Last week US President Barack Obama said, “With the additional steps I ordered last month we’re speeding-up training of ISIL forces.”
Yes, it was a hastily corrected blooper but one that feeds into the views of conspiracy theorists who hold that early on in Syria’s civil war the US trained extremists; some of whom went on to join Daesh or the Al-Qaeda affiliate, Al-Nusrah Front. Like Al-Qaeda before it, born from the CIA-recruited Afghans and Arabs, Daesh has turned into a Frankenstein monster that has turned on its master.
Strangely, although the Obama is gung ho when it comes to punishing Russia for its alleged involvement in Ukraine, willingly joined France and the UK to bring down the Qaddafi regime in Libya and continues with his controversial drone strikes in Pakistan that have killed thousands. But when it comes to the most brutal terrorist organization the world has ever known, he has thrown up his hands in despair.
Earlier this year, Obama admitted that he had no strategy to defeat Daesh, and, just days ago he acknowledged there has been setbacks in the battle against the “nimble” and “opportunistic” terrorist group,” which “is dug in among innocent civilian populations”— a phrase from the horse’s mouth indicating that bombs alone won’t cut it. Yes, the US Secretary of State John Kerry has admitted that Daesh poses a greater existential threat to the US than Russia.
In response to the massacre of mostly British tourists relaxing on a beach in the Tunisian resort of Sousse, Prime Minister David Cameron, who has admitted Daesh poses a direct and deadly threat to Britain, vowed a “full-spectrum response” at “home and abroad” adding “The great British spirit will triumph over the cowards...” That’s the spirit!
But hold on, 38 Britons slaughtered and there’s been no action apart from “rescuing” British tourists from Tunisia, most of which complained bitterly about having their vacation ended abruptly; some telling reporters they felt safer in Tunisia than they do at home. In fact, radicals are emboldened enough to stroll past London’s Big Ben carrying Daesh flags with no fear of being arrested. Britain is hidebound by its own freedoms.
France has been hit by terrorists inspired by the Daesh on several occasions recently. Spain faces its highest terror threat level since the 2004 train bombings, warns the country’s Interior Minister and, on Friday, an Islamic State affiliate based in northern Sinai remotely exploded a car bomb outside the Italian Consulate in Cairo. Thousands of Europeans have joined Daesh via Turkey and many will return battle hardened, yet Europe has shown little resolve; perhaps because European countries are tied to the White House’s apron strings.
I understand that the American people are weary of getting militarily involved in Middle East wars and quite a few have told me in no uncertain terms that this is an Arab problem. Thing is, what began as an Arab problem has now become a global threat.
Moreover, it is one that was spawned by the US-led occupation of Iraq when Paul Bremer, the chief administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, disbanded the Iraqi Army leaving Sunni career officers out on a limb, disgruntled and pledging revenge. Daesh was born out of a plot by former Baathists to propagandize religion so as to regain power. George W. Bush broke it, but Barack Obama has no real appetite to fix it.
What’s worse is that the Obama administration has reined in Egypt from launching strikes on Daesh in Libya on the pretext of a reconciliation plan, which the legitimate Libyan government hasn’t signed up to. And, as the Daily Telegraph revealed earlier this month, the US has blocked any attempts by America’s Arab allies to supply weapons to the Kurdish Peshmerga that’s fighting Daesh in Iraq as a sop to Turkey. An unnamed Arab government official told the paper, “With Daesh making ground all the time we simply cannot afford to wait for Washington to wake up to the enormity of the threat we face.”
So the US and its European allies don’t have a plan and Obama is placing boulders in the way of the Arab world’s efforts. In the meantime, the faux caliphate grows stronger fueled by rivers of oil and blood in a cowardly, impotent world that’s blinkered itself to some of the worst atrocities in living history.
