‘All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again,” goes the nursery rhyme. The ‘Humpty’ in this case is Iraq and neighbouring Syria being destroyed before our eyes, while the world and it’s all singing, all dancing weapons appear to be more show than solution.
The idea that a bunch of some 50,000 wannabe primitives could thrive when targeted by Western airstrikes, national armies, Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah militants, Shiite militias and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters is beyond belief.
If a Hollywood script writer had come up with such a scenario just a few years ago, it would have been rejected as overly fantastical. Because, in reality, the country that’s been touted as ‘the World’s Policeman’ for generations — the foremost power with more than 700 military bases globally, a 1.5 million-strong fighting force and surveillance technologies that can supposedly capture a mole on someone’s nose — would ride to the rescue with great fanfare. But that was then and this is now.
The so-called ‘Islamic State’ now dominates roughly half of Syria and has taken control of Palmyra, where visitors from around the world have flocked to gaze in awe at its Roman archaeological riches, currently under threat of destruction. The exhausted Syrian Army is losing its grip. The regime could fall, which should be good news when it bears the ultimate responsibility for the death of hundreds of thousands of its own citizens. But will its downfall be a time for celebration when what comes after could be the rule of bestiality.
The predominantly secular/moderate Free Syrian Army has all but collapsed, which is no surprise when its promised US weapons failed to manifest. What remains are takfiri terrorist groups, such as Daesh, Al Qaida and the affiliated Al Nusra Front, that despite rifts, would likely join together to send Syria back to the Middle Ages.
And in spite of nine months of US-led airstrikes, Daesh has succeeded in gaining complete control of the Syrian-Iraqi border and is now turning its weapons on the towns of Haditha and Habbaniya, following its capture of Ramadi, just 130 kilometres from Baghdad. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey said sarcastically that the Iraqi Army wasn’t “driven out” of Ramadi, but rather “drove out” of Ramadi, echoing its abandonment of Mosul.
More than 40,000 have fled Ramadi over the past week, the majority heading for the capital, but many are trapped on the banks of the Euphrates River due to the government’s closure of the bridge. Others have been turned back under a new government-imposed system whereby newcomers without “a guarantor” in Baghdad are refused entry, even though as Iraqi nationals they have as much right to their capital as anyone else.
Terrified and exhausted men, women and children are collapsing along the roadside in temperatures nearing 40 degrees centigrade without access to water and food. And how is the leader of the free world responding? It’s a “setback”, says President Barack Obama, who’s rebuffing calls from Republican lawmakers to insert between 10,000-15,000 American boots on the ground.
“If the Iraqis themselves are not willing or capable to arrive at the political accommodations necessary to govern; if they are not willing to fight for the security of their country, we cannot do that for them,” he told The Atlantic. That must be music to the ears of the self-ascribed Caliph Baghdadi and his bloodthirsty following! And may turn out to be a gift to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has already contributed troops and weapons to the fight and has offered the full force of its armies were the government to say the word.
Ineffectual response
When the international community came together at the UN Security Council to take down Saddam Hussain for his non-existent weapons of mass destruction, why this impotent, ineffectual response to halt the trajectory of Daesh, whose tentacles have spread into Libya, Egypt Sinai Peninsula, Palestinian territories, Jordan, Yemen – and Saudi Arabia? Daesh has claimed responsibility for Friday’s suicide bombing of a Shiite mosque in the Saudi region of Qatif, warning of more such “black days” ahead.
Unless there’s some collective decision-making on global and regional levels to do what it takes, it’s only a matter of time before Daesh switches its attention to the US and Europe. Indeed, its sycophants are tweeting: “TNT explosive belt with ball bearing shrapnel. Imagine how much damage this can do in the UK in a place full of people”; “Just learnt how to make suicide belt by my brother. Will be using in London attack”.
In the meantime, ‘the Caliphate’, enriched with sales of oil and archaeological artefacts, has the trappings of a state with a functioning judiciary, government ministries, public utilities, schools and hospitals as well as a propaganda arm geared towards attracting new recruits with an appetite for violence and ready-made brides.
In the final analysis, Daesh’s triumphant march combined with the lackadaisical response of the US and its allies is so utterly bizarre you couldn’t make it up!
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com