Let me start with this: Iraqis think the U.S. is in cahoots with the Islamic State, and it is hurting the war

On the front lines of the battle against the Islamic State, suspicion of the United States runs deep. Iraqi fighters say they have all seen the videos purportedly showing U.S. helicopters airdropping weapons to the militants, and many claim they have friends and relatives who have witnessed similar instances of collusion.

Ordinary people also have seen the videos, heard the stories and reached the same conclusion — one that might seem absurd to Americans but is widely believed among Iraqis — that the United States is supporting the Islamic State for a variety of pernicious reasons that have to do with asserting U.S. control over Iraq, the wider Middle East and, perhaps, its oil.

“It is not in doubt,” said Mustafa Saadi, who says his friend saw U.S. helicopters delivering bottled water to Islamic State positions. He is a commander in one of the Shiite militias that last month helped push the militants out of the oil refinery near Baiji in northern Iraq alongside the Iraqi army.

The Islamic State is “almost finished,” he said. “They are weak. If only America would stop supporting them, we could defeat them in days.”

Match that up with this: Obama’s Increasingly Surreal War on ISIS.

America’s role in the Global War on Terror grows stranger by the hour. President Obama’s fight against ISIS and other radical Islamic terrorists — such as it is — has entered the Twilight Zone. That is the only explanation for Obama’s increasingly bizarre tactics and statements against these existentially dangerous savages. . . .

All told, the obsessive pursuit of “no civilian casualties — zero,” as retired four-star General Jack Keane quotes Obama as demanding, has led U.S. pilots to report that they fly sorties over ISIS territory and return to base with 75 percent of their bombs undropped. . . .

The Pentagon’s inspector general is probing reports that Defense Intelligence Agency analysts who described ISIS’s threat as grave and robust were told to “cut it out” and “toe the line.” E-mails to that effect may have been destroyed in order to cover up this apparent undercooking of the books. . . .

Standing beside the new leader of the Free World, France’s Francoise Hollande, Obama declared on Tuesday: “Next week, I will be joining President Hollande and world leaders in Paris for the global climate conference. What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be when the world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children.”

It’s less than not serious. Obama personally stands in the way of a coherent American foreign policy. And then there’s this: State Department ‘troubled’ by Moscow’s move against Soros groups.

The U.S. State Department says it is “troubled” by Russia’s decision to ban two of liberal billionaire George Soros’ pro-democracy charities and label the organizations a threat to national security.

“Today’s designation of the Open Society Foundations and the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation as so-called ‘undesirable’ organizations will only further restrict the work of civil society in Russia for the benefit of the Russian people,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday. “This action is yet another example of the Russian Government’s growing crackdown on independent voices and a deliberate step to further isolate the Russian people from the world.”

The Russians must know something. In fact, Soros hides virtually nothing about his anti-Western hatreds. There’s lots around if you care to look but here is something recent: Rebuilding the Asylum System. That is, promoting the invasion of Europe by millions of refugees. This is who the State Department defends while Putin proscribes his organisations from operating within Russia.