Moon of Alabama — The Islamic State Is Shrinking And Other News

Short update on Iraq/Syria.

This stands out:

The killed ruthless terrorist and sectarian Salafist insurgent leader Zahran Alloush was mourned by the Turkey backed Syrian Islamic Council, the U.S. backed FSA and affiliates, by Riad_Hijab the former Syrian Prime Minister who defected and who now heads the Saudi formed opposition body, by the terrorist groups Ahrar al Sham, Jabhat al Nusra/al-Qaeda and by the head of Human Rights Watch who gets payed $450,000 per year for such valuable (for some rich people) service:

Kenneth Roth Verified account @KenRothKilling Zahran Alloush is part of Assad strategy of trying to reduce choice to him or ISIS.

So, according to Kenneth Roth, Zahran Alloush who lauded Osama bin Laden, shelled civilians in Damascus and put Alawite women into cages as human shields, was a potentially valid "choice" for the Syrian people?

Zahran Alloush was the Western choice to replace Bashir al-Assad. He was represented in the media as a "moderate rebel." His killing was mourned and denounced in the Western media as well as Qatari-owned al Jazeera English as a setback for a solution in Syria.

Alloush was educated in Saudi Arabia and was an Islamist in the Wahhabi/Salafi/Takfiri mode. His gruesome record shows that he was anything but moderate. 

Alloush

If Alloush had taken over Syria in place of Assad and in preference to ISIS or if he was given even taken a major role as planned, a bloodbath would have ensued leaving only Sunni Islamists in control of the state apparatus. 

While it is fortunate that he is no longer in the picture from the political perspective, he left three wives and ten children without husband and father. There is no joy in war.

Moon of Alabama
The Islamic State Is Shrinking And Other News

See also

In an audio message (published in the link below in the Lebanese daily Assafir on the 26th of December 2015), ISIS/ISIL/IS Chief, “Caliph” Abou Bakr Al-Baghdadi gives a rather lengthy 24 minute speech. Half of the message is addressed to Muslims, all Muslims, whilst the other half is addressed to the world; especially the nations that have taken upon themselves to fight the Islamic State.

The approach is not systemic and jumps from one “half” to the other, but with a bottom-line call for all Muslims to band together in order to fight what he perceives as the enemies of Islam.

“The world has united to fight Islam”, he argues, and this was to be expected. Either way, Muslims will be the victors, because they will either be martyred in battle and get elevated to heaven, or win the battle on the ground.

And who are the enemies of Islam in his view? All nations that are fighting the Islamic State, including Saudi Arabia that has recently formed a military alliance against terrorism. Al Baghdadi says that the proposed Saudi coalition is only intended to fight Islam and the Islamic State. If its objectives were to uphold Islam, it would be fighting in Syria alongside the Islamic State and protecting the defenseless Muslims in Syria and in Palestine.

On the mention of Palestine, he addresses Jews and says that they have neither been forgotten nor forgiven. They will soon find themselves surrounded by the Islamic State and they will have nowhere to run and hide.

He calls for Saudi youth to rise against their heretic rulers, and for all Muslims to join him and take up arms in the battle that they knew was one day coming.

He makes direct mention of America, Europe and Russia and promises them retaliation…

This is an incisive post. Worth reading the whole thing.

The Vineyard of the Saker
Al-Baghdadi Makes His “Call”
Ghassan Kadi