About the War on Terrorism, Realities and Implications

Prof. As’ad Abdul Rahman

The world’s war against ISIS (Daesh) and al-Qaeda branch of al-Nusra is easy said than done. The takfiri (those who accuse others of apostasy) ISIS combatants in this war consist of more than 50,000 men in Syria and Iraq aided by thousands of former Ba’athi soldiers and officers who were dismissed from the army by the American occupation of Iraq. Al-Qaeda which gave birth to Daesh has more than 30,000 Arabs and non-Arabs among its ranks. Around 7,000 hail from Chechnya which is a part of the Russian Federation. In such a mix of toxic waste, there are thousands of Western converts fighting alongside in Iraq and Syria. Moreover, there are sleeping and active cells all over the world to wreck the peace and national security of many countries as witnessed by the carnage committed in Paris and cities in Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia and U.S.A  recently.

What makes the takfiri groups extremely deadly to the international security of our world is their beastly and inhumane tactics and their willingness to use unconventional weapons of mass destruction if they have access to them as well as  weapons of  ‘mass disruption’ which can easily be home-made from materials available in every country. Al-Qaeda tried, but failed four times to hit America with the so-called ‘Dirty Bomb’. This alone makes the absolute termination of al-Qaeda and its toxic waste, ISIS (Daesh) a world priority.

There are now two coalitions involved in the developments relating to this war, one led by the United States and consists of 60 other countries.  It is a coalition that is employing air strikes only, with no effective ground troop power, except for the Kurdish forces. The second is an Iranian, Syrian and Russian coalition that is employing air strikes supported by ground troops provided by Syria and Iran who make good use of the very effective Russian strikes.

It is worthy to note in this context an advice in Haaretz to the US-led coalition by Israeli columnist Amir Oren who said that “In order for the war to be effective, the full military force of the United States and of NATO should be deployed. And it is vital to eradicate the impression that the West is waging war against Islam. After all, the direct military intervention of Western powers in Iraq and Libya gave birth to ISIS.”

Air strikes by the U.S-Led coalition of which the American sorties are the only ones effective, are very timid. The U.S. is averaging 10 to 15 sorties per day, compared to 250 to 280 per day during NATO’s Kosovo bombings in 1990 and 110 to 150 sorties per day in Afghanistan in 2001.  Western military commanders agree that air strikes without ground troops can never win a war. The Western side extremely needs effective ground troops like the Kurdish forces on their side whose half is being bombed daily by Turkish air strikes in its war against Daesh/ISIS! Recently, the US decided to send “Special Operations Force” to be on the ground in Iraq, but this force can only operate in Kurdish-held territories because the pro-Iran militia in Iraq vowed, a few days ago, to fight this American force.

The Turkish conduct adds to all these difficulties hampering the Western coalition. Dr. David Phillips’ team of researchers of Columbia University in New York finally completed “a national security report confirming Turkey’s links to ISIS” which was leaked to the American news media last month. Phillips is a foreign affairs expert for the US State Department.   He stated that “Germany and the United States have official documents and audio tape recordings confirming and showing Turkey providing direct military aid to the terrorist groups of ISIS and al-Qaeda (al-Nusra) and economic assistance by purchasing stolen crude oil from which ISIS earns more than $3 million per day. This report confirms the Russian security report handed to the United Nations recently.

Russia’s air strikes in Syria have recently crippled ISIS oil trade with Turkey by destroying 480 tank trucks on their way to the country. There are more than 20 million Muslims in the Russian Federation besides the many millions in the former states of the Soviet Union. Takfiri fighters returning home from Syria and Iraq would wreck the Russian Federation when compared to the harm done militants who hit Paris recently.

The US recently requested (Sunni) Arab ground forces to fight in this war which ISIS and al-Qaeda has turned into a war between ‘Sunnis and Shiites’ and  a ‘Western war against Islam’. The US considers that without Sunni troops ISIS cannot be defeated. ISIS propaganda is gaining it many ‘Sunni supporters’ when it presents its case saying: “The Safawi Shiites in Persia have their Islamic Republic, the Zionist colonial Jews have their Jewish state in Palestine, the Sunni Muslims are forbidden to have their own Islamic Caliphate.” Thus, bombing Shiite houses of worship around the world is inflaming the issue.

Political Islam in all its forms eventually will lead to a theocracy which is absolutely forbidden in Islam. The takfiris who falsely claim to be Christians, Jews, or Muslims not only created religiosities of their own but also made gods in their own beastly images, as well, to worship. The One and only Deity of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed, is a Deity of absolute grace, goodness and mercy confirmed in both; the Torah and Qur’an.