Two different conflicts are reshaping the entire Middle East, converging into one global conflict. There is that within the Muslim world, between the Sunnis and the Shia. The Sunni-Shia battle at its most intense ??? ever! Ten percent of IS warriors are holders of foreign passports. This is revolutionary, on a global scale, and the ramifications are still not comprehended by Western governments. Middle East alliances formed in what used to be the ???Cold War??? all have role in the broader global conflict.
This parallels a second conflict, also sourced in the Middle East but not limited to there, and that is Islam versus the Jews, and with that, Islam versus all minority groups throughout the Middle East, whether religious minorities or ethnic minorities. This also is global scale revolutionary, whose ramifications are still yet to be comprehended by Governments.
Either this war (for they are one) is viewed as a total system, or you all die. Is that yet a clear enough statement? ???All??? includes the apologists; ???all??? begins with the apologists. By the way, Muslims despise ???Islam apologists??? and throw them in garbage after use. THAT is the first lesson of those two journalists and the ???aid worker???. These were all on THEIR side.
Robert Pape published a 2005 book, ???Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism???, which argued that grievances ??? e.g., occupation and troops??? quartering among resentful populations ??? and not religion primarily motivate terrorism. Anyone with any sense of the Middle East already knew then that this premise was nonsense. Anyone with any sense at all, knows so today. Suicide bombers are recruited from the educated and middle class, not from the poor.
Water Wars, ethnic cleansing, mass slaughter, execution and mutilation of captives as religious expressions of power, arbitrary decisions to feed or starve captive populations, are all ancient Mesopotamian conflict patterns. Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar did it. Amorites, Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians did it. The Sykes-Pikot monstrosity has simply caused the latest iteration of it.
Iraq is no more. Syria is no more. Let them both rest in the horrors created by their own people and enhanced by the pests and meddlers of Britain and France. Both of those countries are dying, as well. The time has come to recognize Kurdistan as an independent country, a UN member state with a security pact with NATO and to recognize the Kurdish Workers Party in Turkey (PKK) as an ally, not a terrorist group. US State still dreams the impossible Humpty-Dumpty dream of putting those two ridiculous entities back together. Obama thinks he has a plan to accomplish this via using a ???good??? terrorist organisation ??? does not really exist. State has consistently been wrong about everything in the Middle East and the ???plan??? is a sick joke.
Neither Syria nor Iraq ever developed a national identity of unity and solidarity; tribal divisions control all affairs, as they always have. In the former Iraq there are over 70 tribes, four distinct ethnic groups and ten religions, all divided among many communal sectors. There were about a million Christians in the former Iraq. None remain and nobody give a hoot. Not good!
The war against "Islamic State" will fail just as the war against al Qaeda failed, because those perpetrating it have no idea who the enemy is.
The Real War battles an ideology and faith deep in the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of people who live all over the world.
- The belief that Islam is the true religion and that Judaism and Christianity are false religions is THE basic Islamic faith tenet.
- The belief that Islam must rule the world is shared by essentially all Muslims ??? yes, even the so-called ???moderate??? ones.
- The belief that Jihad is the ideal method for Islamic supremacy over the world is anchored in Islamic history and the biography of Mohammed.
- The belief that a Muslim must revenge every infidel that dares to lift a hand against a Muslim is part of Islam. By the way, ???lifts a hand against??? includes such things as commercial disagreements ??? yes, that means what western economics calls ???competition???. If you compete with a Muslim, you must be killed.
Here???s the rub, if ???Islamic State??? is destroyed, another Islamic entity will take its place and attract tens of thousands of Muslims from just as many countries.
Why? Because Islamic State is only the one most displayed by western media!
- Boko Haram is building a Caliphate in Western Africa.
- Al Shabaab builds its Caliphate in Eastern Africa.
- Libyan Jihadists build a Caliphate in the Saharan plains.
- Ansar Bait al-Maqdis builds a Caliphate in Sinai.
The battle against the problematic tenets of the Islamic faith is not bound in place or time. Both US State and Obama are either too ignorant or too blinded by ???contributions??? to comprehend what the blind see.
Anyone who thinks that destroying "Islamic State" in Iraq/Syria will solve the problem had better think again, because the problem is not this or that organization or country. The problem is the motivation of one and half billion people who believe that the "religion of Allah is Islam" (Qu'ran chap.53, v.19). The ideology will not be eliminated even if we get rid of ALL jihadists in Iraq/Syria down to the last man, woman and child.
Ideology followers are in all parts of the world and the world must be prepared to take charge of the rules of the game, otherwise it will still be putting out fires for decades, instead of apprehending the pyromaniacs.
However, opportunities exist to quell the Jihad trend. Throughout the 1,400-year history of constant Jihad against humanity and civilisation, there have been waves of warfare and waves of quiet. It is time to recognise the foci of quiet and strengthen them. The Kurds are mentioned above. In addition, there is the Balochs. Recognize the Balochistan struggle for independence from Pakistan and Iran as a legitimate national liberation struggle, similar to those of the Baltic Republics, Kosovo, East Timor and Eritrea, but much more important then them.
Also, recognise the legitimacy of the Amazigh struggle for cultural independence.
Recognize Iranian Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) as an ally, not a terrorist group.
And certainly, expel Turkey from NATO as it is an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood and represents a threat to civilisation.
Remember this little ditty, the United States today drills more, uses less oil and yet spends more than ever before; and 100% of this wealth transfer pays for Jihad.
