US talk of droning ISIL chief a complete sideshow
… by Jim W. Dean, VT Editor …. with Press TV, Tehran
The talk in the US of launching a drone strike against ISIL chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a “complete sideshow” meant to avoid discussion on Washington’s involvement in the creation of terrorist organizations, an American political commentator says.
You can listen to the 3.30 minute phone interview on Press TV here.
Jim W. Dean, the managing director of VT, made the remarks on Thursday in a phone interview with Press TV, commenting on a new report which said the Pentagon is considering the circumstances under which it would recommend President Barack Obama authorize drone strike against the leader of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
“I don’t see why they would be focusing on one guy when actually they need to come up with a plan of how they are going to destroy the ISIL where they can’t move anywhere, they can’t have bases anywhere; they need to be attacked in 360 degrees so they can’t roam around all over the place planning options,” Dean said.
“So, it’s a complete sideshow where they are coming up with some kind of plan to take one guy out…if Baghdadi was basically killed he might be replaced by one of the other leaders we have trained,” he stated.
Recent media reports show that the ISIL terrorists were trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012. The reports said that the militants were initially trained at the time as part of covert aid to the militants operating inside Syria.
Dean said that the Pentagon should attack ISIL bases, their equipment, and “border crossings they have taken hold of which would break up their communications and their weapons, and ammunition and supplies.”
“So my estimation on this is that it’s a complete sideshow, and the purpose of the sideshow is to avoid any discussion that this whole history of getting involved in using terrorists as proxy regime-change troops as having been a complete disaster,” the veteran journalist noted. “That is what the focus needs to be on.”
“And this silly drone attack thing on one guy should be thrown back on the Pentagon’s face,” he concluded.
The United States has deployed some 650 troops to Iraq, in addition to the 100 already there, to protect US assets in the country and help the government in Baghdad in its campaign against ISIL.
Those troops are also conducting assessments on the security situation in the Arab country, which includes the flying of armed drones.
ISIL, which controls parts of Syria, sent its fighters into neighboring Iraq last month and quickly seized large swaths of territory straddling the border between the two countries.
The US has been providing arms and training to militant groups in Syria to fight the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Some analysts say the rise of ISIL is reminiscent of the US support for Mujahedeen groups against the Soviet Union in the 1980s which gave birth to extremist groups like al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
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Jim W. Dean was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.
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