Source: The New York Times
What started as a popular uprising against
the Syrian government four years ago has become
a proto-world war with nearly a dozen countries
embroiled in two overlapping conflicts.
1. Civil war
2. War against ISIS
The two conflicts have cast the United States and Russia as enemies in one war and nominal allies in the other.
Civil War
Rebel groups supported by the United States are focused on toppling the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, not rooting out the Islamic State.
The United States is focused on defeating the Islamic State. While it has attacked 2,600 Islamic State targets, it has not directly attacked the Syrian government and it is backing rebel groups only with money, arms and some training.
Russia, Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah want to keep Mr. Assad in power, for now. Russia, in coordination with Syrian ground forces, has aimed the vast majority of its airstrikes at rebel positions.
The Islamic State, meanwhile, wants to both unseat Mr. Assad and create a caliphate stretching beyond Syria’s borders into Iraq and other countries.
War Against ISIS
The United States has been joined by Turkey and several Arab nations in its fight against the Islamic State. They all believe ISIS poses a threat to them in their own countries.
“Most people are realizing now that the best way of dealing with the Islamic State is to contain them,” said Columb Strack, an analyst at IHS Janes, a defense research firm. “If you contain them and start hitting their economic sources, the idea is that in a few years they will collapse from within. That seems what the Americans are going for.”
But because the war against the Islamic State is just one among many, cutting off the group’s resources has been difficult. Porous Turkish borders and private Arab dollars have helped the Islamic State’s rise.
For Syria’s allies, especially Russia, the Islamic State is just one of many insurgent groups that they have called terrorists. While some Russian airstrikes have hit areas controlled by the Islamic State, most have targeted rebels groups.
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Categories: Americas, Arab World, Asia, Iran, ISIS, Lebanon, Middle East, Russia, Syria, The Muslim Times, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States
SYRIA AND IRAQ; MORE THAN ONE MILLION PEOPLE DIE AND SUFFERING….!?
WHAT IS WRONG WITH MUSLIM LEADERS AND CLERICS IN MIDDLE EAST?
MY SOLUTION BASED ON ALLAH’S LAWS.
MY ADVICE TO POLITICAL LEADERS OF ARAB COUNTRIES.
Political leaders and spiritual leader from both side, Sunni and Shiia should accept the different interpretation of Islam, and respect one another, just like our old brothers Catholic and Protestant can live in peace, harmony and productive way, because both accepted the different interpretation and respected one another.
No one or cleric is allowed to punish any body for sins as we are all sinner
Except someone who does a criminal act, Government should bring them to justice.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tsOhuzzTOW5YtfMVbCFzCBi77ucNpkdCHU5E8naIE94/edit?usp=sharing
With all my love
Wassalam
When it comes to hating Christians, all the followers of Muhammad are bonded together.
I love all my Christian brothers and sisters even bigots like Namelee.
ah, as far as Namelee is concerned I do have a small problem …
Demonstrating muhammadan love for ‘Christian brothers’ is worse than living with rattle snakes or the black adder.
Namelee is outdoing himself here. Of course I should have put this comment in ‘trash’, but just wanted to show the readers why so many of Namelee’s comments do land there.
There is no difference between your love for your ‘Christian brothers’ and the ‘love’ professed by rattle snakes or the black adder. Both are predictable because they lead to the same: death.
I find more trash from the TMT desks that need to be buried than posted. When my comments are ‘trashed’ or ‘moderated’ it is not because they are trash but because you have no answer fearing that the truth will be unpleasant.