NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 11 (RIA Novosti) – US President Barack Obama"s strategy for defeating the Islamic State (IS) heralds more chaos and bloodshed for Syria and Iraq, anti-war campaigner Brian Becker told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
"President Obama's new war plans in Iraq and Syria will not liberate either country but will lead to more destruction. The US military defeat of the secular Iraqi and Libyan governments and its policy of fueling armed civil war against the secular, nationalist government in Syria are the fundamental reasons IS has grown and become strong," said Becker, head of the ANSWER Coalition.
"We oppose this war and we will organize mass demonstrations to oppose the bombing of Iraq and Syria. This war, like the earlier ones, is being sold on the basis of misinformation and fear. The US is a major part of the problem and cannot be the solution to the current crisis in Iraq."
On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama announced plans to defeat the IS, which is also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISISL, by extending US airstrikes from Iraq to Syria and bolstering Kurdish and Iraqi forces and Syria"s moderate armed opposition .
Estimates of IS forces vary from 10,000 to 50,000 and it controls an area that could be as large as Jordan, exercising influence across a population as large as 8 million – mostly Sunni Muslims, who complain they have been marginalized by Damascus and Baghdad.
