The Good Terrorists

The War on Some Terror has always been rather complicated, but lately its gotten downright confusing.
The war already seemed duplicitous when Bush supported anti-Iran terrorists back in 2008. But the war against ISIS has taken us all a Machiavellian step toward absurdity.

The unofficial official terrorist allies

Kurdistan Workers' Party

Terrorist list: U.S., Aus, Can, EU, IRN, KAZ, TUR, UK

Remember who saved the Yazidis in Iraq? We may have dropped a few bombs, but they were actually saved by Democratic Union Party (YPG), affiliated with the PKK, who opened a corridor of safety for thousands of refugees
And remember how ISIS recently lost an epic battle at Kobani? Our bombing missions were critical to that battle, but they were only critical because the jihadists were massed for battle against the Kurdish defenders (YPG and PKK), who were giving targets to the bombers.

You might think that these Kurdish heroes would be embraced in Washington. You would be wrong.

So far, the U.S. government’s response to the fighters of the Kurdish Workers Party, the PKK, could be summed up as: Thanks for the help, but you’re staying on the [Terrorist] list.

The Turkish PKK has fought in both Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan.
And yet even while they were delivering crucial defeats against ISIS, the PKK was being bombed in Turkey, an event which didn't cause a single comment in Washington.

You see, America's Freedom Fighters, a rare secular Marxist group in the middle east, are Turkey's terrorists, and they have thousands of dead to prove it.

This leaves us with contradictory, hypocritical, and unworkable foreign policy of coordinating with one allied group to fight a 3rd group, while pretending that your ally isn't being bombed by another ally at the exact same time.
It leaves us with an unconditional policy of fighting terrorism while working with a terrorist group.
And yet that has still not stopped the U.S. from giving a terrorist group weapons. In normal times that would be a criminal offense, but Obama passed a waiver first.

If the YPG/PKK was the only terrorist group that we are working with that would be one thing. After all, wars sometimes create weird situations.

However, the list of terrorist groups we are currently working with is lengthy to say the least, and that is hard to rationalize.

Kata'ib Hezbollah

Founded: 2007
Terrorist list: UAE and United States

Like the YPG/PKK, the U.S. coordinated air strikes in support of KH, although not as overtly.
What's more, many U.S.-made military weapons are turning up in the hands of Iranian-backed Shia militias like KH.

The risk of not aiding them was greater than the risk of aiding them, the official said, adding that this didn't mean the administration was unconcerned about the risks involved.
Katai'b Hezbollah: IED vs american minesweeper on the international road 03-07-2011

Kata'ib Hezbollah (Battalions of the Party of God) made a name for themselves by launching dozens of IED-roadside bombing attacks against coalition forces between 2007 and 2011, and then broadcast videos of the attacks on television.
Their best known video is this one of a sniper killing an American soldier.
It's impossible to ignore or rationalize the various videos of Americans being killed by Shia militias, while being outraged by similar videos from ISIS.

Kata'ib Hezbollah reason for being created was to kill American occupation soldiers, although it impossible to say just how many Americans KH has killed.

Commanders include Abu Mustafa al-Sheibani (aka "the Engineer"), who bombed the U.S. embassy in 1983. He's considered "the right-hand man of Gen. Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps' clandestine operations arm, the Quds Force."

In June of 2011, KH launched a rocket attack on a Baghdad base that killed five American soldiers and later in that same month killed three more Americans in another rocket attack.

KH gets its weapons, training, and financing directly from Iran.

Abrahms M-1 Tank in the hands of KH, courtesy if American taxpayers

A terrorist of my terrorist is my...?

Most of the terrorist groups fighting against Daesh are not remotely our allies. However, they do have similar aims, and we have shown ourselves willing to pretend we don't see their terrorism as long as Daesh continues to be a threat to the region.

Hezbollah

Terrorist lis: CAN, EGY, TUK, UK, U.S.

One of the more important groups in the fight against Daesh in Syria has been Hezbollah, which has lost 640 fighters.
Lately they admitted to having fighters in Iraq too.

Despite already being a terrorist group by the U.S. for decades, and besides testimony from refugees that Hezbollah is slaughtering men, women, and children in syria (including this video of executions of wounded prisoners), the United States hasn't dropped a single bomb on Hezbollah. In fact, I can't find even a denunciation of their war crimes in Syria.

Quds Force

Formed: 1980
Terrorist list: Canada and United States

The Quds Force was designated a terrorist organization by the State Department Oct. 25, 2007.
During the American Occupation of Iraq, U.S. General John Abizaid blamed the Quds for being behind the Shia militias fighting the U.S.
Major General Kevin Bergner blamed the Quds for being behind a specific raid in Karbala.
The Pentagon blamed the Quds for giving IED training and technology to the Shia militias.
In January 2007, a U.S. raid in Iraq captured Brig. Gen. Mohsen Chirazi and Col. Abu Amad Davari of the Quds Force.

Major General Qassem Suleimani, the Quds Force’s leader, operates openly in Iraq and Syria these days. Like Hezbollah, the United States has yet to drop a bomb on the Quds, or even acknowledge the existence of them in Iraq and Syria.
Senior Quds commanders have been killed in both Syria and Iraq, but I've been unable to find an estimate of their total losses.

Who are the Good Terrorists?

Arab leaders in the middle east suspect Washington of duplicity when it comes to terrorists, and its hard to disagree with them.

Many Egyptians and moderate Arabs and Muslims were shocked to hear that the U.S. State Department recently hosted a Muslim Brotherhood delegation. They were equally shocked when an EU court decided to remove Hamas from the bloc's list of terror groups.

The Muslim Brotherhood isn't on the list of terrorist groups for the United States, but they are considered terrorists by such American allies as Egypt, Kazakstan, Saudi Arabia, and UAE.

This isn't the only notable conflicting definition of terrorist groups. UAE lists the Badr Organization led by Iraq’s former transport minister Hadi Al-Ameri and Saraya Al-Salam (Peace Brigades), which is part of the movement led by populist Shi’ite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr.
Both groups have considerable political power in Iraq, and the government of Iraq has requested that they be taken off the blacklist.

UAE might be right about this one. Like KH, the United States has decided to ignore their history of killing Americans.

It was June 25, 1996 when a bomb exploded in front of a building that housed U.S. Air Force personnel in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. servicemen.
Fifteen years later, a man has visited with President Obama at the White House who has alleged ties to those responsible for the bombing.
Hadi al-Ameri, Iraq's Minister of Transportation, was among Iraqi officials at the White House on Monday. Linked to the attack through a federal indictment, al-Ameri was at one time the Commander of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran.

The White House denies there is evidence that al-Ameri was involved in the attack, but given the evidence and examples above, does it really matter who is or isn't a terrorist? Our foreign policy seems to not even consider who's blown up Americans or innocent civilians.

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snoopydawg's picture

I wonder if they even have a goal in the Middle East wars?
I wrote this comment yesterday, and want this link seen.
If ISIS is the boogie man, then why are our supposed allies funding and arming them? The US is joining with the same group it fought during the Iraq war. How asinine is that? How do the friends of the soldiers that died wrap their heads around that? What did those soldiers die for?
But what makes this even more stupid is that not only Saudi Arabia and Israel are funding and arming them, so is the UK.
Good god, this doesn't even make any sense. ISIS is the new AQ, yet it seems everyone is funding and arming them, then the US funds and trains the Iraqis to fight them and even US soldiers join in the fight
This mess in the Middle East is never going to end. I guess that's what the plan is. Keep sending our money to the defense contractors.
McCain and Lindsay want to send arms to Ukraine and when he was asked how he was going to fund it, he said he would make cuts to 'entitlement' and social programs.
Stop the world, and let these assholes who are coming up with these insane plans off.

Al-Zameli underlined that the coalition is the main cause of ISIL’s survival in Iraq.

“There are proofs and evidence for the US-led coalition’s military aid to ISIL terrorists through air(dropped cargoes),” he told FNA in January.

He noted that the members of his committee have already proved that the US planes have dropped advanced weaponry, including anti-aircraft weapons, for the ISIL, and that it has set up an investigation committee to probe into the matter.

“The US drops weapons for the ISIL on the excuse of not knowing about the whereabouts of the ISIL positions and it is trying to distort the reality with its allegations.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/02/24/iraqi-army-downs-2-uk-planes-car...

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To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

- Kevin Alfred Strom

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

groups, in that their primary desire seems to have always been to have some land to live on, preferably where many of their ancestors have lived, and to be left the hell alone.

That is over-simplified, of course, but they still stand out to me from many of the others.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

pointing out the hypocrisy which has devolved into total incoherence.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver