While most of the media is caught up in Donald Trump’s “rigged election” talk, his denial of committing sexual assault (even though he openly talked about it) and the Podesta emails, there’s something more frightening going on that needs much more coverage.
I caught The Rachel Maddow show last night in which she discussed what is currently happening in the fight against ISIS. She laid it out very clearly. Here is the summation of her report:
- The city of Dabiq in Syria has been taken back and is no longer an ISIS stronghold.
- This leaves the city of Raqqa as the last stronghold in Syria.
- In Iraq, Iraqi ground forces, along with air support from the U.S., are in the fight to take back Mosul from ISIS. Should this be successful, ISIS will no longer have a stronghold in Iraq.
- Logically, ISIS members in Iraq would have to flee to the last city they still hold: Raqqa.
- Raqqa now becomes a centralized location for ISIS and, obviously, would become the main target for the war against ISIS.
Because I am a cynical type of person, I did some research on this and, yes, this is a scenario that can, and probably will, play out. Ms. Maddow went further on this, and here is the truly frightening part:
- Trump has been on the trail screaming that Russia is “bombing the hell out of ISIS”. He says this to make the case as to why we should be allies with Russia in the fight against ISIS.
- The fact is that Russia is NOT “bombing the hell out of them”. No, they are not bombing them at all.
- What Russia has done is build an air defense system in the region where Raqqa is located. See: www.washingtonpost.com/...
- An air defense system is used to shoot down airplanes.
- ISIS has no airplanes.
- The United States has airplanes over there.
In short, if the Iraqi forces, with the help of U.S. air strikes, are successful in driving ISIS out of Mosul it means a) that the current administration’s plan is (GASP!) working in the fight against ISIS and b) ISIS members will have no choice but to flee to Raqqa, their last hold. While it is possible that ISIS might still maintain control of Mosul, the chances of that are slim. The more likely scenario is they will be forced out.
Raqqa then becomes the centralized location for ISIS and, quite obviously, the main target for the war against them. Russia has built an air defense system in the region. They won’t be shooting at ISIS planes because ISIS doesn’t have any . . . . but we do.
Let that sink in.
Now consider what Trump has been saying on the campaign trail.
It will be interesting to see if this is brought up in the debate tonight and how each of the candidates respond to it. That is, if the entire debate isn’t hijacked by the freak show that Trump plans on parading out.