This summer saw an increase in the amount of turmoil located in the Middle East. CNN constantly featured images of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant tanks rolling through Iraq. While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict eventually subsided, the situation in Iraq and Syria has yet to reach a resolution. Part of this is due to the extreme nature of ISIL and their unwillingness to give up. Yet if their extremism is not enough, ISIL creates an extremely complicated Middle Eastern landscape. This landscape is the result of three specific situations that cannot be easily resolved, perpetuating the ISIL crisis.
The first of these situations is the Turkish government, and their relationship to the people of Kurdistan. The Kurds are an ethnic group in Northern Iraq who are known for their desire to gain autonomy from the government of Iraq. The Kurds received substantial coverage this summer for successfully halting the ISIL advance. One of the opponents to Kurdish autonomy has been Turkey, which shares a border with the Northern Iraqi region. The Kurds are also one of the largest ethnic minorities in Turkey, and the Turkish government fears that a peace settlement and more autonomous Kurdish region would cause the Kurdish people in Turkey to flock across the border and leave Turkey.
This could do serious damage to the Turkish economy, or create a so-called “Brain Drain” effect. This relationship becomes even more complicated as skirmishes between the Kurds and ISIL break out along the borders of Iraq, Syria and Turkey. While Turkey has come out against ISIL, and these conflicts are breaking out along their border, Turkey has stood by while the Kurds engage ISIL. The Kurds have openly pleaded for Turkish support, but those calls have not been answered. And those calls will continue to remain unanswered as long as the Turkish government is wary of the Kurdish people.
While ISIL became infamous for their fighting in Iraq, they have been fighting in Syria as well. The fighting in Syria has raged for years, and the United States has often supported the Free Syrian People against the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. Yet now, the soldiers of ISIL are mixed in with the Free Syrian Army, creating a complicated situation for the United States. In order to successfully combat ISIL, the United States must fight ISIL in Syria as well as Iraq. But attacking ISIL in Syria would strengthen Assad’s regime, something the United States has long advocated against. The United States and some of their allies have recently conducted airstrikes in Syria, yet they walk a fine line as they are doing their best to damage ISIL while not strengthening Assad.
The final situation involves the United States again, forcing them to form another awkward partnership. The United States government has often found itself an enemy of Iran. Ever since 1953, when the United States assisted rebels in overthrowing the government of Iranian Premier Mohammed Mosaddeq and in 1979, when disgruntled Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy and held staff hostage, tensions have been high between the two nations. However, they now have found a common enemy in ISIL and subsequently may be forced to work together. Iran considers itself a Shia Muslim nation, while ISIL is a Sunni Muslim organization. Iran feels that ISIL could become a threat to its borders, especially due to the opposing religious views. While they have come to agree over this common enemy, the alliance between the United States and Iran is still uneasy at best. Both the United States and Iran are conducting military operations within Iraq, yet the uneasiness between the two makes it nearly impossible to coordinate.
While no one could have predicted the extreme international complications ISIL has caused, the rise of ISIL may have been preventable altogether. U.S. President Barack Obama won his 2008 campaign in part due to his strong opposition to the war in Iraq. This opposition propelled him to an upset victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary and a blowout win against U.S. Sen. John McCain in the general election. But when the President finally took office, he came to the realization that leaving Iraq would not be as easy as he claimed. With his campaign promise haunting him, Obama forced an early removal of troops from Iraq. This removal left an untrained Iraqi military and an inexperienced Iraqi government in control of the country, a country that was primed for collapse. While more training for the Iraqi military may not have been the answer, U.S. military support in Iraq was still needed. If the U.S. military had remained until the Syrian Civil War ended or the Iraqi people adjusted to democracy, perhaps we would not be dealing with ISIL today.
I’ve got a novel idea. Let’s do nothing. Let the Muslims deal with their own problems for a change. Let’s let countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait with their endless ocean of money and Western-bought armaments figure it out instead. Surely they – being practitioners of the religion of compassion and peace – will step right up to the plate in our stead.
OK, you caught me there. You knew I was kidding! You knew what I know which is that there is no answer to these Islamic cesspools. Whatever we do will be discredited and if we do nothing then Syria will become just another country in the endless line of Hell on Earth Islamic countries.
We cannot save Muslims from themselves. It is like trying to save an alcoholic. Until they are ready to abandon their religion – a religion that emphasizes aggression and violence and sadism – anything we do will simply be a band-aid on a gaping wound.
Let them go through their DTs on their own. Only then will they be ready for our friendship and help, and only then will we find a way forward together as friends.
Gee, I wonder, I just wonder whether all those right-wing extremists – you know, the ones who use Muslim words like jihadist, infidel, caliphate, etc – might actually be onto something.
Maybe, just maybe, Islam really is a violent, supremacist religion in which infidels are so much canon fodder, the caliphate is the ultimate goal and whoever stands in the way is to be rolled over.
Gosh…could it really be that simple?
Well, here’s a little story…
Within 300 years of Mohammed’s birth Islamic jihadists had VIOLENTLY captured all of the Levant, all of North Africa, Spain, Portugal, southern France, Sicily and huge swaths of Asia. Why did they do this, one might ask? Gee, what motivated their blood-thirsty drive for world domination, one might wonder?
Gee, I wonder what Islam’s core tenets are and inquiring mind might ask.
You’re sarcasm hurts my brain
Your*
Hurt my brain so much that I can’t even grammar properly