WASHINGTON, September 24, 2014 – As serious as the “Coalition against ISIS” sounds, the United States is very much alone in this fight. As many as 40 counties, including ten Arab nations, have agreed to help put an end to ISIS, but the support of those nations rings hollow based on past actions by these “coalition” nations.
While we all should be hopeful, we must keep some facts in mind when predicting the future:
- The Arab nations who have agreed to fight against ISIS are the same countries that pay their clerics to advocate hatred against minorities, most importantly Shia Muslims and Christians, the largest minority populations in the Middle East.
- Saudi Arabia has always been blamed for supporting anti-US movements (i.e. funding al-Qaeda and supporting ISIS). Wahhabism, the state religion in Saudi Arabia, prohibits relations with non-Muslims; this ideology is spreading rapidly in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa with the help of money from Saudi Arabia.
- Scaring off ISIS members in Iraq will only push them back to Syria. Although that sound good for the US in its agenda to defeat Assad, it will only make Syria a safe haven for ISIS. The Syrian army is still struggling to rid their country from ISIS and the US has not been willing to help the Syrian army because Assad is considered an enemy. Without US support, Syria will become an even larger magnet for terrorist.
- ISIS entered Iraq with the help of weaponry and funds that the US sent to the so-called “moderate army” in Syria. Now the US is planning to trust those same ‘moderate’ opposition groups again providing both arms and traiing.
The whole world might join us in the fight against ISIS, but the truth is until such groups no longer receive funds from Arab donors and are encouraged by Wahhabi mentors, not much can be accomplished.
ISIS fighters are different from most armies. ISIS fights for its belief in extreme ISlam and is ready to take any action for the sake of their ideologies, making them more powerful than best trained armies.
US reliance on Arab countries to help fight ISIS is naive, at best.