Competition among major Middle East players fuels the rise of ISIS
Pretty much everyone in the Middle East is supposed to be fighting against Islamic State. Yet, the Sunni extremist group retains large swaths of Syria and Iraq and is spreading elsewhere in the region.
This isn’t because of its military might or strategic sophistication. The explanation is different: For most of the major players in the complicated conflicts ravaging the Middle East, the defeat of Islamic State remains a secondary goal, subordinate to more pressing objectives.
For some of these powers, Islamic State’s existence and its barbarism are actually useful, for now, because they serve as a lever in conflicts with more immediate and dangerous foes.
Though able to take advantage of sectarian fissures in Syrian and Iraqi societies to carve out a territory the size of the U.K., Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, isn’t strong enough to represent a conventional military threat to the region’s biggest nations.
But these countries do live in existential fear of some of their neighbors.
In particular, the Saudi-led bloc of Sunni Arab nations bitterly competes with Shiite-dominated Iran in what has become a zero-sum contest for influence—a contest that Russia has now entered on the Shiite side by supporting the Syrian regime.
That contest is also playing out in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been battling Iran-supported Houthi militants while Islamic State affiliates strengthen their position and attack both sides.
“Everyone hates their neighbor more than they hate ISIL,” said a senior Obama administration official.
ThereAreNoSunglasses 
Peter, when I used the term ‘junk’, I didn’t mean TANS was junk – just the Fox News puff piece. I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear. Also, I’m genuinely sorry to hear about your health. I wonder if it would be better to take a break if your health is an issue? There’s no shame in it. We all have commitments and demands on our lives.
Can I give you some advice? I’ve worked in the media and communications pretty extensively, often with international audiences, and with audiences for whom English isn’t necessarily their first language. Over many years, I learned from experience and training that people aren’t always all that ‘switched-on’ in terms of their reading comprehension or critical thinking abilities. (That’s the polite version.) People like you and me – well to be blunt, we may have high IQs and be able to “read between the lines” easily thanks to our backgrounds; but most folks flat out cannot do that without some help and guidance. And, lots of really clever folks who are geniuses at one thing – say, science or math – may be total neophytes when it comes to foreign policy or analyzing newspaper reports.
Genuinely, lots of well-intentioned readers do indeed struggle to “manage their own level of understanding” and form opinions outside of the MSM echo chamber. (Especially when they’ve just broken free of the MSM, or college brainwashing, and they’re trying to piece together a genuine understanding.) Without guidance, such people are easily trapped in a blind alley on controlled-opposition sites like Info Wars or Before Its News, unable to tell fact from fiction.
If they read an MSM puff piece, such readers often accept it uncritically. It’s another echo in the chamber, another MSM hit on Google. The general rule in the media – one of which commercial editors are painfuly aware – is that even with an audience full of people who have graduate degrees or masters degrees, one really does have to “remind them of all the important elements related to the story”. Seriously. You’re the expert. They’re not. Often, their ignorance and lack of critical thinking skills will shock you.
Best wishes, and good luck with your health.—[Mr. Popsickle, Thanks for your concern and best wishes. I assume that you are the same individual who has been posting under multiple names. One question…Who are you? your email address is non-functional. I ask because I like to know who I am talking to, since I have NEVER written under any pseudonym…Not in my forty years of activism…I am interested in finding someone to share No Sunglasses operations. The only thing that will keep this site active beyond my time is finding someone to carry it on.]
Dude, I’ve read TANS for over a year now, visiting several times a week. I first came here because I spotted your post about the 2007/8 PNAC Plan map, which was a great piece of work.
It’s starting to concern me that you increasingly post junk like this Fox News “spin” piece without any kind of editorial comment of your own, to explain to readers why you’re posting it. E.g., to exlain to readers that the piece is given as an example of Mockingbird-type propaganda. You used to do that sometimes, if I remember right.
Do you actually agree with the Fox News story? It’s junk. We have no facts. No news. No hard details or evidence. No meaningful analysis. It’s nothing at all, being spun as serious reporting/analysis.
What we have is a pointlessly spiteful and trite quote from an unnamed “administration official”, which to an old-school journalist means the quote doesn’t count for anything and could well be fictitious. If someone in the Administration wants to make a statement, they can stand by it with their name, otherwise we can rationally conclude that the “news story” is little more than dreck.
The story is a masterful sleight of hand, carefully sidestepping the fact that:
a) ISIS/ISIL/Daesh/I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-Mossad is a murky collection of mercenaries, volunteers, and special forces, entirely masterminded by Israel/NATO/GCC/KAS.
b) This conflict is driven Oded Yinon more than anything else.
c) A secondary issue is gas and oil pipelines to Europe.
d) KAS/GCC nations are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Jews.
Why publish this Fox junk, if you don’t frame it properly for your less clued-up readers?—[–I am sorry that you are unhappy. I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that long-time readers of No Sunglasses would be able to form their own opinions or manage their own level of understanding without my having to remind them of all the important elements related to the story. You have been following No Sunglasses for a year, without knowing how much time and effort has been invested in the past eight years exposing the very points you listed. The WordPress platform doesn’t accomodate the posting of a comprehensive list of articles, expecting the tags and categories functions to provide a reasonable search of the site. Expectations for a return to 10-20 posts plus commentary here will not be met. For the time remaining for this site, it might be punctuated by periods of health-related dry spells, with no postings at all (like the one coming up next month). I hope the faithful won’t stray far away when these little droughts come to There Are No Sunglasses…Peace…Peter.]