Your Other Left Video: Doing It Wrong, or If We Can Brexit They Can Fix It

A rant about brexit and the lack of dialectic in our current multitude of schismatic subjects.

Your Other Left: Putin's Fan Club

Did somebody say theocracy?

Little by little, the media has begun to notice the deliberately careless slaughter of civilians in Syria by the Russian division of the Iranian armed forces.A theocratic axis consisting of the Iranian twelver Shia cult regime, the Syrian Alawite Ba'athist reality TV aficionado and murderer of 200,000, and the serial poisoner controlled Russia Today Orthodox Church Federation makes the Turkish aspiring dictator, ISIS cheerleader, Hitler enthusiast and recent extorter of the EU look like an amateur.Somehow there is such mass eagerness to accept any criticism of President Obama at face value, that Putina has become the favored opposition and claims made by him, his army of comment trolls or the RT: "Fox News on krokodil" propaganda juggernaut get swallowed and parroted by gangs of mutants, perpetual con-marks in Baghdad, right wing race cults and left wing suicide fetishists alike.

Vladimir Putin, 2014 Time Magazine Person of the Year, has been praised by celebrity imbecile Donald Trump, British Nazi Seance organizer Nick Griffin, famous anti-semitism groupie/Iran TV personality Jeremy Corbyn, and the Ba'ath Party's favorite cosplay kinkster kitten George Galloway.With this clown car coalition of the deranged behind him, and the announcement that the Russian Orthodox Church has declared him god on earth, his holiness, the patron saint of anti-gay violence and the man who brought breadline poverty back to Russia, Vladimir Putin has put his lifelong ambition to ressurrect Russian imperialism in Eastern Europe on hold while he mounts a crusade to support the oppressed, downtrodden and victimized regimes of Iran and Syria. Someone had to stand up for those poor mullahs and despotsRather than being content with his new status as some sort of half-man half-God creature, (I'd have asked the church to make me a centaur instead, but whatever lifts his luggage) Putin has made it his divine mission to defame and debase the President of the United States.This is all one needs to do to be lauded across the globe.The asinine casting of President Obama as arch and cruel by millions of Americans has had all sorts of sad consequences.Creating a western audience for Putinism may prove the worst.

It never ceases to surprise me the rabbit hole of logic that Obama-hatred carries people down.The viral memes presenting a choice between Putin and Obama with questions like "who is stronger leader," "who is better friend to Kurds" and "who is better looking" are hilarious, but indicative of the pervasivenes of the bizarre logic that holds that "if Obama is doing a bad job, Putin must be doing a good job." I don't think Obama is doing a good job in the Middle East, but that has nothing to do with whether Putin is doing a good job or even a good thing.Ask yourself why Putin is there?Does Putin actually care what happens to the Kurds or anyone else?

Putin said he would attack ISIS but he attacked every Sunni fighting against Assad except for ISIS for months.Putin aids and protects the genocidal dictator Assad. Putin has participated in a cynical manipulative move through Assad and clandestine channels to assist ISIS.Putin has taken sides in the sectarian civil war and the power struggle between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran. I have no fondness for Saudi Arabia, but the Iranian regime out does the Saudis at theocratic sadism and is universally acknowledged by Iran's neighbors as the biggest threat facing the region.Israel has more Sunni friends than Iran.

Iran attacks Kurds.They depopulate Sunni villages in Iraq and Syria, which exasperates the refugee situation.They are the largest state funder of jihadist terror.When Iran "got rid of" their nuclear materials they sent them to Russia for safe keeping. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, they're likely to use it on Bahrain or Israel.Putin has taken it upon himself to intervene in the sectarian conflict on behalf of the Iranian regime.Barack Obama might have a confusing strategy and he may be shamefully silent on the Turkish campaign against the Kurds, but he provides air support for the Peshmerga and YPG, while Putin provides air support for Hezbollah.

Obama has done a lousy job in Iraq and Syria, but he has done one thing absolutely right: he said he will fight ISIS and he is fighting ISIS. Turkish National Islamist President Erdogan declared last summer that Turkey would begin attacking ISIS, and the air strikes rained down on the Kurds instead.When Putin said Russia was joining the fight against ISIS what he meant was they were joining the fight against Syrian rebels and civilians who are not in ISIS.It is a tragic moral failing that President Obama hasn't condemned Turkey's AKP regime and declared absolute support for and partnership with the Kurds.However, none of Barack Obama's failures excuse or validate Vladimir Putin's crimes or lies.

I'll remain opposed to dictatorship, theocracy, terrorism and civilian slaughter no matter how poorly western leaders perform. Russia is a theocratic dictatorship with a vast propaganda operation set on hurting the west with some true, but mostly fabricated or exaggerated claims which sow hysteria and fuel far right and far left maniacs in Europe.

Obama leaves office next January.His replacement is likely to be one of the candidates who have publicly expressed support for the YPG: Hillary Clinton and nearly every Republican candidate.Sheikh Putin, as he is known among some Ayatollah fans in Iraq, will still be the anointed demigod of the Russia Today Orthodox Federation Church. He'll still be terrorizing and molesting his neighbors.He'll still be the partner, mouthpiece, and muscle for the Iranian cult of messianic Shiite rapture.He'll still be the protector and enabler of Assad and Hezbollah.He'll still be the dictator who murders journalists and politicians who criticize him.He'll still be the Russian version of Recep Tayyip Erdogan......with a nuclear arsenal.

Your Other Left: United States & Turkey: an Exercise in Masochism

                   
The half billion dollar program to recruit and train a moderate Syrian rebel force to fight ISIS has been a failure. This is due largely to the fact that nearly everyone fighting in Syria is more interested in fighting Bashar Assad's government than fighting ISIS.  Its not like we in the west are fans of Assad (his biggest international fan is Vladimir Putin) but with the country in chaos and full of domestic and foreign warring factions, removal of Assad's government root and stalk would only perpetuate and worsen the chaos.  If some sense of order is restored then a new government would be a better prospect, especially if the civil servants, bureaucrats and military leadership can keep some semblance of continuity.  This is incredibly naive in light of everything we know about the Syrian civil war.  Assad is going to be removed and his government will be extirpated.  We cannot save him and we don't want to.  

Our alliance with regional players who are actively sabotaging our efforts makes the entire prospect of stabilizing Syria seem far fetched.  The United States relationship with Turkey is the most cringe-worthy example of this duplicitous trend. The willingness of Turkish officials to do business with ISIS and al Qaeda and refrain, until recently, to take any part in the fight against ISIS seems to have been forgotten.  The United States government seems to be ignoring the Turkish attacks on Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq and domestic police violence against Kurdish dissidents inside Turkey.  Turkish politics has descended into blatant authoritarianism.  The so called 'buffer zone' that Turkey wants between itself and Syria would be another in the series of new Berlin walls that are popping up all over the globe.  

This 'buffer zone' is least of all the distressing behavior of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  Since his party, the AKP, lost it's majority in recent elections, his covert support for ISIS and his unhinged paranoia about the Kurds and Assad have become more transparent and more well known.   We in the west can't even acknowledge the seriousness of ISIS as an enemy or measure our successes and failures on the battlefield since the administration, congress and the Pentagon have no coherent voice on this war. The assessment of this foe and the threat they pose has been delusional from the outset. The effort to motivate the various regional interests to work together against the Islamic State is a halfhearted approach to a serious problem.  Almost no regional party of importance is interested in the western objective which is eliminating ISIS as top priority



.

Turkey has worked hand in hand with ISIS and al Qaeda to fight the Kurds and the Assad regime and these relationships have not ended.  Saudi Arabia has been working with al Qaeda in Yemen.  Iran has a clear desire to fight ISIS, but they are terrible to the Kurds, supportive of terror groups in Yemen and have genocidal aspirations for Israel.  Iraq is just trying not to fall apart, but the Iranian influence has filled the void left by the US.  We can hope the new leadership can free itself from Iranian influence to some degree and make progress bringing moderate Sunnis back to the government. Iraq is still no accepting all of the arms the US has offered, and since they're the middle man between the US and the Peshmerga, this is an embarrassment.

The only people who are only interested in fighting ISIS happen to be the people who value pluralistic democracy, humanitarianism and equal rights above theocracy and tribalism.  The Kurds are eager to trade resources and ideas with any people that wish for such peaceful engagement.  Shouldn't the US policy be to double down on our support for the Kurds, who have been most effective at defeating and scattering ISIS from towns in Syria and Iraq, rather than this masochistic organizing strategy?

The creepy crawl of the Turkish state towards fascism and their known terror sponsorship should negate the longstanding relationship with the west, at least until democracy is restored and the police violence is stopped.  The various parties in the  region are more worried about Assad returning to power, greater Iranian or Saudi influence over Iraq and Syria, and Kurdish territorial expansion or establishment of a Kurdish state than about ISIS. Our efforts in Syria, Yemen, Iran and the region at large have put us on both sides of many confrontations.  Our support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen has helped al Qaeda. Our dealings with Turkey have hurt our Kurdish allies and helped ISIS and al Qaeda.  We don't need to cater to these regimes and double agent diplomacy serves only to drag this war

This absurd strategy is steeped in our geopolitical identity crisis.  Do we in the west care about preserving our principles and confronting undemocratic ideas? Might we forge new alliances with people because they share our values instead of the double agent diplomacy we've been mired in with burdensome friends like Saudi Arabia and Turkey? The fear of a Kurdish state is inspiring the Turkish collusion with ISIS and al Qaeda as much as the fear of Syrian Baathists returning to power.  The Kurds in Syria and Turkey, to their credit have said they do not want a state of their own but rather self determination and autonomy within existing states. 

While the Kurds have taken territory from ISIS, they've been hospitable to inhabitants and refugees and tried to deliver basic services.  Maybe what we ought to be doing is promoting the Kurds as an example of democratic ideals and altruism. A Kurdish state would be a strategic victory against the theocratic fascists and corrupt regimes in the middle east.

I think we ought to arm, support and equip the Kurds to completely secure Kurdish territory first.  From there we have several options and nine are certain to be available.  One possible outcome is that the Kurds defeating ISIS savagely and decisively will decimate the morale of ISIS fighters, dry up their recruitment and encourage others to fight ISIS in other territory.  Ultimately this whole fight requires unwavering leadership from the US and allies.  Part of that leadership may be to encourage Kurdish and international volunteer fighters to go beyond Kurdish territory simply to remove ISIS, free slaves and confiscate weapons and resources.  If the coalition is more committed to defeating these monsters, then the Kurds and other allies may be encouraged to take ISIS controlled territory for humanitarian purposes, not to hold the territory or annex it.  This means the forces fighting ISIS beyond Kurdish territory cannot fight under a Kurdish flag or Kurdish militia emblem.  A new regional force like NATO, if not NATO itself, including Kurdish, Iraqi, Syrian and international volunteers could take the remaining ISIS territory and hand it back to locals once peace is restored.  This is not too likely a scenario, but at the moment no good ideas seem likely.  Leadership is needed to defeat ISIS.  We need to forget this exercise in futility of begging others in the region to fight this enemy.  The US and UK have been in the middle east for so long that it's silly to pretend we can extricate ourselves while conducting air strikes and diplomacy.  We have alienated Arabs just by being there.  Lets go all in with the Kurds to defeat ISIS quickly, surge style, rather than continue a strategy that accepts ISIS as a long term reality.

Counter insurgency expert and pillow talk media source David Petraeus has been suggesting that the coalition work with the Syrian al Qaeda affiliate, al Nusra Front against ISIS since they are indeed more moderate than ISIS and he has successfully recruited al Qaeda militants in Iraq to assist US forces briefly in the past.  First of all, it isn't necessary to work with al Qaeda against ISIS since we are already working with both al Qaeda and ISIS through our masochistic relationship with Turkey. There is only one available option that would not indirectly aid at least one jihadist group, and that is to go all in with the Kurds to take and secure the Kurdish areas and remove ISIS from Iraqi cities. If we have military success and effectively diminish ISIS territory, the humiliation will start to dry up their recruitment and it will only be a matter of time before ISIS is isolated in Raqqa. At that point, everyone who was reluctant to help before will smell blood in the water and begin fighting over who will take Raqqa. In the meantime we will have killed a good amount of barbaric thugs and freed some slaves. Every minute we are not freeing slaves is a minute we are complicit in the slavery, rape and torture we have the means to stop. And nobody is going to tell me we have to work with al Qaeda to get this done.