US, Gulf allies blame each other for rise of Islamic State

[webfact]

US, Gulf allies blame each other for rise of Islamic State
James M Dorsey
RSIS


A US Navy F-18E Super Hornet refuels over northern Iraq after conducting air strikes in Syria on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is likely to emerge as a winner while his allies Russia and Iran lie low over their abetting of jihadists

WASHINGTON: -- The United States-led coalition marshalled to confront the Islamic State, the brutal jihadist group that controls a large swathe of Syria and Iraq, has launched systematic air strikes against IS positions and targets in Syria as well as Iraq. They comprise besides the US, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan as well as Qatar in a supportive role.

Before the air strikes began, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif charged most of the alliance's members, whom he dubbed a "coalition of repenters", with contributing to the Islamic State's rise by supporting armed opposition to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. While not far off the mark the Iranian minister would have hit the nail squarely on the head had he included Russia, a member of the coalition, as well as his own country, though it had not been invited to the alliance's founding meeting in Paris earlier this month.

Sharing responsibility

If anything, Russia and Iran may even share a greater responsibility because as Assad's main backers they were more likely to have been privy to the Syrian leader's grand strategy to defeat the popular uprising-turned armed rebellion against him. If Iran blames the United States for supporting the Syrian rebels, America's Arab allies argue that Washington's failure to supply moderate Syrian rebels with the sophisticated weaponry and funding they needed to defeat Assad's forces or allow Gulf states to do so, created a vacuum that the Islamic State filled.

Frustrated by the US failure, Gulf states and Turkey aided a host of rebel groups, including the Islamic State, in a bid to topple Assad with or without full-fledged US support. Their resolve was strengthened by the fact that Assad enjoyed the support of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and its Lebanese Shi'ite ally Hezbollah.

In doing so, the US and its allies walked into the trap Assad had set for them. For much of the last three years of bitter fighting in Syria that has killed an estimated 160,000 people and displaced 6.5 million others, Assad's troops have confronted non-jihadist forces rather than those of the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant (ISIL), the name by which the group was known before it rebranded itself as the Islamic State in June. Assad's sparing of the jihadists was designed to allow them to emerge as the dominant force rallied against him so that he could project himself as indispensable in the struggle to contain Islamist extremism.

Syrian support for jihadists dates back to aid provided by the Assad government to al-Qaeda in Iraq for targeting of US troops, according to documents captured by American forces in 2007 in Iraq's Sinjar mountains and published by the US Military Academy at West Point. The documents reveal that Syria facilitated the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq. Many of them were Saudi and North African nationals, who today are among the largest of Islamic States' foreign fighter contingents. They utilise the same support structures and logistics networks that were originally established in Iraq with Syrian aid. Moreover, several Islamic State operatives are men who were detained by Syrian authorities on charges of terrorism and later released in a series of general amnesties, according to the New York Times.

Assad's win-win strategy

Assad's strategy has worked well. Islamic State has emerged as the Syrian leader's foremost opponent. The United States and its allies struggled with how to confront the group not only in Iraq but also in Syria without legitimising or cooperating with the one Arab leader whose ouster they sought. Irrespective of whatever strategy the allies develop, Assad benefits. Cooperation with his regime, as is being demanded by Russia, would bring Assad in from the cold. If the coalition opts to take on the Islamic State in Syria without coordination with Damascus, Assad can sit back as his enemies confront the most immediate threat to his regime and do the dirty work for him.

It is hard to believe that Iran and Russia, with their intimate involvement in the Assad regime's battle for survival, had been oblivious to the Syrian leader's nurturing of jihadist forces first in Iraq and, since the eruption of widespread opposition to his regime in 2011, in Syria itself. It was a high risk strategy for both Russia, with its soft underbelly in the Caucasus repeatedly wracked by jihadist violence, and Iran that sits at one extreme of the Middle East's increasing Sunni-Shi'ite divide.

Like with US and Gulf policy failures and mistakes, Russia and Iran's high-risk gamble resembles a chicken that has come home to roost, witness Russia's inclusion in the US-led alliance against Islamic State and Iran's support for the war against the group. Their opposition to Islamic State is nonetheless tempered by their efforts to legitimise Assad by insisting that he be acknowledged in military strikes against the group inside Syria. There is little reason to doubt Russia and Iran's sincerity in wanting to confront the Islamic State. That however does not erase the legitimate suspicion that they more than others were witting accomplices in IS's rise given the nature of their involvement with the Assad regime.

James M Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of Wurzburg and the author of a blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the same title.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/US-Gulf-allies-blame-each-other-for-rise-of-Islami-30244133.html


-- The Nation 2014-09-26

[MJP]

With so many countries actively involved I can see disagreements escalating and this becoming WWIII.

[ABCer]

Looks fantastic! Both ships are most vulnarable during this procedure. One stone for two birds?

I said it before: With friends like this one needs no enemies.

Edited September 25, 2014 by ABCer

[coma]

USA guilty as charged. The Iraq invasion then the lack of support for Assad in his fight against Islamic insurgents, and in fact the US's support for these insurgents in Syria had created an environment that has cultured ISIS/ISIL into what it is today.

The only way to fix it now is to back Assad, draw a line on the map in Syria, and create a free fire zone north - northwest of that line. Whilst the Kurds,Iraqis and Iranians squeeze them up from the West.

Time for the US to eat some humble pie and team up with their self proclaimed enemies in the name of global unity and to destroy IS now.

[Ulysses G.]

The only way to fix it now is to back Assad

That ain't going to happen.

[ezzra]

That Islamic state will not survive one day if their funding recourses will be stopped or curtailed,

yet, they're moving funds, oil, armaments and commodities around with impunity and making the efforts of

the international communities to stop them a laughing stock... this would have happened without the help of

other self serving rouge states and countries that aid and abide those terrorist with their evil

deeds,

stop all those countries that profits in any way shape or form from seeing ISIS flourish, and you have

stopped ISIS dead in their tracks....

[lovetotravel]

USA guilty as charged. The Iraq invasion then the lack of support for Assad in his fight against Islamic insurgents, and in fact the US's support for these insurgents in Syria had created an environment that has cultured ISIS/ISIL into what it is today.

The only way to fix it now is to back Assad, draw a line on the map in Syria, and create a free fire zone north - northwest of that line. Whilst the Kurds,Iraqis and Iranians squeeze them up from the West.

Time for the US to eat some humble pie and team up with their self proclaimed enemies in the name of global unity and to destroy IS now.

Guilty along with Russia and Iran. It's a mess and is due to outsiders being involved. With Russia and Iran first on the spot, others following shortly thereafter.

[BestBitterPhuket]

What a load on nonsense! There is no way that Assad would allow thousands of jihadists to enter Syria to fight his already badly battered army. I cringed when I read this.

[Utley]

USA guilty as charged. The Iraq invasion then the lack of support for Assad in his fight against Islamic insurgents, and in fact the US's support for these insurgents in Syria had created an environment that has cultured ISIS/ISIL into what it is today.

The only way to fix it now is to back Assad, draw a line on the map in Syria, and create a free fire zone north - northwest of that line. Whilst the Kurds,Iraqis and Iranians squeeze them up from the West.

Time for the US to eat some humble pie and team up with their self proclaimed enemies in the name of global unity and to destroy IS now.

"USA guilty as charged" - get a life.

ISIS (now IS) was originally formed by the remnants of the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Bath Party - two very important groups that Paul Bremer refused to allow to participate in the rebuilding of Iraq. Paul Bremer, as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority controlling Iraq after the brief war, took his instructions from Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Disbanding the Iraqi Army and the Bath Party didn't mean that these two groups would just disappear as hope, however. They regrouped in Syria and are now back on the offensive with a vengeance. Originally engaging these two groups in the rebuilding of Iraq would have been a much better strategy. In hindsight, Cheney and Rumsfeld made one of the worst calls in modern history - IMHO.

[Daniel Boon]

When American oil companies found their oil under the sands of Arab countries is when it started ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdRBOYseFdY

[boomerangutang]

If it pisses off Iran Mullahs, it's probably a good thing.

What a tangled web of problems in that part of the world. Maybe someone could an invent a powder which, when ingested, renders the user to permanently forget all dogmatic religious teachings. Then clandestinely mix the powder in with drinking water supplies in that region. Not sure how it would affect the camels, though.

[coma]

USA guilty as charged. The Iraq invasion then the lack of support for Assad in his fight against Islamic insurgents, and in fact the US's support for these insurgents in Syria had created an environment that has cultured ISIS/ISIL into what it is today.

The only way to fix it now is to back Assad, draw a line on the map in Syria, and create a free fire zone north - northwest of that line. Whilst the Kurds,Iraqis and Iranians squeeze them up from the West.

Time for the US to eat some humble pie and team up with their self proclaimed enemies in the name of global unity and to destroy IS now.

"USA guilty as charged" - get a life.

ISIS (now IS) was originally formed by the remnants of the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Bath Party - two very important groups that Paul Bremer refused to allow to participate in the rebuilding of Iraq. Paul Bremer, as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority controlling Iraq after the brief war, took his instructions from Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Disbanding the Iraqi Army and the Bath Party didn't mean that these two groups would just disappear as hope, however. They regrouped in Syria and are now back on the offensive with a vengeance. Originally engaging these two groups in the rebuilding of Iraq would have been a much better strategy. In hindsight, Cheney and Rumsfeld made one of the worst calls in modern history - IMHO.

"Get a life " !!!

One can crap on about the past as you are doing but that cannot fix the future.

Live in the past if you will but don,t get in the way of those looking for a solution.

[Utley]

USA guilty as charged. The Iraq invasion then the lack of support for Assad in his fight against Islamic insurgents, and in fact the US's support for these insurgents in Syria had created an environment that has cultured ISIS/ISIL into what it is today.

The only way to fix it now is to back Assad, draw a line on the map in Syria, and create a free fire zone north - northwest of that line. Whilst the Kurds,Iraqis and Iranians squeeze them up from the West.

Time for the US to eat some humble pie and team up with their self proclaimed enemies in the name of global unity and to destroy IS now.

"USA guilty as charged" - get a life.

ISIS (now IS) was originally formed by the remnants of the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Bath Party - two very important groups that Paul Bremer refused to allow to participate in the rebuilding of Iraq. Paul Bremer, as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority controlling Iraq after the brief war, took his instructions from Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Disbanding the Iraqi Army and the Bath Party didn't mean that these two groups would just disappear as hope, however. They regrouped in Syria and are now back on the offensive with a vengeance. Originally engaging these two groups in the rebuilding of Iraq would have been a much better strategy. In hindsight, Cheney and Rumsfeld made one of the worst calls in modern history - IMHO.

"Get a life " !!!

One can crap on about the past as you are doing but that cannot fix the future.

Live in the past if you will but don,t get in the way of those looking for a solution.

Before you can craft a solution, you need to accurately understand how the current situation came about.

Backing maniac depressants like Assad is what has caused the U.S. to eat humble pie in the past; the taste of which is growing old.

Edited September 26, 2014 by Utley

[Time Traveller]

deleted post

Edited September 26, 2014 by Time Traveller

[Time Traveller]

When American oil companies found their oil under the sands of Arab countries is when it started ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdRBOYseFdY

Fox news stupidity. The US has more oil in their own country than it can pump these days. And their friend to the north Canada has even much more than that.

Oil may have been a justification 14 years ago, it ain't anymore.

Next conspiracy theory?

[coma]

USA guilty as charged. The Iraq invasion then the lack of support for Assad in his fight against Islamic insurgents, and in fact the US's support for these insurgents in Syria had created an environment that has cultured ISIS/ISIL into what it is today.

The only way to fix it now is to back Assad, draw a line on the map in Syria, and create a free fire zone north - northwest of that line. Whilst the Kurds,Iraqis and Iranians squeeze them up from the West.

Time for the US to eat some humble pie and team up with their self proclaimed enemies in the name of global unity and to destroy IS now.

"USA guilty as charged" - get a life.

ISIS (now IS) was originally formed by the remnants of the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Bath Party - two very important groups that Paul Bremer refused to allow to participate in the rebuilding of Iraq. Paul Bremer, as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority controlling Iraq after the brief war, took his instructions from Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Disbanding the Iraqi Army and the Bath Party didn't mean that these two groups would just disappear as hope, however. They regrouped in Syria and are now back on the offensive with a vengeance. Originally engaging these two groups in the rebuilding of Iraq would have been a much better strategy. In hindsight, Cheney and Rumsfeld made one of the worst calls in modern history - IMHO.

"Get a life " !!!

One can crap on about the past as you are doing but that cannot fix the future.

Live in the past if you will but don,t get in the way of those looking for a solution.

Before you can craft a solution, you need to accurately understand how the current situation came about.

Well then. That being the case. What is your solution ? Edited September 26, 2014 by coma

[wileycoyote]

problem is ,that this jihad could easily escalateinto anti-Christian

[Utley]

"USA guilty as charged" - get a life.

ISIS (now IS) was originally formed by the remnants of the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Bath Party - two very important groups that Paul Bremer refused to allow to participate in the rebuilding of Iraq. Paul Bremer, as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority controlling Iraq after the brief war, took his instructions from Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Disbanding the Iraqi Army and the Bath Party didn't mean that these two groups would just disappear as hope, however. They regrouped in Syria and are now back on the offensive with a vengeance. Originally engaging these two groups in the rebuilding of Iraq would have been a much better strategy. In hindsight, Cheney and Rumsfeld made one of the worst calls in modern history - IMHO.

"Get a life " !!!

One can crap on about the past as you are doing but that cannot fix the future.

Live in the past if you will but don,t get in the way of those looking for a solution.

Before you can craft a solution, you need to accurately understand how the current situation came about.

Well then. That being the case. What is your solution ?

I don't have a solution to the problems in the Mid East. But if I did I know it would not involve propping up psychopathic dictators like Assad (which the U.S. has done in the past much to its chagrin).

IMHO, any long term solution is going to be based on this basic principle: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

Other than that - your guess is as good as mine.

[simple1]

What a load on nonsense! There is no way that Assad would allow thousands of jihadists to enter Syria to fight his already badly battered army. I cringed when I read this.

Assad's support for Jihadists to acheive his dictatorship's strategic goals has been going on for a quite a while. Have a read of the content at URL below, one of numerous reports on this topic, that puts it in perspective.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/assad-helped-build-al-qaeda-in-syria-2014-1

[Daniel Boon]

America reluctantly entered the war against Germany (German was one vote away from being the USA's prime language; now more people in the USA speak Spanish, but that, is probably beside the point); until they found out the money to be made ... so awoke the not so gentle giant and quickly became the world bully boy (along with the USSR) ... interference in every country is the modus operandi of the USA ruling elite, the 'neo-cons' thieves one and all ...

The Baathist Party of Iraq was put in power and supported by the USA; they learned every dirty trick of duplicity in the book, so its ironic that but totally understandable about mot American's ignorance of world affairs that their government plunges them into conflict to steal energy from all and sundry.

This is a Pandora's Box ... significant annihilation of the world's excessive population will occur ... as with every species and civilization; consuming more than the environment has; and as the world's resources are consumed, and the very thing that is needed to maintain a 'peace' - economic growth - grows less likely, the less compassionate and more brutal we will become.

i remember one of my first Playboy magazines (45+ years ago), there was a cartoon character of an Americans soldier with mayhem all around, blood and guts, no vegetation and he says " I think I won" ...

[metisdead]

A post containing profanity has been removed.

[lee b]

With so many countries actively involved I can see disagreements escalating and this becoming WWIII.

With the state of the world i'm shocked that this already has not happened. Everyone is to blame except ones self.

[ABCer]

This finger pointing is a useless bickering and waste of time.

USA is no Angel. I am not a stickler for USA. But what is fair is fair.

Islamic State is a direct consequence of Islam. Eat this you money and oil soggy Gulf!

And Islam, Islam States and Islam Politics and Methods precede USA.

USA Gulf Allies will not be quick to admit this.

[ABCer]

With so many countries actively involved I can see disagreements escalating and this becoming WWIII.

Don't be silly....

vinniekintana, please tell me what is silly about it?

WWI - started with killing Ferdinand. Not on camera.

WWII - started in slow motion after many 'insignificant' appropriations of European countries by Germany.

WWIII - has been already fought by free economics against the commies and won accidentally by the 'peaceful' means. Thus it wasn't noticed.

WWIV - is unfolding now before our eyes between Islam and the rest of the world.

Whether the beginning of this war will be considered Afghans, Iraq, Arab Spring or beheadings - this is for future historians to say.

Whether warring sides are wearing uniforms is not important.

The number of participating countries is already high.

The number of people participating willingly or unwillingly is (potentially) in Billions.

The outcome? - More or less predictable. But the kind of people and their mentality after this war will be very different from today's.

I want to hope our children will be luckier and happier than we are.

Call me silly if you want.

Edited September 27, 2014 by ABCer

[Thakkar]

http://www.loonwatch.com/2011/12/we-re-at-war-and-we-have-been-since-1776/

Calander years The US has been at war since 1776

War: 214 years

Not at war: 21 years

T

[jamhar]

The US takes action, we get critized

The US takes No action, we get critized

Might as well do the one that cost the least amount of resources and lives.

The credit the story gives to assad is insulting. Yep hes so smart he had this planned from the beginning.

Infact, he did everything he did for the past decades, JUST to get the IS to this point! WHAT A MAN!

To the gulf allies. Hey its YOUR back yard. Take responsibility for it! Man UP.

If you're ready to join the battle now, please come in. The water feels fine!

Just my 2 cents

[Daniel Boon]

The US takes action, we get critized

The US takes No action, we get critized

Might as well do the one that cost the least amount of resources and lives.

The credit the story gives to assad is insulting. Yep hes so smart he had this planned from the beginning.

Infact, he did everything he did for the past decades, JUST to get the IS to this point! WHAT A MAN!

To the gulf allies. Hey its YOUR back yard. Take responsibility for it! Man UP.

If you're ready to join the battle now, please come in. The water feels fine!

Just my 2 cents

The USA's interference - before the fact - is instrumental to many problems Assad was put in power by the USofA ...

[Daniel Boon]

With so many countries actively involved I can see disagreements escalating and this becoming WWIII.

Don't be silly....

vinniekintana, please tell me what is silly about it?

WWI - started with killing Ferdinand. Not on camera.

WWII - started in slow motion after many 'insignificant' appropriations of European countries by Germany.

WWIII - has been already fought by free economics against the commies and won accidentally by the 'peaceful' means. Thus it wasn't noticed.

WWIV - is unfolding now before our eyes between Islam and the rest of the world.

Whether the beginning of this war will be considered Afghans, Iraq, Arab Spring or beheadings - this is for future historians to say.

Whether warring sides are wearing uniforms is not important.

The number of participating countries is already high.

The number of people participating willingly or unwillingly is (potentially) in Billions.

The outcome? - More or less predictable. But the kind of people and their mentality after this war will be very different from today's.

I want to hope our children will be luckier and happier than we are.

Call me silly if you want.

[BATHIK]

To the gulf allies. Hey its YOUR back yard. Take responsibility for it! Man UP.

I suspect they do not consider beheadings of a few westerners as a reason enough to get engaged. Nor do they particularly care about Iraq and Syria losing a bit of territory. Plus they are not going to ally with Shias and Iran against their Sunni brothers, plus IS' Wahhabism is Saudi's creation and is very popular on the peninsula.

In this case it's a good thing that Arab governments are authoritarian and can commit their countries to wars without asking their people but how far can they stretch this is unknown. At some point they will have to explain themselves to their populations or face a new Arab spring. Saudi clans can exploit war with IS for their internal political gains but that makes them unreliable allies in a war that is supposed to last years.

[Chicog]

That's a long old article at the top there.

I'm just waiting for someone to sweep in and chop it under the "fair use" rule.