Trump’s World – contd.
8) Terrorism has come down several notches: For us to be on the same page lets backtrack a little to a few questions:
a) Was Syria betrayed?
b) What compelled Merkel and Europe to take in the refugees?
c) The psychological battering that Muslim ideologists world over have received from the new President
This is a long post, since either it is told the right way; or not at all. It is also based on my working in the Middle East - quite close to Syria in 2011 -12.
a) We begin with recent event: One salvo of 60 missiles was fired at select targets in Syria in response to Assad’s chemical attack. So what’s unusual? Russia was informed prior to the firing.
Why is Syria important? After all the battles there are between Muslims, right? More specifically between the two divisions of the believers of Islam; the Shia who consider themselves as the Progressives (Iraq) and are contemptuous of the Conservatives, the Sunni. The Sunni consider themselves as the true believers and constitute the majority in Syria (as in Saudi Arabia, Eygpt, Pakistan and in India). Assad and his military are Shia ruling over the majority Sunni Syrians.
The unexpected: Syria, home of the conservatives launched the Arab Spring. This shook the Emirate rulers. Eventually, there was arms supplied covertly but these were sophisticated and the civilians were not trained to use them. So in 2011-12; it was a stalemate. The UN refused to intervene.
Ancient Allepo was the Rome of Middle East; it is now in tatters. My friend (Indian) travelled from Beirut to Allepo by road recently and he was saying that the women were selling themselves on the streets, for food.
Now imagine if the Arab Spring had succeeded – it would have been the first civilian rule in the Middle Eastern world. But President Obama limited American assistance to no-fly zones, restraining Assad from airborne chemical attacks. Putin took advantage of this and allowed the Islamic Caliphate from Iraq. This twofold attack on the civilians exacerbated the crisis leading to the exodus of refugees to EU (2013). In effect, Syrian Resistance that was armed by Obama government, was left to themselves, betrayed.
This was not the first instance of betrayal in the Arab world.
From Wikipedia: At first, Schwarzkopf was ambivalent during the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003. He initially endorsed an invasion after Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations on February 6, 2003. When weapons of mass destruction were not located in the country after the invasion, he changed his stance. He was critical of the lack of a reconstruction plan after the fall of Baghdad, feeling the initial offensive operations plans did not take into account the cultural complexities of Iraq.
--xx—
b) And so EU’s Merkel opened the doors to immigrants, decent people who had left their homes under threat from Assad / ISIS combo; and then imposed immigration quota on other EU countries as Germany got overwhelmed. What else could she do? Go to war and remove the root cause ‘Assad’ because American leadership refused to do more than create no-fly zones? All she could do and did convince Canada and the US to take in the refugees.
US agreed to 10,000 refugees; this was before the Boston Bombing. So why then the bombing?
Because if you help the Sunni refugees, the Shia are outraged and vice-a-versa.
--xx--
Now to the Sunni refugees in their new homelands; great, but no jobs. So predictably youth formed gangs and began to bite the hand that was feeding them; harassing women on the streets.
--xx –
c) Then comes the new American President and all he says is “Muslim Ban”. The world sits up. This includes, the field terrorists, their financial sponsors and ideologists; and of course the Muslim Mayor of London who retaliates by banning the American President from entering London!!
ISIS threats are real and present. As recently as a week ago, we in India received a threat from ISIS on bombing a Krishna temple in a southern state that is now reeling under unprecedented floods. (ISIS looks for soft targets).
So while these threats hang; the one thing that has been achieved on Muslim community is a psychological shakeup. President Trump has battered Islamic ideology by exposing its basic flaw that is, a Muslim may kill a non believer to find his place in Paradise.
In what has been a socially sensitive and politically correct world; President Trump has declared that he will search, locate and wipe out ISIS. No world leader had till date declared war on ISIS / terrorism; because ISIS field operatives live in their midst.
Corollary 1: President Trump may be termed as a braggart by his people but ISIS believe that the President’s threat is for real. Terrorism has dropped down several notches since his assuming the Office.
Corr 2: States sponsoring Terrorism are now on world radar. Pakistan's proxy military government, for instance.
---xx---
Apologies for writing in so pompous a manner – on terrorism, seems there’s no other way
Don't see any thumbs up (or down) so question remains; should we move onto the more important Point 7 - or leave it here.
