This disease demands a global cure
Politically-correct attitudes can help in times of peace, but this is war and combating the Daesh menace requires getting a handle on the threats
Western capitals have had a tendency to view Daesh’s (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) barbarity as a problem affecting the Middle East and North Africa. But this “unlikely-to-happen-to-us” mentality is likely to change following Friday’s massacres of foreign tourists in Tunisia and Shiite worshippers in Kuwait City for which Daesh proudly claimed responsibility. Sad to say that the images of Iraqi children being crucified by Daesh, being sold as sex slaves or being forced into becoming suicide bombers have not been sufficient to galvanise world powers into taking meaningful action to cleanse this sickness from the earth. If those children had been American, British or French the reaction would have been very different.
Daesh was permitted by default to grab large swathes of Syria and Iraq because as long as that was happening over there and not on our doorstep, who cares — or so one can assume from the lackadaisical approach adopted by the US-led coalition. Its bombing campaign has proven to be ineffective and are we to say three cheers because US President Barack Obama has sent 450 military advisers to the country, with 3,000 of their non-combatant colleagues already there? Obama has indicated that, while he is willing to assist, the job falls to the Iraqi army that is more adept at fleeing than fighting, and as for Syria, Obama is more of an ostrich than the ‘Leader of the Free World’. His plan is to train ‘moderate’ opposition fighters and for that he needs to get his people to start searching under haystacks. In the meantime, Daesh is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its “caliphate” built on skulls of innocent beings. A separate lone-wolf terrorist attack in Grenoble, marked by Daesh’s trademark decapitation, had a similar ideological hallmark.
Coming on the heels of the Charlie Hebdo killings, French authorities are rattled by such an infectious mind-altering creed that turns individuals said to be “nice guys” into black flag-wielding fiends. Interestingly, those “lovely people” — or so their family and friends would have us believe — involved in both incidents were being monitored by France’s intelligence services for some time, but because their names did not appear on a wanted list, they were free to go about their dirty business. It seems the United Kingdom has managed to dodge the bullet .... for now. A Daesh plot to explode a pressure cooker bomb in south London, aimed at killing British soldiers parading during Armed Forces Day on Saturday, was thwarted by an undercover journalist. Nevertheless, most of the 38 innocent holidaymakers, gunned down while relaxing on a beach in the Tunisian resort of Sousse, were British nationals.
Burgeoning radicalisation
The Obama administration is guilty of neglect for fear of antagonising war-weary voters sick of seeing American soldiers return from the region in body bags or missing limbs. But that is shortsighted when Iraq’s sectarianism is a direct result of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and America’s civilian population is at risk from battle-hardened nationals returning from not only Iraq and Syria, but also Libya and elsewhere.
Europe’s vulnerability is even greater due to geographical proximity and because little has been done by countries such as Britain and France to tackle the burgeoning radicalisation of Muslim youth. Until recently, the UK had taken the line of appeasement. Numerous videos posted on YouTube show radicals staging antigovernment demonstrations all over the country, calling for the British police “to go to hell”, chanting that they do not recognise UK laws, while handing out Daesh recruitment leaflets. Despite the incontrovertible reality that countries all around, including Tunisia — hailed by the western media as the only democratic Arab state — are battling sectarian violence and terrorism, while Egypt is successfully getting a handle on such threats, the condemnatory noises from western leaders remain deafening.
Politically-correct attitudes can be respected in times of peace, but this is war. And it is about time the international community recognises that and comes together to offer effective solutions.