There’s no way these media reports are accidental or not directly connected. And none of this looks the least bit good against the larger dynamic of the Syrian crisis and President Stompy Feet’s prior position on ISIS.
Yesterday, well, actually Friday, the release of the information was yesterday, Vice-President Joe Biden met in Turkey with President Recep Erdogan. They met for several hours as reported in The Hill and the topic was an escalated U.S./Turkish military footprint against ISIS :
Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday said the U.S. and regional ally Turkey are prepared to seek a military solution in Syria to try to solve the nation’s five-year-long civil war.
Speaking after a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul, Biden stressed that a political solution to the problem would still be preferable.
“But we are prepared if that’s not possible to having a military solution to this operation and taking out Daesh,” he said, according to AFP, using another name for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
A U.S. official emphasized the vice president’s comments do not signal a change in U.S. policy toward Syria, adding that Biden was referring to continued efforts against terrorists alongside a political solution to the civil war.
Remarking on the chances of achieving a political solution in Syria, Biden said: “We are neither optimistic nor pessimistic. We are determined.”
Biden said he discussed with Davutoglu how both nations could further support Sunni Arab forces who are trying to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
He also denounced the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a communist group that is banned in Turkey, as a “terror group, plain and simple.”
He said ISIS “is not the only existential threat to the people of Turkey. The PKK is equally a threat, and we are aware of that.
“It is a terror group, plain and simple, and what they continue to do is absolutely outrageous,” he added.
Biden later held talks for more than two-and-a-half hours with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (read more)
Right about here is where you should remind yourself that Vice-President Biden told an open audience that Recep Erdogan was specifically responsible for the rise of ISIS, and that Turkey had actually armed ISIS and aided them.
The date was October of 2014 and Joe was completely “off the range“, I mean he was way outside the official White House wire and telling the entire world how President Recep Erdogan was duplicitous in the rise of ISIS. (There’s Video Here)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rih_6etlCPI
Of course anyone who was well researched and up to speed knew it was all true. But boy howdy did the White House and MSM need to go quick to the teletype to get control of that little slip; NATO supporting ISIS?… ya don’t say.
So we can only imagine what would be going on amid the White House strategy crew, where they would allow Biden to go back to Turkey and talk shop with the same guy he accidentally outed as a co-conspirator to the fiasco that is current day Syria.
And then this pops up:
(National Journal) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered members a snow-weekend surprise late Wednesday night: Quietly teeing up a potential debate on the legal underpinning for the fight against ISIS.
After months of worrying that such a resolution—known as an authorization for the use of military force—would tie the next president’s hands, McConnell’s move to fast-track the measure surprised even his top deputy, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, who was unaware that McConnell had set up the authorization.
“He did?” Cornyn asked National Journal on Thursday morning.
The AUMF put forward by McConnell would not restrict the president’s use of ground troops, nor have any limits related to time or geography. Nor would it touch on the issue of what to do with the 2001 AUMF, which the Obama administration has used to attack ISIS despite that authorization’s instructions to use force against those who planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (read more)
Summary: ♦ Europe is coming to grips with the reality they no longer have any possibility of controlling the radical Islamists who have entered the EU from Syria and North Africa. ♦ Simultaneously the price of oil has dropped to $30/barrel costing the OPEC nations, Iran and Russia billions upon billions which they need to fund their current military engagements ♦ Simultaneously Vice-President Joe Biden heads to Turkey ♦ Simultaneously Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is setting up a new open-ended Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF).
Add it all up, and it sure looks like we’re about to go “boots on the ground” again !
FUBAR !