Michael Collins

Turkish President Recep Erdogan, an outright criminal*, outlined three requirements before nearby Turkish troops intervene to stop ISIL's takeover of Kobane, Syria. Absent Turkish intervention, it is generally agreed that ISIL will conquer the Kurdish city and begin massacring civilians. The tragedy of Erdogan's three demands are that there is no way they can be met in the next few days, the estimated widow for Kobane's survival.

The United States is bombing ISIL fighters surrounding Kobane to little effect. There are no plans for U.S. troops to intervene.

Why would the U.S., Turkey, and the rest of NATO let this happen? Isn't ISIL the great Satan of world terrorism, the object of what is claimed to be a decades long encounter? Don't the Kurds have a long history of opposing U.S. enemies like Saddam Hussein and the successive Assad regimes in Syria? What sense does it make to have a war against terrorists when you sit by and let those terrorists slaughter innocent civilians?

The U.S., Turkey and the rest of NATO don't care about civilian slaughter unless the civilians happen to be in their own nations. They talk a good game but there's no reason to think they care about the citizens of Kobane. Did the U.S.-NATO alliance care about the slaughter and chaos that followed the Libyan regime change effort? Did the U.S.-NATO alliance care about the 200,000 Syrians who have died in the civil war that would not exist were it not for U.S.-NATO aid and encouragement?

Why let terror take place right under your nose when you're fighting a war on terror? Why? Because the war against ISIL is no more a war on terror than was the invasion and occupation of Iraq. It's a publicity stunt that serves many functions and an attempt to put the "right people" in power to assure unfettered access to energy in the Middle East.

If ISIL were as bad as it is now portrayed, the U.S. Congress would have never authorized aid to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the first place? FSA's leader, Abdel Jabbar al-Okaidi, endorsed the integrity of both ISIL and the other Syrian Al Qaeda faction, Al Nusrah, in a November 2013 television interview. Rick Sterling featured this and other evidence linking the FSA "good rebels" with ISIL including a September 24, 2014 video of al-Okaidi being welcomed by the U.S. Congress just before the secret authorization of arms to his group. (Image: (Screen shot Eretz Zen)

The Kurds have a long history of opposing rulers that, at times, have been targets of various U.S. administrations. The Kurds fought Iraq's Saddam Hussein and were less than friendly to Syrian rulers at times when the U.S. claimed that Syria and Iraq were the epitome of evil. A lot of good it did the Kurds. Thousands are in imminent danger of being murdered while their former allies and enablers stand by and watch. What will happen to the two million Kurds in Syria?

The attack on Kobane and danger it poses to human life is not what this latest chapter in the endless war on terror is about. You see, the Syrian Kurds are aligned with a very effective Kurdish military group called the PKK. The PKK has given Turkey fits for years by fighting for Kurdish rights in the 30% of so of Turkey where they live. In fact, Turkey's leader equated the PKK with ISIL. So, why would Turkey want to help the Syrian Kurds?

If the U.S. and NATO member Turkey sit on the sidelines while Kobane is destroyed, there can be no further doubt by anyone awake and paying attention that the grand war on ISIL really a grand diversion.

If NATO member Turkey intervenes but uses it as an excuse to do what Turkey has wanted for two years, attack Syria, we'll have a different but equally compelling proof of what this new war is all about.

It's time to wake up and remind the president and Congress that killing people is not what we want them to do. We must demand they stop these diversions overseas and pay attention to the real needs of the citizens of the United States of America.

*Erdogan: A documented criminal.

N.B. U.S. representatives to the United Nations are claiming that Syria has four remaining chemical weapons sites, not cleared out in the agreement to destroy its stockpiles. Now, there's another opportunity of this war on ISIL to loop back and become a bigger war on Syria, a back door war the U.S.-NATO simply can't resist. (Image: Twitter.com)