US takes aim at ISIS- or is the target Assad?

The US, supported by Australia and soon to be joined by the UK, has put together a coalition of an estimate 40 nations to take on ISIS. Initially, the US will launch air strikes and provide advisors on the ground. However, it could only be a matter of time before the US puts boots on the ground.

The coalition is truly bizarre. It includes nations such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the GCC who, amongst others, are the very nations that created and propped up ISIS in many ways. The Saudis and GCC provided financial support, if not directly then through private donors. Turkey has kept its borders open for jihadists to go through and for ISIS to sell oil. And yet they have now made a U-turn exactly as Pakistan did with respect to the Taliban post- 9/11.Equally bizarre is the exclusion of the two nations that have steadfastly opposed ISIS, Iran and Syria (although John Kerry, the US secretary of state, has said that Iran may be free to join).

To aid the US involvement in Iraq and Syria, we have seen the figures of ISIS fighters swelling by the week. The earlier 15,000 fighters now number over 30,000. US officials gravely inform the world that the IS is beyond anything they have seen before. What's going on?

The ISIS, intelligence sources have indicated, poses no immediate threat to the west. America's return to the Iraq theatre and, by extension, to the Syria theatre appears to be aimed at Syria's Assad rather than ISIS. In taking care of the ISIS threat, the US hopes to give a decisive push to the efforts to topple Assad and undermine Iran's position in the region, given that Iran has been a supporter of Syria. This despite several foreign policy veterans, including former UK former secretary and currently MP Malcolm Rifikind, saying that an alliance with Assad is vital to the defeat of ISIS.

Listen to Atimes columnist Pepe Escobar:

There is no "Free Syrian Army" - that Qatari myth - anymore. There are no "moderate" jihadis left in Syria. They are all fighting for The Caliph or for al-Zawahiri. And still the Obama administration extracted a Congressional OK to train and weaponize "moderate rebels".

US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power - Undisputed Queen of Batshit Craziness - at least got one thing right. Their "training" will "service these troops in the same struggle that they've been in since the beginning of this conflict against the Assad regime." So yes - this "sustained campaign" is the back door to "Assad must go" remixed.

People who are really capable of defeating The Caliph's goons don't tomahawk. They are the Syrian Arab Army (roughly 35,000 dead so far killed in action against ISIS/ISIL/IS and/or al-Qaeda); Hezbollah; Iranian Revolutionary Guards advisers/operatives; and Kurdish militias. It won't happen. This season's blockbuster is the Empire of Chaos bombing The Caliph and the ghost in the GWOT (Global War on Terror) machine.