WND EXCLUSIVE

U.S.-LED BOMBING COALITION FRAUGHT WITH CONFLICTS

Arabs, West have different objectives, could undermine goal of defeating ISIS

F. Michael Maloof

WASHINGTON – The goal of defeating ISIS, the extremist jihadi group setting up what it has described as a caliphate in Iraq, could be undermined because the members of the loosely formed U.S.-led coalition are fighting ISIS for different reasons.

Informed sources say that the Arab countries that have joined the United States in bombing selected ISIS targets in Syria are doing so for far different objectives than the Europeans who have committed their air power to bomb ISIS targets in Iraq.

The Sunni Arab countries of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan who have committed air power in varying degrees to the U.S. plan to bomb selected Sunni ISIS targets in Syria are doing it ultimately to weaken the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and replace him with a Sunni regime.

Assad is a Shia-Alawite closely tied with Shia Iran, which is in a proxy war with the Sunni Arab countries for influence in the entire Middle East region.

But Western countries that have brought their air power to join the fray, including England, Denmark, Belgium and Australia, have joined with the U.S. out of concern that the more than 4,000 foreign soldiers fighting on behalf of ISIS could return to their countries to wage jihad at home.

Already, ISIS has videotaped the beheading of a number of Westerners, and these countries believe such images radicalize jihadists inside their respective borders. In addition, they have decided not to engage over Syria unless the United Nations Security Council mandates it.

Regional observers say the Arab initiative is less for efficiency than for dealing with the political realities that exist in Syria and Iraq, even though ISIS, in eliminating the political boundaries between the two countries, has made the fight a single battleground.

“This weakens the coalition, confuses desired outcomes and often limits operations to what will appease all members,” according to a report of the open intelligence group Stratfor.

In Iraq, Europeans have joined with the U.S. in attacking ISIS targets in an effort to back up existing ground operations led primarily by the Kurdish peshmerga, along with those members of the Iraqi military who haven’t cut and run at the first sign of an ISIS attack.

Such ground operations in Syria, however, don’t exist. The U.S. has agreed to pay $500 million to train some 5,000 Free Syrian Army and other Syrian opposition groups in Saudi Arabia over a year.

This prospect has led to concerns that the U.S. is back again at seeking regime change in Syria under the guise of training fighters to confront ISIS in Syria.

As it is, FSA and other so-called moderate fighting groups have either fought alongside ISIS, pledged allegiance to it or at least signed a non-aggression pact with ISIS, as the FSA has done, saying that Assad remains its main opponent.

While Obama intends to rely on the FSA and others with allegiances to various jihadist groups including ISIS, WND recently reported that he is ignoring the battle-tested Kurdish force already fighting ISIS in northern Syria who are tied into the Kurdish peshmerga in Iraq.

With the Saudis and the other Sunni Arab countries still determined to topple Assad, they have determined that air attacks on ISIS positions in Syria will lessen pressure on the Syrian opposition forces so they won’t be in the position of fighting Damascus and ISIS at the same time.

The concern arises that these Arab countries may push Obama to decide to attack targets of the Assad regime, something which sources say the Obama administration will resist.

If the Arab countries were to push this initiative, however, they could pull out of the airstrike coalition, leaving the U.S. the only country bombing over Syria.

Already, Syria, Russia and Iran have warned that continued U.S. bombing over Syria is an act of aggression.

The Russians, for example, warned that continued bombing over Syria will “exacerbate tensions.” They have called for the U.S. to seek approval of the U.N. Security Council for continued bombing over Syria, and the Syrian government itself.

“Any such action can be carried out only in accordance with international law,” a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The obstacles for the U.S. are obvious. While it doesn’t want to look as though it is targeting Assad regime locations, it needs to be concerned about collateral damage not only to allies on the ground but to civilians, some of whom side with ISIS.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/u-s-led-bombing-coalition-fraught-with-conflicts/#f151oCR7g8mhPT2E.99