Defeating Islamic State is not possible until international and regional players put their petty interests aside
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: It is an established fact that terrorist outfits live and thrive on hatred; they look for ways to alienate and attack security forces and common folk and then use the backlash to prove their victimhood and recruit more comrades. This is exactly what the Islamic State (IS) would have been looking for by brutally murdering 129 people in Paris on November 13. An expected harsh crackdown on the French Muslim community and refugees escaping from Syrian and Iraqi civil wars would further estrange these disadvantaged groups and push several of them to subscribe to the IS cause.
We should not ignore the IS as merely a terrorist group in a faraway land, or continue to hide behind the pronouncements that it is the attack on Iraq that created the group and that the West is responsible for its elimination. The IS is not al Qaeda, it is virtually a state controlling large swathes of land in Syria and Iraq. It needs to be defeated conventionally, which is not possible until international and regional players put their petty interests aside and be truthful to the world community. Every stakeholder is keeping its cards close to its chest and the IS has been exploiting the indifference of its opponents. Presently, the action against the IS is no more than a knee-jerk response. All players need to come clean, leaving their prejudices at home and commit not to exploit the situation to their advantage. One can’t understand how the IS is able to run its business — selling oil, buying weapons, carrying out banking transactions and communication with the outside world. Though the Kurds are making some strategic gains in Iraq, these are only aimed at consolidating their claim on statehood and that is troubling the Iraqi government. Turkey is more interested to take on the Kurds, not the IS. President Obama doesn’t want to commit his troops on the ground as the US has already burnt its fingers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Russian action is limited to providing support to its long-time ally in Damascus. Then who will take the lead?
This non-serious attitude will not get us anywhere. Act today to ensure a safe tomorrow in Paris, Baghdad, Beirut, Tehran, London and Washington.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, November 18th, 2015.
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