By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 24 -- With the beheading of US journalists James Foley as the trigger, talk was turned to a wider campaign against ISIL, not only in Iraq but now in Syria.
Opportunistically, the Syrian Coalition from Turkey is saying "James Foley was Victim of the Failure to Empower Syrian Rebels" (see below).
Meanwhile on CNN's Sunday morning talk show State of the Union, host Candy Crowley badgered UK Ambassador to the UN Peter Westmacott, when will the UK use its planes? When will they arm the "Free Syrian Army" as Francois Hollande has bragged France has already done?
Westmacott said that Iraq and the KRG haven't yet asked the UK for airstrikes; he said the UK will NOT provide lethal aid to the FSA, in light of ISIL's recapture of others' weapons.
Did France not consider this? And doesn't Hollande bragging about providing weapons to rebels in Syria undercut his legal argument about arms going into Ukraine?
Here is what the Syrian Coalition put out:
"Mohammed Qaddah, vice president of the Syrian Coalition, said that the terrorist attack on the United States did not begin with the murder of journalist James Foley, as was stated by deputy national security advisor to the White House Ben Rhodes. “Rather, the terrorist attack against not only the United States but against all humanity began with the Assad regime’s murder of the Syrian people amid an unprecedented silence by the international community. The United States bears much of the responsibility for this horrible crime when it did not react to the Assad regime’s repeated crossing of the red lines it had drawn and warned against crossing."
How will Obama react?
Footnote: Agence France Presse, purporting an info-graphicof journalists killed last year, listed four as killed "in Gaza." Since all other listed jurisdiction are full UN member states, some surmised AFP's nomenclature let off the hook the killer of those journalists. Despite calling it social media, days later AFP has not responded.
