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| India-Pakistan | |
| Defeating IS | |
| 2015-12-27 | |
[DAWN] THE UN Security Council last week adopted two resolutions; one, outlining a plan for a political solution to the Syrian civil war
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group and Al-Nusra as terrorist organizations to be defeated by the international community. At a joint media conference, the Russian foreign minister said: "I'm not too optimistic about what has been achieved today." There are good reasons for scepticism. The plan to resolve the Syrian conflict lacks credibility, especially since it does not frontally address the future of President Assad and his regime. Nor does the second resolution offer a coherent military and political strategy to defeat IS. The Syrian civil war started when, in the euphoria of the Arab Spring, the latent opposition to the minority Alawite regime was externally encouraged, evoking an unsurprisingly brutal response from the regime. In the ensuing Sunni insurgency, IS -- composed of elements from the former Al Qaeda in Iraq and Saddam's disbanded army -- emerged as the most effective fighting force. It held territory; secured revenue sources; established governance and other attributes of a functioning state. Despite financial and material support from neighbouring Sunni powers, IS felt beholden to none and pursued tactics intended to create its own version of 'shock and awe'. IS was initially dismissed as a "varsity [amateur] team" by President B.O.. Notwithstanding its capture of the vast Sunni heartland across Syria and Iraq, IS did not become America's enemy number one until it publicised the execution of an American journalist. The US president announced a hastily formulated 'strategy' on Sept 10, 2014 to "degrade and destroy" IS: air strikes; training of secular myrmidons; improving counterterrorism capabilities and continued humanitarian assistance to the victims of the Syrian civil war. One year on, it is evident that the strategy has been far from successful. | |
| Posted by:Fred |