As reported by CNN, Iraqi TV is airing a popular black comedy these days parodying life under the so-called Islamic State (IS) rule. Among several characters portraying IS' tyrannical rule and barbaric behaviour against minority communities and Western hostages, featuring in it, of course, is a man brandishing a blood-soaked sword. Interestingly, there is also a cowboy representing the US, accompanied by Satan and a woman - purported to be a former wife of the Amir of Qatar - wearing a Star of David pendant. The director is convinced that America, with support from Qatar, brought Satan and Israel together to give birth to IS. Missing from this drama imitating life though are two important characters, namely Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
What we are witnessing today is the outcome of Western government's war in Iraq and an unintended result - just like al Qaeda was of US' first Afghan war - of what they along with regional countries have been doing in Syria. When George W Bush imposed an illegal immoral war on Iraq back in 2003, those conversant with the region's realities had warned that dismantling of the existing power structure would send the entire region in a state of flux. Yet in his arrogance of power Bush went ahead to occupy the country. When faced by a resolute resistance the occupation forces exploited the country's sectarian sensitivities as a diversionary tactic, turning Shias and Sunnis on each other. George W's "Shock and Awe" war left hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead, countless others maimed (remember that little boy after the first bombing in Baghdad who lost both his parents, siblings, and his two arms?) and millions of others wandering for refuge in neighbouring countries. He also disbanded the Iraqi army, rendering millions jobless and moneyless. To top it all, the occupation forces subjected Iraqi prisoners to unspeakable brutalities and indignities. The invasion and occupation radicalised not only Iraqis but countless others.
That is where Abu Bakr Baghdadi, the self-styled Caliph of the Islamic State, comes from. Irate over US invasion of his country, he went on to form an armed resistance group and got arrested, spending four years in a US military prison. Considering American soldiers treatment of prisoners in the infamous Abu Ghuraib prison, it is hardly surprising if reports say he became ever more radicalised, and upon his release in 2009, took over the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq. In the ensuing years, he broke up with al Qaeda adopting a further extreme path.
The US and its regional allies made a second blunder in Syria, which reminds one of George Bernard Shaw's wise words, "if history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must man be of learning from experience." These countries had learned nothing from the Afghan experience that produced Osma bin Laden, Mullah Omar and countless others of their ilk. In their zeal to counter Iran's growing influence in the region, once again, they trained, armed, and financed jihadists for the overthrow of Shia Alawite President Bashar al-Assad's government. A genuine pro-democracy movement was turned into a civil war. The Western backed moderate elements soon found themselves dominated by extremist groups funded by the Gulf's Sunni states. Syria thus became a magnet for the world's jihadists. Washington suddenly realised the danger and gave up the plan to bomb Syrian government forces in support of the rebels, though Saudis, still unmindful of the unfolding horror, pressed Washington to go ahead with the plan. By then the damage was already done. A more extreme version of al Qaeda, ISIS, emerged from the conflict to pose a clear and present threat to Western countries and their local allies' interests in the region and indeed within their own societies.
IS has proved to be a formidable enemy. Helped by former officers of Saddam Hussein's army, and sophisticated US-supplied arms left behind by fleeing Iraqi government troops, its fighters have taken over large swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territories to boast a state of their own. Although at first Gulf countries financed its growth, IS now raises its revenue from oil production in Mosul and other captured territories in Iraq and Syria that is said to fetch it $1-3 million a day, which it sells at a well-established black market. An additional over $12 million per month, say reports, it collects from smuggling and kidnappings for ransom. The revenue is sufficient for administrative purposes as well as for financing its ongoing war for further expansion. Also, the areas under its control include fertile lands that produce enough food stuffs to feed its fighters and the general population. In short, IS is financially self-reliant and confident of its ability to achieve battlefield successes.
'Caliph' Abu Bakr's men must now be giving sleepless nights to Saudis, first because they hold that there can be only one caliph of Muslims to which all must pay allegiance; and that the borders between Muslim states, - they recognise only Sunnis as Muslims - are irrelevant. Second, the Iraqi area under their control is right next to Saudi borders. Caliph Abu Bakr may soon turn his attention to that side. Others involved, near and afar, are all scared. Only Israel would be happy to see fragmentation of Iraq and Syria - its strongest foes - and weakening of their military might.
For now, assisted by US' airstrikes and arms drops, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have managed to stop the IS fighters advance on the western Syrian town of Kobane, bordering Turkey. Some US military advisers have been in Baghdad for a while to help strategize Iraqi army's response to IS' challenge. Ironical as it is, informal assistance is also being sought from Iran - the real target of the fight against the Syrian regime - which, in the first place, had prompted the Gulf Sunni states to patronise the violent extremists now forming IS. Since all members of the international community are at one in trying to "degrade and destroy" IS, it is unlikely to survive for long. But men and women radicalised by Western countries misadventures in the Muslim world and the IS project, will continue to haunt all involved for a long time to come. For those refusing to learn from experience, history has repeated itself in an unexpected way. Doing the same things with the same type of people in same kind of conditions, is bound to produce same result. [email protected]
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