It bears repeating and stressing what other articles explained. Washington uses ISIS and other takfiri terrorists as US foot soldiers in Syria, Iraq and wherever else they’re deployed.

In over a year of US bombing both countries, zero ISIS targets were struck – infrastructure and other government sites only. Claims otherwise are Big Lies about Obama’s wars in both countries.

Last year, he promised no “American combat troops fighting on foreign soil. We will not get dragged into another ground war” – another of his many Big Lies.

Last week, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said he has “no intention to authorize long-term, large-scale ground combat operations like our nation has conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Middle East analyst Phyllis Bennis told RT International: “I think the question of US boots on the ground has been true for over a year now. We’ve had at least 35,000 troops in Iraq that went back last year (2014).”

US “troops (are actively) engaged in combat…So, the notion that there are ‘no boots’ is simply not the case. We also know that besides 35,000 US troops on the ground in Iraq there are an unknown numbers of other Special Forces and CIA forces on the ground.”

“Maybe they wear sneakers rather than boots. But there is no question that US forces have been fighting directly in Iraq for more than a year now.”

Their involvement makes things worse on the ground, not better – why they’re deployed in the first place, to keep the regional pot boiling, assure endless war, instability and chaos, support, not combat ISIS, and now an attempt to counter Russia’s successful air campaign.

Make no mistake about what’s ongoing and intended. Washington supports its ISIS and other terrorist proxy foot soldiers, wanting them protected from Russia’s commitment to contain, neutralize and eliminate them.

Most important for Moscow is keeping them from spreading elsewhere, especially to Russia and Central Asia, what Washington very much intends.

An undeclared US/Russia war rages, each nation supporting opposite sides in Syria and Iraq – America backing pure evil to advance its imperium, Moscow the best hope to restore regional peace and stability.

On October 27, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told Senate Armed Forces Committee members Washington intends “direct (regional) action on the ground” – code language for escalating what’s been ongoing for over a year.

“We won’t hold back…whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground,” said Carter. “We expect to intensify our air campaign…with a higher and heavier rate of strikes…We’ve already begun to ramp up these deliberate strikes.”

What’s coming remains to be seen. Carter provided no details. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “(w)e need to figure out…what (he) meant.”

Sergey Lavrov said Washington has no “understanding (about) who poses a terrorist threat in Syria” and Iraq. “One cannot say that there are (so-called) ‘good’ terrorists which are not to be touched.”

Russia offers help to all Syrian opposition groups fighting terrorism. It’s hard “find(ing) representatives of such opposition groups,” Lavrov explained.

All elements fighting Assad are terrorists. No “good” ones exist. The only way to restore regional peace and stability is eliminating them – Russia’s commitment opposed by Washington.

Russian upper house Federation Council Committee on International Affairs chairman Konstantin Kosachev calls US operations in Syria (and by implication Iraq for doing the opposite of what’s claimed) illegal – in contrast to Russian forces operating “within the framework of international law.”

“We have no intention of joining any other coalition for the simple reason that they are outside the framework of the international law,” Kosachev stressed.

He blasted misinformation about Russian airstrikes targeting civilians – part of the ongoing information war, he explained. No evidence supports baseless accusations.

Russia’s Defense Ministry demanded NATO provide proof, supporting US and other member countries’ allegations. Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov summoned “military attaches of the United States, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, NATO bloc and requested them to provide a formal justification of the essence of these statements or make a rebuttal, especially concerning the outrageous accusations in a number of English-language media about alleged airstrikes on hospitals.”

Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov dismissed what he called baseless “stove-piping reports.”

“We have been closely monitoring and analyzing such hoaxes,” he explained. “Only when we are 100% sure of the target, (are) aircraft…sent to deliver strikes on IS infrastructure using the corresponding precision-guided munitions.”

No hospitals or other civilian targets are struck. Russia has photographic proof of all targets destroyed.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.