KURDS in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran comprise a wild card that has the potential for coalescing into its own disruptive state.
SYRIA's multifaceted civil war has divided the country into a minimum of three mutually hostile, ill-defined areas: the government territory is the most stable, followed by the ISIS sector. Rebel territory is scattered and no one knows just how many militia-governments are in control of or disputing different areas. These represent the "Syrian rebels" the U.S. thinks will fight ISIS even though their rebellion is against the Assad government.
SYRIAN REBELS, appropriately vetted, may turn out to be as rare as unicorns. So far, Syrian rebels have been a reliable source of arms for ISIS. And Syrian rebels reportedly sold one of the beheaded American reporters to ISIS for cash. Like ISIS, Syrian rebels are predominantly Sunni.
TURKEY is supposed to be part of the burgeoning U.S. coalition, but so far Turkish commitment is limited to allowing the use of a NATO air base. Turkey has contributed to the rise of ISIS. Turkey doesn't want to fight ISIS on the same side as the Kurds who want a piece of Turkey. Turkey doesn't want to disrupt its economic ties to the ISIS region. Predominantly Sunni Turkey doesn't want to fight the predominantly Sunni ISIS coalition, nor does it want to fight on the side of predominantly Shia Iraq or its predominantly Shia ally, Iran.
SAUDI ARABIA's commitment to the coalition is a promise to offer bases for training. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are widely credited with years of sponsoring and building up ISIS. Both countries are predominantly Wahhabi, a stricter-than-Sunni version of Islam. Saudi Arabia has little incentive to contribute significantly to any anti-ISIS coalition.
JORDAN is predominantly Sunni and is an advanced, humane nation, especially in comparison to most of its neighbors. Presently it is home for millions of refugees: from Palestine since 1948; from Iraq since the U.S. war of 2003; and from Syria, since the civil war began. Jordan provides some 50,000 peacekeeping troops to the United Nations. It has trained Iraqi security forces.
GULF COUNTRIES such as Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Oman have offered the use of their air bases and air spaces, but little more. These Islamic states are all predominantly Sunni except Oman, which is Ibadi (predating Sunni and Shia).
The first step on the road to doing stupid stuff is framing the question in a way that allows for only one possible answer. For example, "This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed." If we're all going to get killed if we don't do something, how can we not do something?
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
