US, France have no real interest in defeating Daesh: Pundit

Press TV has interviewed Joe Iosbaker, a political commentator in Chicago, to discuss the remarks made by US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande, saying they have agreed that they must share intelligence and step up coordination to defeat Daesh as it poses a serious threat to all.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: There is lots of confusion regarding the message that the French President is sending with the statements that he made while he was in Washington. He should be talking to the Russian President, I would think, based on the downing of the jet. He yet said that he is going to coordinate France with Russia to fight the terrorists but it seems like the French President is now more in line with the US?

Iosbaker: Well the initial statement from Hollande seeking coordination with Russia, I interpret that as public relations because in the weeks since Russia has launched its attacks on the terrorists in Syria, the world can see objectively that the Russians are doing what the US and France have claimed to be doing for the past year.

They are actually going after and demolishing the infrastructure. The best example was the Russian assault on the oil pipeline, if you will, the trucks that haul the oil out of Syria which allows the money to keep running, pouring into the Islamic State (Daesh) coffers. The US has done virtually, has done so little in a year compared to what the Russians have done in a few weeks and I interpret Hollande’s statements of wanting to coordinate with Russia as his attempt to be seen as also like the Russians serious about going after ISIS.

So now it seems that coming to the US that Obama may have brought him back into line but the French are definitely sounding like the US sounded in the days following 9/11. I think Hollande and his government sees this as their opportunity to launch a much more aggressive foreign policy and also to attack not only Arabs and Muslims but the rights of all people inside of France as well.   

Press TV: So let’s see here regarding what Russia should be doing in reaction to the downing of the jet by Turkey. Now Putin, I am guessing, is well aware that it cannot obviously attack Turkey in any sense because it is a NATO member and based on their protocol that NATO would attack Russia in some way or another. So what are Putin’s options?

Iosbaker: Well I think the diplomatic options are clear, to withdraw ambassadors, but I think that really the most essential response is to bring about a defeat of the Turkish and US, NATO and [Persian] Gulf state backed foreign fighters that are the war that is going against the people of Syria.

Recently there was a statement by a Catholic patriarch union in the Syrian church who said that it is inconceivable to think that Daesh can be defeated with air raids. He said that it is a big lie. And Putin has said very similar things. The truth of the matter is that the air attacks can only be effective against ISIS if they are combined with troops on the ground and the troops that are on the ground fighting ISIS are the troops of the Syrian Arab army.

The United States has no real interest in defeating ISIS and neither does France because they were the ones that put the largest amount of money and resources into bringing ISIS into existence in the first place.

I think that the answer for Russia is to escalate their contributions to the Syrians, defeat of the foreign-backed armies.

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