“Turkey made me do it” – the next stage in backstopping the unraveling ISIS narrative
by BlackCatte
In today’s Independent, Patrick Cockburn, reliable purveyor of backstopping, sets out the latest fallback position for the west’s increasingly discredited “ISIS narrative.” Viz: “it’s all Turkey’s fault.”
The disastrous miscalculation made by the United States in signing a military agreement with Turkey at the expense of the Kurds becomes daily more apparent. In return for the use of Incirlik Air Base just north of the Syrian border, the US betrayed the Syrian Kurds who have so far been its most effective ally against Islamic State (Isis, also known as Daesh). In return for this deal signed on 22 July, the US got greater military cooperation from Turkey, but it swiftly emerged that Ankara’s real target was the Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq. [emphasis ours]
Oops. That’s unfortunate isn’t it. How did this happen, then Patrick? Ah well, says P, that’s easy to answer: the US was just misled by its own trusting nature…
There are signs of a growing understanding in Washington that the US was duped by the Turks, or at best its negotiators deceived themselves when they agreed their bargain with Ankara. Senior US military officers are anonymously protesting in the US media they did not know that Turkey was pretending to be going after Isis when in practice it was planning an offensive against its 18 million-strong Kurdish minority.
…
In fact, there is growing evidence that the Turkish government has gone even further than that in weakening US allies opposing Isis in Syria, Arab as well as Kurd. For several years the US has been trying to build up a moderate force of Syrian rebels who are able to fight both Isis and the Syrian government in Damascus. The CIA-run initiative has not been going well because the Syrian military opposition these days is almost entirely dominated by Isis, which holds half Syria, the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, and the equally sectarian Sunni Ahrar al-Sham. But in July, the US plan to create such a moderate force was humiliatingly knocked on the head when Jabhat al-Nusra attacked and kidnapped many of this US-trained force as they entered Syria from Turkey. It now seems certain that Nusra had been tipped off by Turkish intelligence
Yes, apparently, the poor old bumbling US, with its worldwide intelligence ops and its $600 billion defense budget didn’t know the Turks had an undisclosed agenda, even though it was being reported in the alt media back in early August. They were “duped” into accidentally helping out ISIS by accidentally allowing Turkey to decimate the single most effective opposition to ISIS on the ground – the Kurds.
Just like back in the 1980s, when they accidentally allowed their then-pal Saddam Hussein to do the same thing, with the poison gas they’d accidentally sold him.
Is Patrick at all curious why the US seems to be so regularly duped or confused into accidentally helping people who are helping ISIS?
Could Russian claims that the US is using the existence of ISIS as a cover for attacking the Assad regime offer some answers here?
How about the numerous allegations (including one published in the Independent) and evidence chains linking the US to covert support for ISIS?
Can it be it’s not actually all Turkey’s fault after all?
No, of course not. The incipient collapse of the western ISIS narrative only means that a new scapegoat is needed. And it’s been pretty obvious for a while who that is going to be…
But there is a deeper reason for America’s inability to confront Isis successfully. Ever since 9/11, the US has wanted to combat al-Qaeda-type movements, but without disturbing its close relations with Sunni states such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the Gulf monarchies. But it is these same allies that have fostered, tolerated or failed to act against the al-Qaeda clones, which explains their continuing success.
Yes, it looks as if the above named perps are being singled out and set up for a fall, if they are not careful and don’t stick to the Empire’s script. Unless they want to end up murdered and/or raped for the delectation of Hillary and her chums they’d better watch how they go.
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For a somewhat different take on the situation, here’s Thierry Meyssan: http://www.voltairenet.org/article188577.html
Once upon a time, I used to respect Patrick Cockburn–I am still a huge fan of his late brother Alexander–but I now find a lot of his stories just a little too gate-keepy.
No comment on the 9/11 conspiracy theory.. that an Arab in a cave in Afghan. shut down the 1/2T$ US air defenses with his laptop, but was then magically in 2 places ie dying of kidney failure in Dubai hospital.
Excellent informative article.
When is the western MSM if ever going to tell the truth about isis.
The made for television terrorists are getting paid and supplied by the U.S. and allies to partition the Syria and Iraq
BlackCatte is too honest to be published in ‘news’ media such as the Independent, Guardian, NYT, Washington Post; or even in online equivalents such as Huffington Post, Salon, Daily Beast; or even in ‘alternative news’ sites such as Alternet, Common Dreams, or Truthout. So, instead, we read this article here — this site (and too few other small sites like it) is all that the aristocracy will permit as constituting ‘the free press’ in ‘the free world.’ When Big Brother makes clear what will constitute ‘the truth,’ the result is that reality, the actual truth, becomes marginalized, as if it may be stated only in a crazyhouse, not in ‘the free world.’
Yes, it is sad that some of the excellent writers here can no longer get their comments or their excellent analyses printed at any of the MSM Sites and at too many of the quasi-alternative news sites. I presume that this must be how and why Off-Guardian was founded–precisely because the more articulate spokespeople for truth cannot be allowed to remain on those other sites because they speak and link to the truth.
One thing that I make a point to do is to post a link to Off-Guardian in as many of my comments on other sites as possible (especially when I can link it to a particular story here). I also have begun to respond to sites at which the Guardian is cited or linked as a source by noting that: the Guardian is no longer a reliable or even reputable source for information; it has turned to the right; it has banned it’s more articulate posters; and that too few of these have been able to find their way over here to Off-Guardian.
Unfortunately, over at the Guardian, where “Comment is free”, the etiquette police immediately remove any links to this site as soon as they are found. I only happened to run across this site when a link was posted and I saw it before it was removed. Hmmm…I wonder if the Guardian would be willing to sell Off-Guardian a little advertising space! ; )
Note to BlackCatte: Did you see Shawn Walker’s latest tripe? I’m working on a takedown of that article, which I would like to submit to you guys if you’re interested. It should be ready later this morning (US EST). Can I just send the thing to you?
Please do send it Brad. Check out our submissions guidelines and email here.
http://off-guardian.org/submissions/
I’m sure that I will eventually get around to that. Meanwhile you guys just posted a well written article by someone whom I assume must be writing from an earlier time-zone than mine, and who has clearly beat me to the punch on this one. S/he even used the term “tripe” that I had used in my note to you above. That’s how close we were.
Nevertheless, I have done some additional research and will append this information to the other article in this case. Still, Shawn Walker’s Trash frequently causes me to wax eloquently and, if I can stretch it back into a longer article that doesn’t look like I plagiarized the other one, I’ll resubmit it on your form.
However…
…it has rained here in my part of sunny Florida for more than a month and the sun just peaked through for five minutes. If it stays like this for another five minutes, Mr. Walker may have to wait, since there’s more rain in the forecast. This place is beginning to remind me of jolly old England.
Didn’t know CJCL was writing his piece when I asked you to send yours in Brad – but yes please do continue with it and send it – there are too few of us manning these ramparts and we always need reinforcements 🙂