Obama's plan to fight IS
- By Zhao Jinglun
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 13, 2014
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US President Barack Obama speaks during a primetime address to the nation from the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington, DC, September 10, 2014. [Xinhua photo] |
U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a speech during prime time on September 10 which presented his four-point plan to fight the Islamic State (IS). He finally has some sort of strategy to fight the evil the United States itself has helped create.
Obama said IS "has taken advantage of sectarian strife in Iraq and Syria's civil war to gain territory on both sides of the Iraq-Syrian borders." What he neglected to mention is the fact that it was the United States' occupation of Iraq and its support of the sectarian Maliki government that gave rise to and intensified sectarian strife, and it was the United States who provided aid to the so-called "modest" Syrian rebel force, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), whose members defected to IS en masse carrying American weapons.
A spokesman for the family of Steven Sotloff, the second American journalist beheaded by an IS fighter, revealed that Sotloff was "sold to IS for between $25-50,000" by the U.S.-supported "moderate" Free Syrian Army.
Press reports have confirmed that much of the weaponry that IS is using, both small arms and anti-tank missiles, were actually provided to the "moderate" Syrian rebels by the United States. And Obama said in his speech that he is once more calling on Congress to give him additional authority and resources to train and equip those same Syrian rebels, calling them the best counterweight to the extremist IS! Is this not just prejudice, but stupidity?
According to some estimates, there are 27,600 IS fighters operating in Iraq, including about 2,600 foreigners. They gained strength enormously when they captured Mosul and the huge weapons cache left there by the Iraqi army, which melted away in a hasty retreat.
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