INSIDER NEWS
Now is the Time to Confront the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq
By John M. Robertson
According to news accounts, there are 42 conflicts globally at this time in which lives are being lost. Prominent among these is the Russian supported conflict in eastern Ukraine, the brutal invasion by “Islamic State” militant terrorists seizing territory in Syria and Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip and the Chinese incursion into the East China Sea and the South China Sea. Conflicts and threatened military action by North Korea, the Syrian Civil War, rebellion in Libya and Somalia, continued conflict in Afghanistan and the unsettled situation in South Sudan have fallen off the radar screen for now. Some analysts are saying that the world is more dangerous today than at any time since the Second World War. In many of these conflicts, Russia is in serious conflict with the United States and Western Europe which sets the world back to something similar to Cold War Status. Conflicts in the Middle-East pose the greatest threat to the U.S. and its allies with promises of a repeat of the never-to-be-forgotten Nine-Eleven attacks which occurred thirteen years ago this month. The U.K. has already raised its threat level and other western countries including the U.S. may soon need to do the same. A direct invasion of the U.S. has been threatened in retaliation for U.S. aerial strikes in Iraq. Russia has been uncooperative and was successful in thwarting U.S. plans for Syria last year. This month we are taking another look 10 | SEPTEMBER2014
at the radical Islamic organizations in the Middle East and their impact on world peace. The current situation will no doubt eventually influence military and economic decisions in Washington DC concerning Asia and the Western Pacific and that forms the connection to Guam. The article in this space a year ago titled “Conflict in the Middle East” provided an introduction to some of the intricacies that religion plays in politics in this part of the world. Since then conflict has continued and intensified in Syria and Iraq. Most notably, an organization calling itself the “Islamic State” has emerged as a fighting force in Syria then Iraq that has to be dealt with. Sometimes referred to as “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” (ISIS) and sometimes “Islamic State in the Levant” (ISL) it has used the worst forms of terror and fear to gain ground in its effort to supplant existing governments in the region by establishing an Islamic Caliphate based on Sharia Law. This subject was high on the agenda at a NATO conference in Wales during the first week of September, right behind the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Neither the Ukraine nor countries in the Middle East are members of NATO, yet there is no international organization better able to deal with the major issues than a U.S. led coalition under the NATO banner. It is critically important that Sunni Arab countries in the region such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates take a leading role and that is the tricky part. The U.S. and its western allies have not proven successful at nation building in that part of the world and the current situation in Afghanistan and Iraq proves that. Americans are war weary and would not support major ground operations in the Middle East. It must also be remembered that the Arab-Israeli conflict is front and center in the minds CONSTRUCTION NEWS BULLETIN
of officials of those countries and American ally Israel’s recent action in Gaza and annexation of more territory on the West Bank, contrary to U.S. advice, complicates U.S. relations with Arab nations in the region. The Arab League has supported action but how far they will go is an open question. NATO Summit in Wales Back to the NATO conference in Newport, Wales—American allies including the U.K. and France said they would help form an international military coalition to fight a growing threat from Islamic State militants. While members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting were weighing what role they would play, U.S. officials urged them to commit to a strategy that includes providing more arms to Kurdish forces fighting the Islamist insurgents in northern Iraq. The American plan also entails choking off the financial resources the militants rely on to pay their fighters, curbing the flow of foreign extremists and backing Arab forces capable of battling Islamic State. One of the most impassioned pleas at the NATO summit came from King Abdullah of Jordan, who implored world leaders to create a "coalition of the committed" to fight Islamic State, said participants in the private meetings. President Barack Obama's push represents the most ambitious U.S. effort to create an international coalition to combat an extremist threat since President George W. Bush enlisted dozens of nations to fight al Qaeda and its Taliban allies in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. U.S. officials said they were expecting key NATO allies—including the U.K., France and Australia—to commit to the broader fight. One European diplomat, however, said NATO itself shouldn't have a direct role in any military operations in www.guamcontractors.org