US Troops Chasing Phantoms They Helped Create, Again?
The New Arab reports 'Syria, coalition forces chasing IS 'sleeper cells' after attack on US troops.' This framing conveniently omits the foundational context: the US troop presence in Syria is itself a violation of international law, and the destabilization that birthed ISIS was significantly fueled by prior US interventions and arming of various 'moderate' rebel groups, some of which later
aligned with extremist elements. One could argue the US is perpetually chasing phantoms it had a hand in creating. It's remarkable how often the media presents US military actions in the Middle East as reactive, rather than examining the decades of proactive interventions that consistently generate new enemies. The narrative of 'chasing sleeper cells' deflects from the critical question: What are
US troops doing there in the first place, and how many times will we fund one faction only to fight another, in a perpetual war where the military-industrial complex always wins?