#1 ·
Former US General and Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, Wesley Clark, didn't mince words in a recent CNN interview: “Our allies and friends created ISIS just to take out Hezbollah!” It’s pretty clear the Israeli state hasn't moved past its 2006 defeat. They know their real threat in the neighborhood is the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah. "Look, our allies and friends funded the rise of ISIS," Clark said. "People in this region will tell you: if you want someone to fight to the death against Hezbollah, you aren't going to put up a promotional poster saying, 'Come to us, we'll build a better world!' No, you're going to hunt down fanatics and religious fundamentalists. They'll fight Hezbollah. It's like Frankenstein!" These comments from the former NATO commander are basically an echo of what Israeli officials have been saying for ages—that Israel's primary enemies are Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah, while groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda aren't the true existential threat to their regime. "Tehran, Damascus, Beirut—those are the biggest dangers," says outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the USA, Michael Oren. Speaking to the Jerusalem Post and CNN, he noted that the bad guys backed by Iran are far worse for Israel than the ones Iran doesn't support. http://croative.net/?p=27860
So now the world is stuck with two Frankensteins—Al-Qaeda and ISIS—spreading everywhere. How do we stop them? That’s a question the Democratic architects in Washington, D.C. are going to have to answer. Republicans have been sounding the alarm for a long time about the failed policies of Hillary Clinton and Obama. By backing the Arab Spring and helping topple secular regimes across the Middle East, they essentially opened a Pandora's box. Out came the worst demons of radical Islam. And let's be real: you can't get rid of those demons with exorcisms or airstrikes. You need ground military interventions, which is exactly what the Republican-led Congress and Senate are calling for, while the Obama administration keeps digging its heels in, trying to fix everything through diplomacy and more air strikes. Islamists have already taken over Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Now they're knocking on Europe's door via Turkey, where thousands of Islamists are entering under the guise of refugees. Algeria is becoming just as unstable. Is it really just a matter of time before that country falls to ISIS too?