Real & Phantom Menaces

By Daniel McAdams

This week the US has conducted two military strikes against Syrian government-allied military forces as they attempted to engage ISIS in southeastern Syria. The US has set up a military base inside Syrian territory at al-Tanf on the border with Iraq and declared it a "de-confliction" zone. Any Syrian government or government-allied forces entering a 50km buffer zone around the base would be attacked, Washington warned. 

Ironically, US Defense Secretary James Mattis claimed tha...