Striking ISIL, Aiding Assad

"The strikes triggered a lot of joy. People were clapping, chanting, and dancing in celebration because the Americans are hitting the region and they believe that the U.S. came to their rescue."
Moustafa Oniedi, Kurdish activist in Marj Ismael

FILE -- In this Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014 file photo released by the U.S. Air Force, a U.S. Navy F-18E Super Hornet fighter jet receives fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker over northern Iraq after conducting airstrikes in Syria as part of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on the Islamic State group and other targets in Syria. The U.S. is struggling to counter anger among the Syrian opposition, where many believe that the air campaign against extremists in the country is only helping President Bashar Assad and that Washington is coordinating with Damascus, despite American insistence it backs the rebel cause. U.S. AIR FORCE, SHAWN NICKEL, FILE — AP Photo

"Of course the Syrian Coalition has welcomed the international coalition to join us in our fight against extremism."
"There should be advancement on the ground by the Free Syrian Army to liberate those areas."
Monzer Akbik, Syrian political opposition group

"People are so angry. For a long time they have been caught between Islamic State and the regime. Now they are caught between Islamic State, the regime and the United States and their coalition's strikes."
Ali Bakran, rebel commander, Free Syrian Army

In this Sept. 23, 2014 photo provided by the U.S Air Force, an F-22A Raptor taxis in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility prior to strike operations in Syria. U.S. coalition-led warplanes struck Islamic State group militants near the northern Syrian town of Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, near the Turkish border for the first time Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014, activists and a Kurdish official said. The coalition, which began its aerial campaign against Islamic State fighters in Syria early Tuesday, aims to roll back and ultimately crush the extremist group, which has created a proto-state spanning the Syria-Iraq border. U.S. AIR FORCE, RUSS SCALF — AP Photo

No, you can't please everyone, never could, never will. And while Iraqi state television reports air raids by American planes erroneously hit Iraqi army forces killing 75 soldiers in Saladin province, these episodes of 'friendly fire' happen in all such situations. Collateral damage. Islamic State fighters are being kept busy, but that's probably extremely satisfying for them, since their manic, excited state of going into glorious battle in the name of Islam is what catapulted them into world notice and earned them their caliphate, between Syria and Iraq, and growing steadily.

While expanding the boundaries of the Sharia-led caliphate, they strike out in two fronts; ambidextrous beyond the imagining of the Iraqi army which experienced few qualms in surrendering honour to the well-imagined horrors that awaited them, coming under assault by the Islamic State fanatics. While the Iraqi forces were trained at great expense by the U.S., the ragtag bands of ISIS/ISIL were trained by Islamist doctrine committing them to the battle; the former no match for the latter.

And the latter, though well enough armed with all manner of up-to-date armaments looted from Libyan arms stocks, were enabled to take possession of even better more usefully advanced and technical arms, ammunition and war materiel abandoned by the retreating Iraqi military who preferred their heads intact on their shoulders to recalling their pledges of allegiance to their country, and their obligation to defend the lives of the civilian populations under their protection.

And though the extremist fanatics of the Islamic State are feared and resented, slaughtering Shiites, Christians and Yazidis, making all-out efforts to dislodge the Kurds and continue their agenda of mass murder, rape and forced surrender to Islam, creating millions of desperately fleeing refugees in their dreaded wake, both Syrian residents and rebels understand full well that American intervention including the vaunted 50 allies pledging aid in dislodging ISIL leaves the Syrian regime intact.

President Bashar al Assad remains dedicated to fully destroying all opposition to his continued rule of Syria. His brutality, measure for measure, is no less than that of the Islamic State; the death count from the regime's relentless assaults on its own population far exceeds any ambition the Islamic State may have; but it is the beheading that horrifies the world, not the chemical attacks and barrel bombs that decimate the population and compel millions to flee for haven anywhere the regime isn't bombing.

The strikes south of Kobane a contested site representing the latest ISIS assaults, according to Moustafa Oniedi, a Kurdish activist, have missed the active fronts of Islamic State fighters. Turkey, whose actions have been entirely contradictory; on the one hand, decrying the monumental destruction the Syrian regime has imposed on its own but friendly with Iran, on the other hand, appearing to support ISIS/ISIL, remains more concerned with the potential state of Kurdish rebellion within Turkey than much else.

Town activists in a small town in Idlib province, not yet controlled by Islamic State, but recognized for its antigovernment opposition, hold up signs reading: "Americans! If you don't topple Al-Assad now, don't boast about democracy." In fact, the Syrian opposition mostly views Assad as their enemy, the Islamic State predations are considered far less impacting; they are both, after all, Sunni.

A video posted on social media from Kafr Tkharam in Idlib was of a crowd chanting "the people want the Islamic State", and "down with the Western-Arab coalition".

In this Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014 photo provided by the U.S. Air Force, a F-15E Strike Eagle receives fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker over northern Iraq after conducting airstrikes in Syria. U.S. coalition-led warplanes struck Islamic State group militants near the northern Syrian town of Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, near the Turkish border for the first time Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014, activists and a Kurdish official said. The coalition, which began its aerial campaign against Islamic State fighters in Syria early Tuesday, aims to roll back and ultimately crush the extremist group, which has created a proto-state spanning the Syria-Iraq border.  U.S. AIR FORCE, MATTHEW BRUCH — AP Photo