Sad State of Islamic Affairs

So World War III has begun it seems!  Although nice to see old enemies rallying together for the ‘common good’ it appears that this unusual set of bedfellows, now known as the ‘Allies’, are indeed a rather bastardised bunch of misfits.   The United States seems to me to have opened another can of worms that we’re all going to struggle to control in time to come.  In fact, that statement in itself may be extremely optimistic.  Have we not learned from the history of backing the wrong teams?  Well of course not. 

It wasn’t too long ago that the US endorsed and colluded with the corrupt and dictatorial  Shah Pahlavi of Iran (also our friend in Apartheid SA), in their financing and arming of Kurdish rebels in the Second Kurdish–Iraqi War  in the early ‘70’s.  That was until the Iranian people had had enough and opted for a radical about turn to orthodox fundamentalism through the Islamic Revolution and unceremoniously tossed the Shah and his family out of Iran.  We had already set up Marino Chiavelli’s mansion, Summer Place, in Sandton, for the Shah and his family to reside until he succumbed to cancer in the US whilst still in exile.  Within a few years, Iran had turned back decades of reform.  

Then the US and the French in particular, supported French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac’s close friend, Saddam Hussein, in his ambitions to topple the Iranian Islamic government. With the support of the Arab states, the United States and Europe, along with significant financial aid from the Persian Gulf states, Saddam Hussein became "the defender of the Arab world" against a revolutionary Iran.  It is often conveniently forgotten too that Saddam initiated Iraq's nuclear enrichment project in the 1980s, with French assistance.  That was until the Israeli’s got jittery and decided to destroy the enrichment facility as early as 1981 with a few air to ground missiles.  

The Israelis didn’t buy the ‘allied strategy’ from the start.  Despite this, the US, UK, France and other allies viewed Iraq as "an agent of the civilized world".  The fact that Iraq had tossed international law out of the window and increased violations of international borders; this too was simply ignored by the West.  Instead, Iraq received economic and military support from its ‘then’ allies, who conveniently overlooked Saddam's use of chemical warfare against the Kurds and the Iranians whilst he frustrated Iran's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.  These chemicals incidentally, having been developed from materials and technology supplied primarily by West German companies (just when you thought they’d been destroyed and dismantled after WWII), as well as the Reagan administration.  At the same time, the US also supplied Iraq with satellite imagery showing Iranian deployments, and encouraged Hussein to bomb civilian targets in Tehran and other Iranian cities.  In order to open full diplomatic relations with Iraq, the US removed the country from their little black book list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.  Ironically, they were allegedly developing their own nuclear stash, which turned out to be an embarrassing, bogus ‘mistake’ in the more recent ‘war on weapons of mass destruction’. 

Next there was Osama Bin Laden, who was quietly supported by the US in his war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.  It was believed that he and his al-Qaeda managed to "bring down the mighty superpower" of the Soviet Union in the late ‘80’s just prior to Perestroika.  I know differently.  And so it goes.

So now, in the apparent tunnel vision strategy to wipe out the Islamic State ‘ISIS or ISIL’ or however the CIA decides to spell it this week, we now have the US rallying old Middle Eastern enemies like a flock of tame sheep.  According to President Barack Obama and the Pentagon, only five countries; Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have joined the United States in this week's air-strikes in Syria.  Not surprisingly, that’s not the whole story, as US enemy, Syrian President Bashar Assad, is now a useful mate in-arms (or blind eye).  Although the US can't admit to working with him, because he's the dictator the US supported Syrian rebels are trying to overthrow, the US managed to hit at least 50 targets in three parts of his country, whilst Assad’s substantial and very capable air defenses stayed parked in their bunkers, with not even a radar being deployed against the noisy foreign incursion.  That’s perhaps a little too remarkable wouldn't you say?

Meantime the US also denies coordinating with Assad's ally, Iran. “Iran and the US!” I hear you scream.  Not only that, but all the Gulf states and Sunni tribes are now friends, despite John Kerry’s woeful attempts to say otherwise.  Surely only CNN believe him when he moves his lips.

Despite my relatively short stint in SA Naval Intelligence and regular interactions with NATO Intelligence in the mid ‘80’s, (mainly the CIA, MI3, MI5, MI6 and Israeli Intelligence), I find this strategic approach rather short sighted to say the least.  Surely the Americans and the European allies can see through the desire of some to be armed and supported in the short-term, in order to wreak havoc in the region in the longer-term?  The allies have been guilty of short-term strategic intent far too many times in the past, leaving mayhem and destruction in their wake (I can testify to that from ‘not so wonderful’ personal experience).  More often than not, ‘worse a devil you don’t know than the devil you do’, if one can bastardise the phrase.  

One cannot but abhor what is known as the Islamic State and their ridiculous fundamentalist agenda, in fact I don’t believe it is Islamic at all, and definitely needs to be brought under control very quickly.  Yet I cannot but foresee a melting pot of disaster in the Middle East in the years to come, not to mention the bombing of soft targets within each allied country becoming the norm.  This is no ordinary war and the repercussions are dire.  As I've said so often before, religious fundamentalists (Christian, Jewish, Muslim or other), are impossible to reason with, and yet not easy to identify from within.  It is just too easy for Islamic State militants and just ordinary, disenfranchised Muslim fundamentalists in the West, to pop up all over the world with the desire to seek revenge for whatever ails them.

What is needed here is a removal of the cause, and not the symptoms.