Huge war between Al-Qaeda and Turkish Army looms in Idlib

via AMN

A huge war between the Turkish Army and the Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda) is looming in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib.

Yesterday, a huge convoy of trucks belonging to Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham was caught on camera heading towards the Syrian border with Turkey.

Story and a couple of videos here. 

Actions by Israel (and I'm a big Israel supporter) and Turkey tell me one thing that I find disturbing.

This whole drama in Syria/Iraq hasn't been about ISIS.

Hold onto that chestnut for a second.

Have you been as stunned as I have that the combined might of the US, Russia, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the GCC, NATO etc...have had such a difficult time killing a force that numbered at it's height approx 100K fighters?

Have you been as stunned as I have that Pentagon planners talked about taking decades to kill a force this small?

Back to the episode.

This hasn't been about ISIS and the Israelis coming out in support of a Kurdish state is puzzling.  Why would they do such a thing?  The immediate comparison for laymen like myself is if you want the Kurds to have a state then you should yield on Palestinian statehood.  To do otherwise makes no sense!

Then we have this thing with the Turks.  They've been trying to double deal since the first.  I have limited visibility on this fight (quite honestly I've gotten migraines trying to track who is supporting who) but I do remember stories about Turkey in essence funding the ISIS war machine by buying stolen oil and even supplying the terrorists.

So when I see stories like the one above I doubt its truthfulness.

This isn't about massing for a big fight with ISIS in my opinion.  This is about the fight in Syria entering a new phase.  Turkey is about to do a land grab. Why?  I have no idea but the partitioning of Syria is about to begin.

The US has no influence and no cards to play in this situation.  Would we deploy troops to protect Syrian land?  Would we aid Iraq in repelling a NATO member?

I want the fight to be over in Syria/Iraq but no joy there.  This shit will last for a bit longer.  We're just entering a new phase.  The puppets are to about to exit stage left.  Now enter the nation states and this is when it gets real.