War

This article has a lot right but plenty wrong.

"Israel secured supplies of ammunition from the Pentagon last month without the approval of the White House or the State Department, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, August 14."

This is a reminder that the government has a life of its own, that bureaucrats have agendas of their own, and that the government does not answer to politicians who most Americans believe are in charge.

"But the case illustrated that the White House and the State Department have little influence over the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the paper said, quoting officials from both countries."

This seems to have been true forever.

"The Journal said that US officials, rather than play their traditional role as mediators, have now been reduced to bystanders as Israeli forces and Hamas battle it out."

The US has never been a mediator. It develops and supplies weapons to Israel so it can overwhelm the Palestinians. That's hardly the role of a mediator.

"Netanyahu has "pushed the administration aside" but wants America to give Israel security assurances in exchange for agreeing to a long-term deal with Hamas, the Journal said, quoting US officials."

This doesn't sound like anything new either. Israel has started numerous wars without concern for US interests, and the US backs it up, even when the Israelis attack a US ship.

Israel won the battle, but it may have lost the war.

"With its latest onslaught in Gaza, Israel may again be emboldening an enemy while creating worldwide sympathy for the Palestinian people, momentum for global boycotts, and an embittered generation of young Palestinians with, undoubtedly, revenge in their hearts.
At this writing, the outcome of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel is impossible to predict. Hamas’s hand was strengthened, however, by calls within Israel for direct talks with the Islamic organization and by increasing international calls for an end to Israel’s blockade. Fatah leaders, meanwhile, have spoken out recently in support of the unity agreement, thus strengthening prospects for long-time reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah – the very condition Israel went to such lengths to destroy.
In other words, Hamas could end up “winning” the Gaza war of 2014, though the losers, as always, are the people of Gaza."

The Israeli people didn't lose as bad as the Gazans, but they lost too. The only winners are the rulers.

Britain puts special forces boots on the ground in Iraq.

Since the US is supposedly fighting a war on terror, why did it enable ISIS to become so powerful?

"America does whatever it wants. So, if they did not oppose ISIS, it’s because they did not want to oppose ISIS. And, if they did not want to oppose ISIS, it’s because, somehow, the ISIS advance was consistent with American interests in the region."

Exactly. They used ISIS as a tool the same way they use al Qaeda as a tool.

"What those interests might be can best be answered by looking at where that advance was. ISIS has poured through Syria, Iraq and is now trickling into Lebanon. Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are precisely Iran’s three great allies in the region. The pattern is not a coincidence. ISIS’s interests coincide perfectly with America’s. America has long been bent on removing Assad from Syria in order to isolate Iran. But Syria is no longer Iran’s greatest ally in the region: Nouri al-Maliki’s Iraq is. And America has for some time now been seeking a change of his regime as well. And Lebanon is home of Iran’s ally Hezbollah. Notice that if the pattern breaks and ISIS attacks Jordan, then Israel, and perhaps the States, would come to Jordan’s aid. Perhaps America has not stopped ISIS from doing its work because ISIS is simultaneously doing America’s work: regime change and weakening of Iran’s allies."

Exactly right again.

The headline says Palestinians critical of Hamas but story says most are not. They ought to be.

Countries at war increasing since 2007. Study says only 11 countries not at war, but their methodology is poor. It counts Switzerland as being at war because it exports firearms.