The Logic Behind the Global War on Terrorism and the Islamic State of Iraq

The decades of global war on terror have failed. The West’s and the United States’ counterterrorism policies have raised both political and ideological questions. The logic behind the war on terrorism was to eradicate terrorism; however, we see an arc of terror stretching from Africa to Asia, the Middle East, Russia, Europe and beyond. Today what we see around the world is a global explosion of terrorism and a historically unprecedented breakdown of law and order especially in Iraq and in Syria. Since the Arab Spring began, the West and the United State have supported Jihadists who appear to be on their side, just as they backed Al-Qaida in Afghanistan in 1979 against the Soviets. So far Washington, the West, and their allies have been successful in escaping blame for the creation of ISI by putting all the blame on the Iraqi Prime Minister Al Maliki. In fact, the West, America, Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have created a situation in which ISIS can survive and flourish. They all wanted to reduce the Shiite influence in the region. But not everything that went wrong in Iraq was the fault of the Prime Minister Nouri Al Malik. Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia were not happy about losing Iraq to Shiite rulers, and they did everything to destabilize Iraq. For example, Turkey in the pre-Nouri al Malik days because of the Kurds, initiated a policy toward Iraq to protect the sovereignty of Iraq and the unity of Iraq, but once Nouri Al Maliki came to power, Turkey shifted to a sectarian policy against the Iraq government. Turkey ingratiated itself in a close relationship with the Kurdish leadership and even made oil deal with the Kurdish region against the Iraqi central government. In Iraq the United States is carrying out air strikes against ISIS and helping the Kurdish army to beat the ISIS, but in Syria the US has a different policy. The eagerness of the West and the United States to sell Democracy in the Middle East drives its policy , but the notions of democracy for Arabs, Persians, and Turks are different ; therefore, war will flourish , not democracy. The Western countries supported a people’s revolution to topple a dictator and encouraged them to respect the will of the people in Syria, but when it comes to Egypt, General Sisi’s new regime can count on strong American support and Egypt can even intervene militarily in Libya in an attempt to bring order and law there. The Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam, which is Saudi’s official religion, is ideologically very close to the beliefs of the Islamic State of Iraq or ISIS. Therefore, most of the weapons and money to supply ISI have come from Saudi Arabia. The current chaos in the Middle East is a result of misguided alliances that have been created., the past Secretary of States Hillary Clinton criticized her former boss, President Obama, for his foreign policy in the Middle East. I am sure intelligence officials could explain to Mrs. Clinton that almost all the weapons sent to the so-called “Moderates” in Syria end up in the hands of ISIS. The question is “Did intelligence officials know about ISIS, or did they help form ISIS?” If they did not know about the ISIS, then America is in big trouble. It is no longer a secret that Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan was heavily involved in arming Takfiri terrorists in Syria and Iraq when he was head of Saudi intelligence. Qatar is another country that supported and armed the Takfiri groups to overthrow the Assad regime. The Turkish government, in addition, helped and supported the extremist groups to be a foreign backed force in Syria.Further, Qatar had played a very important role in toppling the Libyan regime by arming and training rebel groups for that front. In response to the most recent chaos, President Obama has so far limited the military campaign in Iraq, focusing on protecting American diplomats and minorities under direct threat. The new Islamic State of Iraq and Syria provides an example of how a global movement fueled by radical religious identity politics could challenge Western values and norms as the foundation of a global system. The world system is going through an enormous shift and the powerful players no longer can stop or do not want to halt the immense paradigm shift. Each powerful country cherry-picks its issues to justify its policy in terms of national interest. For example, the Shiites blame the Sunnis, and the Sunnis blame the Shiites; Hamas blames Israel, Israel blames Hamas, and they all blame the US and Israel. If the Kurds who live in Turkey blame Turks, then, likewise, the Turks blame the Kurds. Saudi Arabia blames Iran, and Iran blames the Arabs depending on their ideological point of view. The ISIS terrorist group blames Western countries and is trying to correct their perceived offenses with a self-declared Islamic State. It beheads people and carries out horrendous actions as a strong tool of propaganda to expand its role in the society. One thing is for sure: it is the collective failure of the international powerful players that has created the political chaos in the region and now their unwillingness to stop the bloodshed in Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Ukraine, and Egypt. Since we do not live in an era of a one polar system world, it is therefore impossible to, and it is a huge mistake for any country to protect its own interests at the expenses of others’ national interests. The US is accusing Iran for harboring terrorists, but at the same times the US, Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia covertly supported and financed ISIS in hopes of replacing the Assad regime. Now they must decide how to constrain the beast. Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com