STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

The Water Wars Waged by ISIS!

In a recent Stratfor.com OSINT [November 25, 2015] an analyst detailed the center of gravity of the ISIS strategy—controlling the waterways/tributaries along the Tigris/Euphrates River in both Iraq/Syria. Over the past couple of years, I have explained how the Syrian Civil War was initiated by a drought which compelled the Sunni farmers to flee from Homs/Hama to overwhelm the Alawite-led  Damascus. The rest is history. Now, ISIS has developed a three-prong strategy for advancement across the Middle East.

The first part of their well-conceived plan is based on developing a sophisticated psyops/propaganda worldwide recruitment program to entice ‘true believers’ to join them in any part of the world where they might be fighting. The second part of the strategy is to create acts of terrorism [poor man’s war] which force the leaders of the attacked country to impose a ‘state of emergency’ resulting in cessation of all civilian activities [Brussels, Belgium]. The third part of the strategy is the one that interests me the most—ISIS’s control of the dams, rivers and water sources surrounding the Tigris /Euphrates River; running from Iraq into Syria.

In contrast, I have heard many present and past generals [including Petraeus, Allan, et.al] whose explanation of our non-existent strategy includes many convoluted non-sequitur ideas which entail a potpourri of nation/state building, extensive consultations/co-ordinations with alleged allies. I found it mind-numbing. These generals and so-called terrorist experts speak of strategies that have no chance of gaining even a modicum of success against ISIS which as we know was created by the CIA/MI.

The airstrikes by all nations are unproductive. Too bad these experts didn’t study the well-documented history that shows the ineffectiveness of bombing during WWII, Korea,Vietnam, Iraq/Afghanistan. Thanks to the confusion of means and methods, we, Americans end up in a nonsensical squabble about a 17 second Russian flight over a Turkish land mass which places us in a continuous awkward, deleveraged position. Americans are now viewing the Redux of the tragic incompetency of the Vietnam War where no president or his advisors were the least bit qualified to run a war which cost us 50,000 dead soldiers—and 250,000 wounded.. 

On this Thanksgiving Day, I repeat my concern that our intel/military leaders under a novitiate POTUS have led this country into another self-created morass of wasted bullets and money to justify nothing at all. Our national security has not and will not be endangered by ISIS----except if we continue to manufacture our own boogie-man to fight as we have done for centuries.

We have entered a dizzying fantasy land where wishful thinking and denial have substituted for a focused, ruthless, incisive overall strategy that targets the greatest vulnerability that ISIS has ---maintaining the access to water ways along the Tigris Euphrates River, spanning Iraq/Syria. According to Stratfor.com, the following towns along the Tigris Euphrates River are vulnerable to attack by our forces: Maskana; Raqqa; Mosul; al-Bukam;Rawah; part of Ramadi and Fallujah. It does not take Alexander the Great to understand that these points of vulnerability should be targeted and immediately co-opted from ISIS by whatever means necessary

Instead, our military [along with 65 other nations] has diddled around the major issues. They have responded with all types of verbiage that involves resurrecting Iraq and the necessity for the US to work with indigenous forces. Remember: Iraq is an artificial construct created by the “Queen of the Desert”[ the MI-6 operative -Gertrude Bell] and her mentor, Winston Churchill; to facilitate the delivery of oil from Tikrit and Basra to England in 1923. I am afraid that America has become paralyzed by the panoply of incompetency that exists at all levels of the USG—from POTUS  on down. 

After thirty years in counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency, I can assure you that we have had far more deadly insurgents, who were more ruthless than ISIS –including the Khmer Rouge; the nuclear-armed Soviet Union; and Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini. The strategies and tactics used to defeat these aforementioned nefarious entities did not require one bullet or even the death of one American. It was executed with lethal precision, at almost, no cost to the taxpayers.We did it once and we can do it again, if only the right experts are brought back into the present day scenario. Nothing changes that much in the world of terrorism. Factions struggle to control precious resources, this time around its the water, stupid.