Why is the USA attacking Iraq via Islamist contras?

Sure: that's not how they tell us the story in the media. And things have escalated so fast that we are all perplex in any case. But the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is just Al Qaeda by another name: another Saudi-directed puppet counter-revolutionary militia. 

Until a week ago ISIS was just known as ISS and only acted in Syria, being infamous for many terrorist cruelties but mostly being kept under control by a Baath regime that has been able to recycle itself and become good-looking in comparison with its atrocious fanatic enemies.

Towns attacked by the ISIS in Iraq

But almost overnight the ISIS has been attacking NE Iraq with incredible success, thanks apparently to organized desertions in the Iraqi Army, and, of course, expanding its terrorism against civilians to the Mesopotamian state. The most striking conquest so far has been Mosul, the third largest Iraqi city, frontier between Kurdistan and the so-called "Sunni Arab triangle". But they are also threatening as far south as Baghdad and as much into Kurdish territory as Kirkuk and Erbil.

In essence they seem to have taken control of all the "Sunni Arab triangle" in no time, putting the very questionable but no doubt democratic Al Maliki government (of Shia Arab basis) against the wall. 

Who are the ISIS? An Al Qaeda offshoot under Saudi control and with quite apparent Turkish backing. They have emerged as the most violent and relative successful terrorist faction in Syria and have used it as basis for their offensive against Iraq, now unveiled against a weak state. 

The real question is why is the USA attacking Iraq via the ISIS? Naturally neither Saudia nor Turkey would move a finger without Washington's approval and oversight, certainly not in something as big as this.

To find the answer we must go back in time to the aggression against Mali. What happened back then? First a military coup by a US-trained colonel, almost simultaneous to a massive attack by the Islamist militias arriving from Lybia (which co-opted the Tuareg-Songhai liberation movement). Eventually France intervened and the Islamists were mostly recycled into the Malian military, while the USA got drone bases in Burkina Faso and Niger. 

Similarly now the USA is probably seeking a change in Iraq. Probably not a Sunni-Islamist takeover but more like a government change and a request for military intervention (which it already obtained) that allows the US military to reoccupy Iraq, securing that buffer between Iran and Syria. Maliki is probably perceived as too dangerously close to Iran, something they want to change. 

This puppet Islamist offensive must therefore be understood within the wider context of US imperialist activities in all the wider Mediterranean area, from Ukraine to Mali, passing by Syria. Its wider goal is to weaken the Moscow-Beijing-Iran loose bloc. 

I understand that it is almost impossible that ISIS takes over Iraq, especially as Iran has declared that it will intervene in case the holy Shia places of the South being in danger, but also because the vast majority of Iraqis are Shia and Kurdish, none of which like the Sunni Islamists at all. If they were unhappy with a secularist "Sunni" government like that of Hussein, what stability might get a Sunni Islamist one? Zero.

So the real threat is the US invasion that will no doubt happen soon.

Partial source: RT live updates on Iraq.


Update: Manilo Dinucci mentions at Voltaire Net[es/fr/it] that it is not just the relative closeness to Iran of Iraqi Shias but maybe even more the approximation to Beijing, who, as usual, has bought much of the country (half of Iraq's oil production, military aid, etc.) instead of conquering it, what is moving Washington to act along with its Sunni-Islamist puppet regimes in the area. 

This laid back economic and diplomatic policy of China has actually damaged once and again the titanic military efforts by Washington for control of the World. In many senses the US Empire mimics that of Charles V, unable to impose its imperial dream (or nightmare) against way too many independent agents, interested in anything but submission to the Emperor.

It's not just China, Russia, Iran, Brazil, Venezuela... India has become directly confronted with Washington recently as well, while Germany particularly has been less than happy with most of the imperialist activities of the last years, passing of collaborating in Libya and being deeply ambiguous in Ukraine, where the coup has been clearly promoted by Washington and Poland primarily.