There was much media coverage of Aleppo, which is the capital of ISIS. Photos, by the dozen, were coming out of there, showing the bombings, etc. War is evident. Obama and Putin had been meeting. Seems like they meet after each town or city they take from ISIS.
Obama kept putting pressure on ceasing the destruction, as public opinion pressures our government, but does nothing to Putin, Finally, hostilities cease. So it makes me wonder who is responsible for the violence and why?
Comment?
Raqqa is the de facto capital of ISIS, not Aleppo. Aleppo is important because so many Syrian factions, plus ISIS, are vying for control of it.
All true, but I think the question relates to who really controls ISIS. (ISIS being yet another monster of American manufacture, of course.)
As an aside, if you haven't seen Morgan Freeman's recent Through The Wormhole exposition of terrorism and the creation of terrorists, it's an excellent way to spend an hour.
ISIS are a group of paramilitary opportunists. These types of groups have been seen in Africa for decades, if people cared to notice. ISIS' evolution, and the state of the Assad regime and the rebel armies against it, strikes me as far too complex to make such simplistic statements about who "manufactured" them, or who "controls" them. As it stands right now, ISIS appears to have its own internal structure and chain of command, which acts of its own accord. I wouldn't say that they are under the direct control of any government at all. As for their origin, like I said, saying they were "founded" by actors in the US govt is far too simplistic. Although it's clear that US foreign policy in the Middle East has been a hugely important factor.
I'll have a look at the Morgan Freeman doc. Fareed Zakaria's "Why they Hate Us" on CNN also shed some much needed light on Islamic Extremism, which has its roots way back in the early 80's, or earlier. Of course, no one seems to pay much attention, even when the details are laid out plainly.
Until somebody asks me to prepare an eighty-page thesis on the convoluted causes/origins of ISIS and other terrorist organizations, 'simple' will suffice. Whether we were singularly responsible for the formation of Al Qaeda/ISIS or just a casual contributing influence can be debated all day long, but of the fact that a succession of inept, incompetent and/or downright negligent administrations contributed to their nascence cannot be disputed. That our monsters have grown completely beyond our control is just as completely irrelevant.
And I think I have a copy of the CNN doc somewhere on this hdd. Mayhaps I'll review it. In the interim I'll just watch Charlie Wilson's War and Spies Like Us again. :-D
