A History Lesson

Mr. Obama is the last few months has famously, or infamously, has remarked how the military just isn't an option for solving problems in the Middle East.  He holds fast to the belief that the policies he and Hillary, and now he and Kerry, have formulated are successful.  Yet by any account, it was the Obama-Clinton policy of ousting Syrian President Assad that led to the creation of ISIS.  It was the Obama-Kerry policy that demanded that Russia do something to oppose ISIS.  The crisis was created by the very diplomatic solutions that Mr. Obama has clung to with a religious fervor that he is in full-blown denial as to its failure.

We won't hear much about this given last night's Democratic debates and the media's fawning over Hillary.  If we can't expect to hear much about the foreign policy disaster that created ISIS, we certainly aren't going to hear about why ISIS has been able to conquer and occupy territory.  Whether by intent or accident, the coverage of ISIS leaves key points of the analysis.  For example, why has ISIS (initially a rag-tag group that opposed the Syrian government) been so hard to defeat?

To understand the answer to that question, one needs to only re-read my first paragraph and add a little more to it.  ISIS was formed from a US-backed opposition group in Syria.  Whenever you see the words "US-backed opposition" you should start getting feelings of deja vu.  US-backed opposition groups throughout the last 60 years include;

Iran in 1953 (which placed the Shah of Iran in power)

Guatemala 1954 (back an opposition that was sympathetic to the United Fruit Company resulting in the deaths of over 100,000 Guatemalans)

North Vietnam 1954-58 (attempts to overthrow the Communist government, and well we all know how that turned out)

Laos 1957-73 (US backed groups to overthrow democratically elected Laotian governments)

Haiti 1959 (US backed Papa Doc Duvalier resulting in over 100,000 deaths during his reign)

Brazil 1964 (US backed overthrow Goulart results in throwing the country into 20 years of chaos)

Indonesia 1965 (US backed thug Suharto kills 500,000 to 1 million of his own people)

Greece 1967 (US backed overthrow of the government.  It could be argued that Greece's problems in 2015 began with at this time)

Cambodia 1970 (US backed puppet Lon Nol policies clear the path for Khmer Rouge to seize power 5 years later resulting in over the deaths of 2 million people)

Angola 1975 (US supports war in Angola at the behest of Kissinger.  The US supports UNITAS which in-turn the opposition to the Soviet Union and Cuba.  At least 300,00 Angolans are killed)

Afghanistan 1979 (US supports the Mujhadeen via their ally Osama bin Laden.  We all know how this turns outs)

Nicaragua 1979 (US supported opposition fails and the Sandinistas take over and all breaks loose for the next 10 years)

El Salvador 1980 (US backs military government which leads in-turn to death squads roaming the country killing over 60,000.  The refugees who fled this atrocity are brought to the US and housed in East LA.  The Salvadorian refugees and harassed and attacked by Mexican gangs.  The resulting opposition takes on the moniker "Mara Salvatrucha" or MS-13)

Iran-Contra 1981 (Remember the Sandinistas?  Yeah well the US decided to fund the opposition Contras by selling arms to Iran.  The fall-guy for this was a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel named Oliver North)

Panama 1989 (US invades Panama to oust Manuel Noriega.  Interesting note, he had been receiving funding from the US since 1966).

This list is by no means comprehensive.  The similarities between what is happening now in Syria and Iraq to what happened in Angola 40 years ago is eerily similar.  Now if you have not guessed, the "US" in all of these cases was the CIA.  The CIA is a stand-alone agency and does not fall under any one department, however due to the nature of their work overseas they tend to work closely with the State Department.  Whenever arms are sold by the CIA to a "US-backed opposition group", it has to be signed off by either the President or the Secretary of State.  Yes so the feigned surprise of Obama, Hillary and Kerry to the well-armed nature of ISIS is total bullshit.  ISIS has tanks  for God's sakes that we sent to the opposition to overthrow Assad.

And yet the press continues to support the Hillary bandwagon.