipitate withdrawal and Iraq's collapse back into savagery.

Dick Stanley said...

"... a Libertarian is simply an anarchist with a blow tie."



Now, now, bragging about one's ignorance only makes one look stupider.

Dick Stanley said...

Ahem. None of our laws are cheaply created. We have the best pols the lobbyists can buy.

Dick Stanley said...

By all accounts, they're still looking and will be for some time. It's just not in Wormtongue's makeup, having been a good mosque-attender with his stepfather in his yoot, to fight Islamists.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Sorry, you are right: by "cheaply" I meant the amount of thought that went into the law. Here, to take one example, the lawmakers rarely bother to check the impact of the new crap they produce seriously. Just to satisfy the moment's craving for a new and, eventually, useless, law seems to be sufficient.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

They all, Europe included, will have to fight them eventually, the problem that it may become too late.

Dick Stanley said...

That's the best definition of Obamacare I have seen. Recall Pelosi's famous remark: "We have to pass the bill to see what's in it."

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Oh yes, never to forget that one.

Rob Miller said...

It's impossible to have any kind of serious discussion with someone who lives in his own reality and ignores the facts he finds distasteful and/or unanswerable.

You're a waste of time.

David All said...

Rob: If you are not going to be polite, please take your toys and go home. It is probably time for your nap.

Amazing how many folks believe that Obama is some sort of secret Muslim sympathizer. Must be the result of only watching Faux News and getting sucked up in their alternate universe, sort of a modern version of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. An example of Karl Rove's infamous Big Lie technique. "If you tell a lie, big enough, often enough, People will believe it".

Examples: lWhat US Aid money going to Hamas, what US backing of the Muslim Brotherhood, etec. Everyone was in favor, when we helped the rebels topple Kaddafi. Only now, that there is chaos in Libya is the Right coming up with the charge that this was somehow a plot by Obama is empower the Islamists. And Rob in your role as the latest reincarnation of Senator Joseph McCarthy, perhaps you can tell me what positions these supposed Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers hold?

David All said...

Sooner or latter we were going to leave Iraq, Maliki would not sign an agreement barring US Forces from being prosecuted in the Iraqi courts caused Obama to withdraw all the US military, except for an advisory force, from Iraq at the end of 2011.

David All said...

Oh yes, the latest Faux smear, that Obama as a child attended mosques while he was living in Indonesia with his mother, his Indonesian step-father and his half sister.

David All said...

Yeah, Obama made a good statement concerning James Foley's barbaric murder, but he undercut it by staying on vacation. He should have come back to Washington, like British PM Cameron came back from his vacation to London.

Whoo, Yitzchak, I am sure glad we did not go to war with Kyrgyzstan. It would have taken forever to have gotten to there.

Oh well, at least Obama made his statement from his briefing room, before going out golfing. Unlike Bush Jr. who made a statement condeming a horrible suicide bomb attack in Israel from the golf course and then told the Media folks covering him,
Now, watch this drive"!

Dick Stanley said...

Faux smear? It's in his "faux" autobiography, hoss, the one his buddy Ailes finally admitted writing.

Dick Stanley said...

We haven't left Germany since 1945. Legalisms are always a good excuse for a pol. He could have told Maliki to climb a tree. Instead, he threw all those lost American lives away to suit his lefty base.

Rob Miller said...

I think you mean Bill Ayres, Dick...who dedicated another one of his books, 'Prairie fire' to Sirham Sirhan, RFK's Palestinian murderer.

Rob Miller said...

David, we both know how the Left usually 'debates.' They say something stupid that 'everyone knows'. They can hit with facts to refute it and totally ignore them, bringing other side issues in, frequently based on their own fevered imaginations. The process repeats itself...cycle, rinse, repeat. Some people can keep this up a surprisingly long time if you let them.

Now, I consider that pretty rude and uncivil as well as intellectually dishonest, so I simply let Fred know I was on to him and informed him that the game's over.

If you want to consider that 'uncivil', tough tortillas. Deal with it.