Fighting IS
The IS threat is so large that it has forced countries normally at one another’s throats to make strategic alliance
War can produce some strange bedfellows, and the battle that is expanding by the day to prevent the spread of the Islamic State (IS) movement has produced some very strange bedfellows indeed. The threat presented is so large that it has forced countries normally at one another’s throats to make strategic alliances and use their air assets in a coordinated way to fight a common enemy. There can be no underestimating the reality of the threat presented by the IS, and it is not only regional. The IS has both global ambitions and global support, with young radicalised men and women going to fight in support of the IS in considerable numbers. They come from Europe, the UK, America and Canada and Australia and many other countries. The entity they join is a well armed courtesy of Americans who left behind vast amounts of modern equipment when they left Iraq, well led courtesy of the Sunni ex-members of the Iraqi armed forces, and very wealthy courtesy of the innumerable banks they have looted to fund themselves. It is not going to be defeated by bombing alone and at some point boots — though the nationality of the feet they will be on is an open question — will have to go on the ground.
For the moment, the Kurds are doing much to hold the line on the ground, but refugees are pouring into Turkey and there is a major humanitarian crisis to match the geopolitical one. Western nations are turning diplomatic somersaults as they juggle fifty shades of cognitive dissonance brought on by making air strikes in Syria that are in support of the Assad regime — and there is a dawning realisation that this is a fight that is going to take years and has been centuries in the making. Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all put assets in the air to strike IS targets, a display of Arab unity unseen for over half a century. The US and France have already gone into action and the UK is likely to join the fight within days. Expect no early resolution, and a heavy leakage of blood and treasure.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 25th, 2014.
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Yes, the threat is large indeed BUT please note that it's ISIS for one and ISIL for another and still IS to others. It appears that War on Terror became WOTI (Iraq) WOTS (Syria) WOTL Lebanon and it could easily be made WOTP (Pakistan) or WOTIS(Israel). This world has to find a solution to Drone-crazy US and UK. Peaceful co-existence may not last too long..
Perhaps it should be made clear that the USA did not just leave weapons around in Iraq when it left...these weapons were stolen from the Iraqi army when IS overran their bases...