John Chuckman
EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
“Beware of ISIS retaliation in wake of leader's death, experts say
“Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dead after U.S. targeted mission on Saturday night”
It is not at all clear that Trump is telling the truth, and it would hardly surprise anyone to discover, once again, that he isn’t. I think it fair to say that Trump, after a lifetime’s practice, can no longer distinguish truth from what he wants to be true.
Trump's presentation of the "facts" is dubious. His words and tone are almost ridiculously unsuitable for the nature of what he discusses.
And al-Baghdadi has been reported as being killed many times in the past.
It is not known whether he escaped previous efforts or has been kept "alive" for American disinformation purposes. Some past reports were given in very strong terms.
This time, he is said to have blown himself up with a suicide vest.
However, American planes immediately did numerous bombing runs over the area, effectively destroying any evidence to be discovered.
They were supposedly destroying any possibility of a future shrine to the man, but that is a ridiculous claim. Muslim mosques contain no representation of people. They have none of Christianity’s statues and icons and paintings because Muslims do not worship human figures the way Christians do.
So, with all that immediate destruction, it is hard to see how Trump can possibly know what he claims to know.
We must consider the fact that Trump - given his just sending back troops into northern Syria, this time accompanied by heavy armor - needed some kind of strong attention-getting counter to his at least partial reversal of "policy" in Syria.
The man only ever thinks about his own re-election - that's all the "withdrawal" in Syria ever was about, so he could face a war-supporting Democrat, which is what all the likely candidates, such as Biden or Warren, indeed are.
Trump has a large political base, but it is not large enough to elect him without pulling in anti-war voters also, as he did in 2016.
This killing of al-Baghdadi smells strongly of a stunt, while American troops busy themselves plundering Syrian oil, activity spy satellites have already photographed, and the Russians have published.
As for ISIS as a threat to the West, that has never been established. Given the record of what they actually have attacked over their brief history (which just happens to correspond to America’s activities in the region), all things America and its allies wanted attacked, like the Syrian government and certain elements in Iraq, you might well regard such talk of threats as propaganda.
INTERESTING AFTERNOTE:
Russian news sources have reported the following.
While Trump said, "Russia treated us great. They opened up - we had to fly over certain Russia-held areas. Russia was great," the Russian Defence Ministry said they are unaware of providing cooperation to American air units entering airspace over the Idlib in Syria.
"No airstrikes performed by US aircraft or aircraft belonging to the so called 'international coalition' were detected on Saturday or during the following days," Russian Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
"Since the moment of the final Daesh’s defeat at the hands of the Syrian government army supported by Russian Aerospace Forces in early 2018, yet another ‘death’ of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi does not have any strategic importance regarding the situation in Syria or the actions of the remaining terrorists in Idlib."
