rationalskepticism.org

The truth is, the Islamic State was destined for a short half-life anyway. It was contained by the Kurds in the north and
east and NATO’s second largest army and air force in the northwest. And it was surrounded by the Shiite crescent in
the populated, economically viable regions of lower Syria and Iraq.
So absent Washington’s misbegotten campaign to unseat Assad in Damascus and demonize his confession-
based Iranian ally, there would have been nowhere for the murderous fanatics who pitched a makeshift capital in
Raqqa to go. They would have run out of money, recruits, momentum and public acquiesce in their horrific rule in due
course.
But with the US Air Force functioning as their recruiting arm and France’s anti-Assad foreign policy helping to foment
a final spasm of anarchy in Syria, the gates of hell have been opened wide. What has been puked out is not an
organized war on Western civilization as Hollande so hysterically proclaimed in response to the mayhem of last
weekend.
It was just blowback carried out by that infinitesimally small salient of mentally deformed young men who can be
persuaded to strap on a suicide belt.
Needless to say, bombing wont stop them; it will just make more of them.
Ironically, what can stop them is the Assad government and the ground forces of its Hezbollah and the Iranian
Republican Guard allies. Its time to let them settle an ancient quarrel that has never been any of America’s business
anyway.
But Imperial Washington is so caught up in its myths, lies and hegemonic stupidity that it can not see the obvious.
And that is why a quarter century after the cold war ended peace still hasn’t been given a chance and the reason that
horrific events like last week’s barbarism in Paris still keep happening.