Saturday, October 31, 2015

The circling back to the Assads continues

If it's Friday, it must be time for another White House strategy on Syria --

Reinforce Jordan’s and Lebanon’s defenses as ISIL is pushed south and west. Enhancing counter-ISIL support in both nations is expected to provide enhanced contingency planning so a strong defense plan is in place and reinforced, the official said. Lebanon likely will have doubled security assistance in its armed forces to protect against ISIL’s and other terrorist groups’ encroachment, the official said.

Lebanon's border with Syria is jointly, if tacitly, managed by the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah. And there's no way for the US to be claiming any contribution to helping Lebanon resist encroachment without some back-channel communication with Hezbollah -- which in any event is also using its control of parts of the border to give the Assads another lifeline to the world.

Brilliant plan.

1 comment:

Peter T said...

Yeah. In Syria, the choice is between the extreme Islamists, the rabid Islamists and the just horrid. In typical Beltway fashion, Washington keeps trying to find a third way where none exists.

ISIS is going for the weaker party (Syrian Army) as it loses ground in Iraq. But from Iraq's perspective, it's all one war. Shi'a militia have already crossed into Syria, and I expect more will turn up. I had a stab at a mostly military overview here:

http://howlatpluto.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/the-campaign-against-isis.html