Those who supported the idea of a U.S. air strike on Syria’s Bashar al-Assad – to include Karl Rove, Bill Kristol and everyone else on this list – have major ostrich egg on their faces because they’ve had their heads in the sand for quite some time. Obama’s air strikes in Iraq prove it.
Assad: The U.S. launched air strikes against MY enemy?
The vacuum left by an ousted Assad in Syria would have been filled by ISIS, the same group Obama has launched air strikes against in Iraq.
As Shoebat.com has maintained repeatedly, the claim that there were moderate opposition forces in Syria was a complete lie, a ruse, willfully bought by mainstream media and U.S. politicians from both sides of the aisle. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) vs. extremists was nothing short of a Middle Eastern game of good cop vs. bad cop. The good cop known as the FSA long ago folded up its tent and left town. In true jihadist form, many in its ranks have since joined ISIS.
Consider the former commander of FSA Salim Idris. He was the face of ‘good cop’, the man whom Senator John McCain visited during his now infamous trip to Syria in May of 2013.
(L to R): John McCain, FSA General Salim Idris, and Razan Shalab AlSham of SETF.
Accompanying McCain on that trip was Mouaz Moustafa, the Executive Director of the U.S-based, tax-exempt Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), a highly suspicious organization with ties to stealth Muslim Brotherhood jihadists, to include Bassam Estwani. Estwani is a Syrian who supports the Muslim Brotherhood and sits on SETF’s board.
McCain: Posing with terrorists and SETF’s Moustafa (far right) in May 2013.
After it became apparent that the FSA would not benefit from U.S. air strikes on Assad, the FSA represented a fruitless endeavor. In December of last year – as Shoebat.com reported – Idris fled Syria. That fact was made more significant because of where he fled:
Gen. Idris flew to the Qatari capital of Doha on Sunday after fleeing to Turkey, U.S. officials said Wednesday. “He fled as a result of the Islamic Front taking over his headquarters,” a senior U.S. official said.
Turkey seeks a return of its Ottoman caliphate and Qatar is a state sponsor of terrorism, though not officially designated as such. In fact, both countries are tragically considered U.S. allies.
SETF ran into controversy after McCain cited the work of SETF Political Director Elizabeth O’Bagy while making his case for air strikes against Assad after last year’s chemical weapons attack in Syria.
As Shoebat.com reported at the time and has long since maintained, evidence that the attack was perpetrated by the Turkish-backed Syrian rebels is overwhelming. Politicians like McCain continue living in a state of public denial about that.
SETF’s website subsequently began a slow, incremental overhaul. After O’Bagy was jettisoned from an exposed SETF, McCain curiously hired her.
Elizabeth O’Bagy
As Shoebat.com has reported on extensively, Estwani has been a mover and shaker in American politics for years. He was also chairman of the notorious Dar al-Hijrah mosque, which was attended by at least two of the 9/11 hijackers and Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan. Hasan’s inspiration Anwar al-Awlaki was an imam there; Estwani presided over the mosque at that time.
Bassam Estwani with Hillary Clinton at White House EID in 2000.
Turkey and Qatar are the countries that Secretary of State John Kerry attempted to include in negotiations between Israel and Hamas recently. Israel angrily rejected Kerry’s efforts because both Qatar and Turkey are supporters of Hamas, a group ideologically aligned with ISIS.
Turkey and Qatar are ideologically aligned with ISIS, just as Muslim Brotherhood operatives like Estwani are. Here is Estwani walking arm in arm with Turkey’s Foreign Minister in Istanbul in September of 2012:
Estwani (R) and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Davutoglu in Istanbul during September, 2012 conference.
However, in order to keep the willing dupes in the west on board, Turkey and Qatar must now assume the role of ‘good cop’ against ISIS, the ‘bad cop’. The Daily Beast says Erdogan will “Face the ISIS Crisis”. Newsweek is reporting that an intelligence source claims Turks have started bombing strikes on ISIS.
Does this mean that Turkey is here to save the day?
Hardly. In fact, it’s just the opposite.
Westerners need to begin piecing some things together. One of the primary mantras of ISIS has been that it is installing a caliphate. In the eyes of Turkey and its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, this is not part of the ISIS charter. However, it IS part of Turkey’s charter. As ISIS becomes increasingly unmanageable and chaos in Iraq increases, Turkey will be looked to as the force that can stabilize the region.
Such a belief plays right into the hands of Erdogan. The caliphate espoused by Baghdadi is actually something Erdogan believes is part of Turkey’s Ottoman destiny. When Turkey gets involved in Iraq and managing ISIS, it is actually a step closer to its goal – the resurrection of the Ottoman Empire. In fact, the resurrection of the Ottoman Empire is something the Muslim Brotherhood was founded to help facilitate.
Obama’s decision to launch air strikes on ISIS in Iraq is again, an indictment of all who advocated for air strikes against Syria’s Assad last year; Assad was right and this is his “Welcome to the Party, Pal” moment:
To demonstrate just how little the truth is either understood or revealed, check out the exchange between ABC’s Jonathan Karl and White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest below. Karl’s question has to do with why the Obama administration felt it warranted to launch air strikes against ISIS in Iraq but not against the Assad regime in Syria despite more casualties in Syria.
Seemingly lost on both men is the reality that air strikes against Assad would have helped to make ISIS stronger and the air strikes on ISIS now represent an ‘I told you so’ moment for Assad:
As for Iraq and Syria, there was a time when both nations were Ba’athist and run by nationalists – Saddam Hussein and Bashar al-Assad, respectively. The world is finally beginning to see why these men headed such brutal regimes; they were fighting brutal forces.
After the first Gulf War, George H.W. Bush was right not to take out Saddam Hussein when he had the opportunity. George W. Bush was wrong to do so; we’re seeing that now.
The same reality is unfolding in Syria today. This is one of the reasons why Turkey wants Assad removed, so it can inch ever closer to its caliphate.
Assad visiting Christian village of Maaloula on Easter Sunday.
When it comes to Syria, Christians there support Assad in overwhelming numbers because he is fighting for them. Despite this, when Christian leaders from Syria approached McCain about this last February, the Senator from Arizona came unglued and berated them.
If Obama’s air strikes in Iraq say anything, they state clearly that any air strikes against Assad last year would have aided the forces Obama is launching air strikes against now.