Turkish Support for ISIS Makes the Front Page + NFL Weeks Four & Five: Cowboys Riding High

It is all out in the open now. The only thing that prevents an interpretation of events in Iraq and Syria along the lines of the left-of-center perspective -- that Islamic State is a creation and ally of Gulf Arab Sheikhdoms and Turkey (with an assist from U.S. intelligence agencies) designed to fracture the Shiite axis of Syria-Iran-Hezbollah -- from cohering into the settled, dominant narrative is willful ignorance.

A boundary has been crossed, I believe, with today's story by Mark Landler, Anne Barnard and Eric Schmitt about the imminent fall of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, "Turkish Inaction on ISIS Advance Dismays the U.S." The reporters come right out and say what has been said for a long time in the Left media (and was said just yesterday on Counterpunch by Patrick Cockburn): Turkey prefers a Kurdish and Assad defeat to the defeat of Islamic State.

While Turkish troops watched the fighting in Kobani through a chicken-wire fence, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that the town was about to fall and Kurdish fighters warned of an impending blood bath if they were not reinforced — fears the United States shares. 

But Mr. Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkey would not get more deeply involved in the conflict with the Islamic State unless the United States agreed to give greater support to rebels trying to unseat the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. That has deepened tensions with President Obama, who would like Turkey to take stronger action against the Islamic State and to leave the fight against Mr. Assad out of it.

Mr. Erdogan has also resisted pleas to send his troops across the border in the absence of a no-fly zone to ward off the Syrian Air Force.

Even as it stepped up airstrikes against the militants Tuesday, the Obama administration was frustrated by what it regards as Turkey’s excuses for not doing more militarily. Officials note, for example, that the American-led coalition, with its heavy rotation of flights and airstrikes, has effectively imposed a no-fly zone over northern Syria already, so Mr. Erdogan’s demand for such a zone rings hollow. 

“There’s growing angst about Turkey dragging its feet to act to prevent a massacre less than a mile from its border,” a senior administration official said. “After all the fulminating about Syria’s humanitarian catastrophe, they’re inventing reasons not to act to avoid another catastrophe. 

“This isn’t how a NATO ally acts while hell is unfolding a stone’s throw from their border,” said the official, who spoke anonymously to avoid publicly criticizing an ally.
Secretary of State John Kerry has had multiple phone calls in the last 72 hours with Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, and foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to try to resolve the border crisis, American officials said. 

For Mr. Obama, a split with Turkey would jeopardize his efforts to hold together a coalition of Sunni Muslim countries to fight the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. While Turkey is not the only country that might put the ouster of Mr. Assad ahead of defeating the radical Sunnis of the Islamic State, the White House has strongly argued that the immediate threat is from the militants. 

But if Turkey remains a holdout, it could cause other fissures in the coalition. It is not only a NATO ally but the main transit route for foreigners seeking to enlist in the ranks of the Islamic State.

So everything is pretty much out in the open. Turkey, a country that for years has been the gateway for jihadis on their way to battlefronts in Syria, has blocked Kurds from rushing to defend Kobani. The Turkish military sits by and watches ISIS shell the city. This led to an outbreak of protests by Kurds in Turkey yesterday. Erdogan, according to Landler et al. is trying to exact concessions from both the U.S. and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party,

Analysts say the Kurds of Kobani are being held hostage as Mr. Erdogan seeks to wrest concessions not only from Washington but also from Kurdish leaders, his longtime domestic foes. 

The aim, said Soner Cagaptay, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is to weaken Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., in peace talks with the Turkish government. 

Turkey also wants the Kurdish fighters to denounce Mr. Assad and openly join the Syrian insurgents fighting him. But the fighters and local political leaders accepted control of Kurdish areas when Mr. Assad’s forces withdrew earlier in the Syrian war, and have focused more on self-rule and protecting their territory than on fighting the government. In some places they have fought alongside government troops. 

The impasse leaves Kobani isolated. Some refugees are literally pressed against the fence, unwilling to cross because they cannot take their livestock, and sometimes blocked by the Turkish authorities, who have also stopped Syrian and Turkish Kurds from crossing into Syria to fight the Islamic State. 

Tear gas wafted near the border on Tuesday, as Kurdish men packed the streets of the town of Suruc to protest Turkish policy; demonstrations broke out in several cities across Turkey. In Diyarbakir, at least 10 people were killed and more than 20 were injured in clashes between sympathizers of a pro-Kurdish party and a group known for its Islamic affiliations, while the authorities ordered schools to close in several southeastern cities, the Haberturk news channel reported. 

On one small stretch of the border near Kobani, a fleeing Syrian Kurd, Omar Alloush, said a Turkish soldier had looked on as an Islamic State fighter addressed Syrian Kurds across the border fence, telling them they were welcome to return as long as they abided by the group’s extreme interpretation of Islam. 

“We will never trust those people,” Mr. Alloush, a member of a Kurdish political party in Kobani, said by telephone. 

Yet another hillside spectator, Avni Altindag, a Kurd from Suruc, said the Islamic State was stronger than a few air raids. 

He pointed to the men watching the smoke rising over Kobani, who were chanting for the People’s Protection Committees, a Kurdish group known as Y.P.G. that is battling the Islamic State in the town’s streets. “They used to come with high expectations of strikes against ISIS, but all are disappointed,” he said. 

Mr. Altindag blamed Turkey. “They don’t want to help what they say is their enemy,” he said. “This is why it is in Turkey’s favor that Kobani falls to ISIS.”

One would think that now that the ISIS ruse has been exposed -- that it is clear that U.S. allies are actually allies first of ISIS (see Biden's Harvard Kennedy School speech) -- that Obama would drop his efforts to placate the Saudis and Turks by toppling Assad's government. But indications are that he is sticking to the disastrous policy that brought us to the chaos we are experiencing today. Yesterday, at the end of a story by Karam Shoumali and Anne Barnard, "Slaughter Is Feared as ISIS Nears Turkish Border," there were four paragraphs that support the notion that sporadic U.S. airstrikes of ISIS positions in northern and eastern Syria are a smokescreen for its regime change operations in Syria:

Elsewhere across Syria, insurgents struck on two fronts against government forces. 

North of Aleppo, insurgent groups including the Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and the American-backed Harakat Hazm fought government forces that recently seized the town of Handarat. Fighters from Hazm, which has been supplied with American-made TOW antitank weapons, have destroyed government tanks in recent days, rebels say. Rebel spokesmen on Monday said they were pushing hard to take back the town of Handarat and had captured foreigners, including Afghans and Lebanese, fighting on the government side. 

In an unusual battle near the border with the Golan Heights in southern Syria, another United States-backed group, the Omari Brigades of the Syrian Revolutionaries Front, took a government air defense base on the hilltop of Tel al-Harrah and posted a video of several fighters with what they said was Russian-made government air defense equipment. 

A covert United States effort to equip and train relatively moderate insurgents there has had few major successes. More aid has been promised to groups deemed moderate by American officials as part of the campaign against the Islamic State. But it was unclear whether the recent victory was because of new equipment or organization, or if it benefited from recent victories in the area by the Nusra Front.

Islamic State's siege of Kobani began in earnest the middle of last month, about the time I put up the flyer (below) in my cubicle at work:

I went online this morning to see if I could find any news about yesterday's march. It turns out that the flyer must have been changed once it had been sent out -- I received it in the mail from Workers World -- because it is actually today. The destination of the march is a World Business Forum event at Radio City Music Hall.

A powerful capitalist distraction for the working masses in the United States is the National Football League. The story of the last two weeks -- NFL Week Four and Week Five -- has been the rise of the perennially hapless Cowboys of Dallas. Week Four the Cowboys destroyed the Saints on Sunday night; Week Five, they held on in OT to beat their Lone Star rivals, the visiting Texans. Though they had the better of Houston most of the game, the Texans came back on the legs of Arian Foster. In the overtime period, Romo threw up a blind Hail Mary that Dez Bryant somehow came up with. The completion set up the game-winning field goal.

So Dallas is not only playing well, but the Cowboys are also lucky. You don't want to rely on luck to win games, but I find luck is a good indicator of a team's potency. To make a Super Bowl run, a team not only has to be dominant but lucky. The Seahawks were excellent last year, but they were also lucky.

The strengths of Dallas -- I got to see both the Week Four and Week Five Games -- are in its big, young offensive line and its DeMarco Murray powered ground game. Romo has been bridled and lucky so far. He is coming off back surgery, and he's not playing as petulantly as he has in the past; he is not constantly dropping back to pass and throwing picks.

Another bright spot has been the play of the Dallas defense, which strikes me as more consistent this season and less prone to giving up the big play.

We'll find out what Dallas is made of when they come into town to play Seattle on Sunday. The Seahawks enjoy a great homefield advantage. And while their pass rush has not been as successful as last year, the run defense has been stellar.

My sense is that the Cowboys will find a way to self-destruct. Murray is injury prone, and so too is Romo of late. The Seahawks will come into Sunday's game more focused after being penalized more than a dozen times (erasing three touchdowns by Harvin!) on a spotty Monday night victory over the free-falling Redskins.

NFL Week Nine: Agony in Houston, Seattle's Disappearing Run Defense + Aaron Rodgers' Broken Collarbone

This past Monday night Aaron Rodgers was knocked out of the game on the opening drive when he was sacked by Chicago defensive end Shea McClellin. Seneca Wallace came off the bench. Green Bay was effective on the ground but not through the air. Wallace gets even fewer reps in practice than most backups. The Bears won the game 27-20, dropping the Packers into a three-way tie in the NFC North with Chicago and Detroit. Rodgers is out for at least a month with a broken collarbone.

Prior to the loss Green Bay was probably playing the best football in the NFC with the exception of the 49ers. Despite their conference leading 8-1 record, the Seahawks continue to stumble along. Their OT win at home against the hapless Buccaneers was a gift from the gods. Tampa Bay dominated the game for the better part of three quarters. Rookie running back Mike James ran for 158 yards on 28 carries. The only thing that prevented him racking up even more yards was exhaustion. By the fourth quarter you could tell he was gassed. Seattle's run defense has disappeared. The week before in St. Louis another rookie running back, Zac Stacy, put up big numbers, 134 yards on 26 carries. James and Stacy didn't accumulate their yards by cracking off single runs of over 80 yards; no, they gobbled up turf five to eight to ten yards at a time, chewing up the clock and keeping Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson on the sideline. Unless the Seahawks solve this problem all their good fortune will come to naught.

I began Sunday watching the Chiefs-Bills game. Buffalo, playing at home, put up impressive numbers both on the ground and through the air. Turnovers on offense doomed them. At this point I can't say that I am believer in Kansas City being the pick of the AFC. Let's wait and see how they do against Denver.

I ended Sunday by turning off the Colts-Texans game in the third quarter thinking that Houston had the game in the bag. The Keenum-to-Johnson connection looked unstoppable and Ben Tate, cracked ribs and all, was running well. Imagine my surprise when I woke up Monday morning and saw that Luck had done it again. It is not often that I turn off a game before a comeback; I think it happens only once every other year. Kubiak's halftime collapse was an ill omen.

I'm not ruling the Texans out just yet. Case Keenum is a good QB. The defense is sound. A win in Arizona next week could be enough to spark a string of victories that, depending on how things go with Indianapolis, could keep Houston in the running.

The Seahawks fly to Georgia, the scene of their playoff elimination last season. A convincing win against a reeling Falcons franchise would augur well for a young squad with big games upcoming against conference powers New Orleans and San Francisco.

NFL Week Seven: Luck Beats Broncos

I wanted to get to bed early last night. By early, I mean 8:30 PM. I was unable to because the Sunday night game -- which was promoted as if it were a Biblical event: "Peyton Manning's return to Indianapolis!" -- turned out to be excellent. Andrew Luck and his young Colts knocked off Manning's unbeaten Broncos. Indianapolis did it playing straight-up football -- rushing Manning with Robert Mathis and playing man-to-man coverage with a secondary that flies under the radar (Demaryius Thomas was shut down and Wes Welker was held in check until late in the fourth quarter).

But the game ball should go to the young QB from Stanford. Luck played pretty much a flawless game. He missed on a few throws -- in particular one to Reggie Wayne in the fourth that would have put the game on ice (Wayne ended up leaving the game on that play with a knee strain when he tried to suddenly change direction to compensate for Luck's underthrow) -- but those were minor details in an otherwise commanding performance. Luck ran well, passed with strength and accuracy, and showed a lot of poise and grace. The guy is the real deal. The question about the Colts is whether they can win consistently on the road against lesser opponents.

As for Peyton Manning and the Broncos, I was glad to see them go down. Manning has always seemed to me to be a repository of white privilege, a media icon in praise of McMansions and lily-white suburbs and SUVs and profligate consumption. (If you haven't noticed, that paradigm is a bust.) Colts owner Jim Irsay set off a firestorm in the media last week by stating the obvious, that Peyton Manning was no Tom Brady and he had no regrets in letting him go.

Nonetheless I was surprised to see how ineffective Knowshawn Moreno was rushing the ball; he has been a monster of late. Also, I was a little taken aback that both Welker and Demaryius Thomas could be reduced to non-factors for most of the game.

The result is a good win for the Colts. Now there is only one unbeaten team in the National Football League -- the Chiefs of Kansas City. I finally got to see the team in action. CBS broadcast the game against the Texans. I was impressed, even though the Chiefs beat a collapsing Houston club by a single point.

Kansas City seems to have it all: a fast, canny quarterback in Alex Smith; a superb running back in Jamaal Charles; and, last but not least, a dominant defense led by the great Tamba Hali; plus, the Chiefs have an awesome ballpark, Arrowhead Stadium, recently named home of the loudest crowd roar.

NFL Week 4: "I Got a Feeling . . ."

That Seattle is going to the Super Bowl. The overtime win in Houston last Sunday was huge. It is the kind of win a team needs in a Super Bowl run. On the road, down by a large margin in the second half, nothing going your way, yet you hang tough, stay focused, get a few breaks, make a few big plays and take home the win.

The negatives. For the first three quarters Matt Schaub looked like Tom Brady. The Texans QB was able to find and connect with Andre Johnson and his tight ends whenever he wanted. The Seahawks were not able to generate a significant pass rush. Also, Seattle's run defense was shredded as Arian Foster and Ben Tate piled up yardage. Seattle does not have a good record of stopping the run on the road. Week 1 in Charlotte DeAngelo Williams had a good game (except for his fumble which led to the Seahawk comeback); now, Arian Foster.

The overwhelming positives were Russell Wilson and Richard Sherman. In those two guys you have the 21st Century Seahawks equivalents of Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott -- the insatiable appetite for victory. Shut down for most of the game, Russell Wilson jump-started the offense in the fourth quarter by his scrambles. He ended up accumulating 77 yards on the ground. Combined with Marshawn Lynch's 98 yards, Seattle had an impressive day rushing the ball. The game itself was actually salvaged by Richard Sherman's interception return for a touchdown of Schaub's ill-advised pass.

Based on net points the Broncos are the best of the five remaining unbeaten teams -- Denver, Seattle, Kansas City, New Orleans and New England -- after Week 4.

I watched the afternoon game between the Broncos and Philadelphia. Denver set a team record for points scored in a game by blowing out of the new Chip Kelly Eagles, who look just as lousy as last year's Andy Reid team. The Philadelphia offense is talented with Mike Vick at QB, LeSean McCoy at tailback and DeSean Jackson at wideout. But there is the same chronic lack of focus that plagued the club last year. At some point the conclusion has to be reached that Mike Vick is not a winner. The truth though is that it is the defense that is to blame for the Eagles' woes. At 138 points allowed in four games only the winless Giants are worse in the NFL.

Shut Off the Idiot Box

I've done something I haven't done all season. Shut off a football game -- a divisional playoff game no less, Texans-Patriots -- before the game is over. Ninkovich's interception of Schaub was all I could take and I couldn't take anymore. I didn't think I'd make it out the apartment today but after I shut off the TV I washed the dishes in the sink and actually took the recycling downstairs. I opened a fortune cookie that had been sitting on my cutting board for the last four days. It read, "A quiet evening with friends is the best tonic for a long day." So now I'm listening to some Iron & Wine albums I checked out from the library, drinking a cup of green tea and soon I'll pick up a book. (I'm still checking the Texans-Patriots game online.)

Here's a doomsday scenario for this bachelor. An Atlanta-New England Super Bowl. I'm confident that the 49ers can rush Matt Ryan in a way that the Seahawks were unable to.  But domes on the road are tough.  And, sure, the Ravens might be a team of destiny, but they're beat up from double OT. So it's a distinct possibility that we'll be watching the most unappetizing spectacle of Brady vs. Ryan in the Superdome.

I haven't felt as low after a playoff loss since Roger Craig fumbled in the 1990 NFC Championship Game (against a Belichik coached defense). It spelled the end of the Montana-era hegemony of the San Francsico 49ers. I had just moved from Morningside Heights back to Washington Heights. I was low, so low after that game that I was staring down at myself from outside my body. I referred to this period -- the break-up of my marriage and then the failure of San Francisco to three-peat -- as "Valerie disappears the 49ers umbrella." Valerie was a young lady I met on the streets of Upper Manhattan and with whom I spent a few sad nights. The 49ers umbrella was the shield from emotional harm provided by being a San Francisco football fan.

During the Seahawks comeback in the second half of today's game I fished out of storage my attempt at a spontaneous prose document -- I wouldn't want to call it a novel, more like a proto-blog written to myself on a manual typewriter -- from the period when "Valerie disappears the 49ers umbrella." It was my first official run at being a bachelor, a time of no little drama and a great deal of suffering. Hopefully in the days going forward I'll have the time to post it here. You'll read of street fights, bar fights, whores, malt liquor, subways -- the whole pitiful yarn of a young man trying to be sincere in the big city.

Divisional Playoff Game Picks

There are only two new-breed quarterbacks left -- Wilson & Kaepernick; one hybrid -- Aaron Rodgers, a guy who can run like a young Joe Montana but whose arm is stronger; and the rest are all the classic white-privilege stand-tall-in-the-pocket American war machine hegemons -- Brady, Manning, Flacco, Ryan and on a good day Schaub.

Here are my picks for this weekend.  First game of the weekend on Saturday is Baltimore against Denver.  Denver is a good team.  A rejuvenated Manning is part of that success but I think a lot of the Broncos first seed is due to their defense.  Smart money is on Denver at home.  But I'm a Ravens fan.  So I'm going with Baltimore.

The Saturday night game is a real humdinger.  Packers-49ers.  I think San Fran wins this because of an Aldon Smith pass rush that is going to harry Aaron Rodgers all Candlestick night long.  Kaepernick will play well.

Sunday morning it's the Seahawks-Falcons.  Can Wilson & Lynch do it again?  I hope so.  I think it's going to be a tough game though.  I think if we can get some pressure on Matt Ryan early and our defense doesn't capitulate in the fourth quarter we'll win.  Seattle in a nailbiter.

Last game of the weekend is Texans-Patriots.  New England is a big favorite.  My head says most likely the Patriots will key on Arian Foster and shut him down and win easily.  My heart says that Arian Foster will perform heroically.  I can't pick the Patriots.  I'm going with my heart.

Texans Roll + Joe Webb Underwells

My impression of yesterday's action is that everything pretty much went to script.  Arian Foster ran well which set up the play-action pass for Matt Schaub.  One phase of the game that stood out was the manner in which Texans tight ends Owen Daniel and Garrett Graham consistently beat the Cincinnati linebackers, Rey Maualuga in particular, on crossing patterns for catches of 10-15 yards.  Since Andre Johnson was largely held in check this was critical; it prevented the Bengals from keying on Arian Foster and making the Houston offense one-dimensional.

The Texans have a good defense. J.J. Watt played with his usual intensity.  Andy Dalton seem harried.  Jonathan Joseph bottled up A.J. Green until the second half.  All in all it was a good game.

The conventional wisdom is that the Patriots will repeat their Week 14 demolition of the Texans.  It's hard to find fault with this.  Cincinnati wideouts had Houston defensive backs beaten long several times but Dalton couldn't connect.  Unless Tom Brady is having a rare off day the Texans won't be so lucky in Foxborough.  I'll be rooting for Houston though.

One thing that didn't go to script yesterday was the game-day scratch of Christian Ponder because of a bruised triceps.  Joe Webb started and on the opening drive ran the read option and Minnesota almost scored a touchdown but ended up having to settle for a field goal.  This was the last hurrah for the Vikings.  For some reason Minnesota abandoned the read option and Webb started to pass from the pocket.  He had no touch.  He short-hopped balls or threw out of bounds.  On defense the Packers were able to keep Adrian Peterson from getting to the edge.  Green Bay basically had the game won by the end of the first half.

When Joe Webb filled in a couple games for an injured Brett Favre at the end of 2010 season I was excited.  He was big and fast and could throw; he changed the whole vibe of the game on offense; he beat the Eagles.  I thought he was going to be a player to watch in 2011.  But then the Vikings made the poor decision to sign Donovan McNabb who was a washout with the Washington Redskins.  Then when McNabb was benched Ponder got the start.  Webb disappeared until now.  It's too bad he didn't run more out of the pocket last night.

While not playing spectacularly, Aaron Rodgers performed at exactly the level needed to notch a convincing win against a gritty divisional opponent.  My concern going into Candlestick Park next week is what Aldon Smith is going to do.  Rodgers has taken a lot of sacks this year.  It's hard not to pick the 49ers in this one.  Unless Green Bay's defense really steps up and shuts down Kaepernick and creates some turnovers the 49ers are going to the NFC Championship Game.