Ever since ISIS terrorists stuck Paris, France’s President Francois Hollande is on a mission to form a coalition against ISIS. He has met UK’s PM David Cameron, USA’s President Barack Obama, Italy’s PM Matteo Renzi, Germany‘s Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. France wants to withdraw its soldiers from Mali and other African countries. Germany has agreed to send 650 soldiers to Mali.
Many countries claim to fight against ISIS but their fight is token. USA’s fight against ISIS is a farce and meant to hoodwink American people. USA and allies wanted to get rid of Bashar Al Assad and they encouraged all types of terrorist against Syria. When many in USA questioned arming Islamic terrorists hostile to USA, USA stopped openly supporting them. USA claims it is against terrorism but abets, finances, sponsors and trains terrorists against Syria and calls them freedom fighters. It claims to have spent 500 million dollars to trains fighters but says most of them were captured or killed by Al Nusra or ISIS. Turkey buys oil from ISIS. USA did not prevent it. They did not bomb oil tankers. Their excuse is that they don’t want to kill drivers and send them messages. Kurds have Peshmerga which fights ISIS but USA does not give them sufficient weapons to fight ISIS. It tells Iraq not to use Shias in fight against ISIS but Sunnis. It did not bomb ISIS training centre for 15 months. France bombed it. Israel is on the side of ISIS. Gulf countries pretend to fight ISIS.
ISIS has used internet to recruit terrorists and use them to carry out terror attacks in their countries. They don’t have to travel to ISIS territory.
Hacktivists of Anonymous have come forward to disable web sites of ISIS. How far they are successful is not known.
Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian plane and subsequent death of a Russian pilot and a Russian marine has complicated matters. Putin called the act a stab in the back and warned of serious consequences. Turkey claims the plane violated Turkish air space. Russia claims the plane was in Syrian air space. The plane crashed in Syria. Turkey is a NATO member. Iran claims it saved another Russian pilot.
Till a few days back France was against Russian intervention in Syria. Now it wants Russia’s help.
Schools and Metro were closed in Brussels for three days. Football matches were cancelled in Germany and Spain. There is talk of doing away with passport-free travel in Schengen Area and having border controls.
If France wants to win against ISIS it cannot be ambivalent and ambiguous about its allies. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius first talked about Syrian Army as an ally against ISIS. Later he backtracked and said Syrian Army after the removal of Bashar Al Assad.
To confront the problem of Islamic terrorism people have to accept the problem exists. The terrorists claim they are Muslims and carry out terrorist acts in the name of Islam. They quote certain passages of Quran in their defence. To say these people are not Muslims and their acts are betrayal of Islam is to deny the problem.
Two of the terrorists had come from Syria and that had created a backlash against refugees from Syria and other countries. Even before the terror attacks there was hostility towards refugees and Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia had begun fencing and border controls.
USA’s invasion and occupation of Iraq led to the rise of ISIS. Actions of USA and allies in Libya and other countries led to the spread of ISIS. France and UK bombed Libya and removed Gaddafi and after that it has been anarchy in Libya. Many African refugees came to Europe through Libya.
In 2011 there was talk of Arab Spring and Obama told some friendly leaders to quit. Hosni Mubarak quit in Egypt. Elections followed. Mohammed Morsi’s government was toppled by army. In Yemen it was civil war and foreign invasion. In Bahrain the government refused to introduce democracy and USA forgot about it. Bashar Al Assad is not an ally of USA. He refused to quit. Russia and China vetoed NATO attempts to bring Syria under no-fly zone.
ISIS burst into international prominence in June 2014 when it captured Mosul. The victory was not due to any bravery of ISIS soldiers but corruption of Iraqi army’s officers. They did not fight. They took money and left. Iraqi soldiers surrendered uniforms and weapons. Bank robbery, abductions and oil wells got much income for ISIS.
Ground troops are needed to defeat ISIS. Ground troops of Peshmerga, Russia, France, Syria, Iraq and Iran can defeat ISIS and win back the territory.
