Every news headline related to the militant group Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) seems to be beckoning their demise, in both Iraq and Syria. But Daesh, itself the resurrection of Al Qaida and other militant groups, cannot possibly be defeated unless the causes that led to its rise in the first place are confronted and eradicated as well. Even if Daesh is defeated, or transported elsewhere, Daesh, the idea, will live on. Because ideas are not confined to a battlefield, or a specific country; that is the real danger. The damage of destructive ideas can wreak havoc anywhere and at any time.
No matter what amount of force is applied to quell violent ideologies, they can resurface and flourish again and again. Nor is transporting the problem elsewhere a viable alternative. For example, the Lebanese group Hezbollah, along with the Syrian government, had recently reached at an agreement with Daesh terrorists, who finally surrendered their erstwhile stronghold in the Lebanon-Syria border enclave. In exchange for that surrender, the terrorists were transported to Syria’s eastern Deir Al Zour province, which borders Iraq.
While Lebanese and Syrian residents were relieved to learn of Daesh’s demise in that part of the country, a new nightmare threatens to begin in a different region. Expectedly, the Iraqi government was angered by the agreement, which is seen as swapping an ongoing bloodbath with a protential new one in a different location.
Daesh’s violence was the culmination of the violence meted out by Al Qaida and other groups that originated in Afghanistan, and was eventually transported to Iraq after the US invasion of the once-relatively stable Arab country in 2003. The tactics of the militants may have differed, depending on the circumstances, but the lethal outcomes remained the same.
So, if transporting the problem elsewhere is not the correct answer, does extreme, unabashed counter-attack solve the problem?
Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul has been reduced to rubble. It has been finally conquered, having been snatched back from Daesh after months of merciless bombardment by the United States-led war coalition. But ‘victory’ can hardly be the term assigned to this moment. Mosul, once Iraq’s cultural jewel and model of coexistence, is now a ‘city of corpses’, as described by a foreign journalist who walked through the ruins, while holding his nose to the stench.
“You’ve probably heard of thousands killed, the civilian suffering,” Murad Gazdiev said. “What you likely haven’t heard of is the smell. It’s nauseating, repulsive and it’s everywhere — the smell of rotting bodies.”
Actually, the “smell of rotting bodies” can be found everywhere that Daesh has been defeated. The group that once declared a ‘Caliphate’ in Iraq and Syria in 2014, and was left to freely expand in all directions, is now being hurriedly vanquished. Aside from the city of Mosul in Iraq, Daesh’s stronghold in the city of Raqqa, in the east of Syria, has also been defeated.
Those who, against all odds, managed to survive the battles of Mosul and Raqqa are now holed up in Deir Al Zour, which is Daesh’s last bastion. Considering the transfer of fighters from the Lebanon border in recent days, the battle there promises to be a fierce one. In fact, the war on Daesh is already moving to areas outside large population centres where the militant group had sought safe haven, as is the case in the western Qalamoun region.
Even the open desert is no longer safe. The Badiya Desert, extending from central Syria to the borders of Iraq and Jordan, is now witnessing heavy fighting, centred in the town of Sukhnah.
Brett McGurk, US special envoy for the ‘Global Coalition to Counter [Daesh]’, recently returned to the US after spending a few days in the region. He spoke to CBS television network with palpable confidence.
Daesh forces are “fighting for their life, block-by-block”, he said, reporting that the militant group had lost roughly 78 per cent of the areas it formerly controlled in Iraq, since rising to the peak in 2014, and about 58 per cent of its territories in Syria.
Expectedly, US officials and media are mostly emphasising military gains that they attribute to US-led forces and ignore all the other factors, while Russia-led allies are doing just the opposite. None of the parties involved, however, have taken any responsibility for the rise of Daesh in the first place. Yet, it is imperative that they do and not just as a matter of moral accountability. Without understanding and confronting the reasons behind the rise of Daesh, one is certain that it’s fall will spawn yet another group with an equally nefarious, despairing and violent vision.
Those in mainstream media, who have attempted to deconstruct the roots of Daesh, unwisely confront its ideological influences without paying the slightest heed to the political reality from which the group rose. Whether it is Daesh, Al Qaida or any other such group, they are typically born and reborn in places suffering from the same, chronic ailment: A weak central government, foreign invasion, military occupation and state terror. Terrorism is the by-product of brutality and humiliation, regardless of the source, but is most pronounced when that source is a foreign one.
If these factors are not genuinely addressed, there can be no end to terrorism.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that Daesh was born, moulded and has thrived in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and in areas like the Sinai Desert. Moreover, many of those who answered Daesh’s call also emerged from communities that suffered the cruelty of merciless Arab regimes, or neglect, hatred and alienation in western societies.
The reason that many refuse to acknowledge such a fact — and would fight tooth and nail to discredit such an argument — is that an admission of guilt would make many responsible for the very creation of the terrorism they claim to fight.
Those who are content with blaming Islam, a religion that was one of the main contributing factors to the European cultural renaissance, are not simply ignorant of history; many of them are guided by sinister agendas. But their mindless notion of blaming religion is as senseless as former US president George W. Bush’s ill-defined “war on terror”.
Extensive, uninformed judgements can only prolong conflicts. Moreover, generalised notions prevent us from a narrowed-down attempt at confronting specific, and clearly obvious links, for example, between Al Qaida’s advent in Iraq and the US invasion of that country; between the rise of the sectarian-brand of Al Qaida under Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, and the sectarian division of that country under the watch of the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, and his allies in the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
It is likely that the victory over Daesh will be short-lived. The group will most likely develop a new warfare strategy or further mutate. History has taught us that much.
Strangely, the ‘US-led Global Coalition to Counter [Daesh]’ seems to have access to the firepower needed to turn cities into rubble, but not the wisdom to understand that unchecked violence inspires nothing but violence; and that state terror, foreign interventions and collective humiliation of entire nations are all necessary ingredients to restart the bloodbath.
Dr Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story.
