John Chuckman

EXPANSION OF COMMENTS POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN

Kerry says the United States is sending fifty (special forces) troops to fight ISIS?

Fifty stinking troops? That surely is a joke.

But fifty troops to assist and advise ISIS and sister terror organizations such as al-Nusra, that makes some sense.

And since special forces use sabotage and covert operations, it is likely they would be involved in attacking Syrian infrastructure to help make the lives of Syrians still more miserable. After all, America’s jets, supposedly fighting ISIS, have in fact bombed targets such as Syrian power plants. The troops can serve as target spotters. That too makes some sense if you have the kind of twisted goals America has.

Or the fifty troops could form a human shield around some of America’s hardworking terrorist-mercenaries against Russian bombing, that too makes sense.

Of course, there is the overlooked fact that Russia works in cooperation with, and at the invitation of, the government of Syria. The United States does not, conveniently having declared with the wave of the imperial hand that longstanding government, known to be supported by a majority of its people, to be illegitimate.

How convenient, but its troops remain, no matter how small the number, simply invaders, and the United States violates international law putting them there. But international law has never hindered the United States or its Middle East colony (aka, Israel) when either of them wanted to do something.

What is it exactly that these invaders would advise and assist in?

Bringing down the legitimate government of Syria. It can’t be anything else because that is the mission of the very people they are assisting and shielding.

Now, if that isn’t being involved in “the civil war”, what is?

Kerry just keeps going in circles, but that is precisely the path of American foreign policy.

Just using that term, “civil war,” is ridiculous because it is not a civil war.

It is an invasion by terrorists, secretly assisted by Kerry’s government and some of its allies to remove a leader they do not like and reduce yet another peaceful country to what America produced in Libya and Iraq.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTCLE IN THE INDEPENDENT

A very wise man has spoken here, likely the finest diplomat for a major country of our time.

American policy in the Middle East and Europe and Asia has become impossibly convoluted and dangerous.

The Russians are in fact doing the job no one else honestly wanted to do, ruining the chances for terrorist bands to takeover Syria.

And Americans didn’t want to do it precisely because the terrorist bands are doing their dirty work for them.

Any insertion of American troops, even a small number of special forces, adds only to extreme ambiguity and danger. Clearly some could be struck by Russian jets, and then what?

God, we all need to expect America to start behaving rationally in its foreign policy. The stakes are immense since Russia is competent to literally obliterate America and vice versa.

It is not a situation in which to play games and frat-boy pranks, but that is exactly what America is doing.

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Response to a comment about the EU speaking out against America’s decision:

Yes they should, but, in case anyone hasn’t noticed, the EU has been supine towards American policy recently. There simply are no strong leaders at this time.

If only on the firm basis of international law, Cameron, Hollande, and Merkel should speak out against the move, but it is virtually certain they will not.