The West can’t impose democracy in the Arab world through puppet rulers
What you need to know:
- But that does not detract from the fact that ‘Jihad Johnny’, the man who so casually and heartlessly cuts off the head of a fellow human being, is one of the British Muslims who were encouraged to venture forth and fight the Syrian regime.
- Islamic State (IS), also known variously as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis) or Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil), is therefore, a Western creation, just as Al-Qaeda morphed from the groupings funded and armed by the US to take the war to the Russians in Afghanistan.
- What the West seems never to have learnt is that it cannot impose democracy in the Arab world through puppet regimes.
- A most idiotic element of the strategy is that in Syria, the United States will continue to support the anti-Assad insurgency in the vain hope that the rebels will be used to fight the IS movement.
Not too long ago, Britain, the US and other Western powers were happy as their citizens of Islamic faith travelled to the deserts of Syria to join the armed insurgency against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Western governments were also happy to provide weapons and cash for campaigning to remove a brutal dictator.
It was all supposed to be part of the Arab Spring that in 2011 toppled Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.
But did the popular revolts, well-fuelled by American, British and French money, weapons, and troops, establish democracy and human, civil and political rights in the Arab world?
Far from it. The overthrow of military strongmen instead created dangerous power vacuums that provided space for the growth of a virulent religious extremism that makes even the Al-Qaeda movement of the unlamented Osama bin Laden look like boy scouts.
Just Monday, French President François Hollande hosted an international Summit in Paris aimed at firming up a global coalition to counter the threat posed by Islamic State militants who, within a short time, have emerged as the greatest threat to world peace.
The Paris gathering came just a few days after the group posted on the Internet the latest instalment of its signature act of depravity and barbarism — a videotape of the beheading of a captive.
The third videotaped slaughter to be aired in less than a month underlines the urgency for international action against a group that deserves total annihilation.
WESTERN CREATION
But that does not detract from the fact that ‘Jihad Johnny’, the man who so casually and heartlessly cuts off the head of a fellow human being, is one of the British Muslims who were encouraged to venture forth and fight the Syrian regime.
Islamic State (IS), also known variously as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis) or Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil), is therefore, a Western creation, just as Al-Qaeda morphed from the groupings funded and armed by the US to take the war to the Russians in Afghanistan.
Even before the rebellion in Syria and elsewhere in the Arab world where the Western powers pumped in money and arms under the pretext of supporting people-led democratic uprising, the United States had sown the seeds of Islamic extremism with the all-advised invasion that toppled Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein.
What the West seems never to have learnt is that it cannot impose democracy in the Arab world through puppet regimes.
I don’t know whether the gathering in Paris Monday paused to consider the fact that the IS group is most firmly rooted in the very countries, Iraq and Syria, where strong military and secular regimes have been toppled or undermined by Western meddling.
The gathering might also have noted that missing from the table were the two countries from the affected region, whose contribution will be vital to any sustained military counter-offensive against the IS renegades: Syria and Iran.
When US President Barack Obama announced his belated strategy last week ahead of the Paris parley, he made it clear that his plan does not factor in any roles for Syria and Iran in the anti-IS coalition.
A most idiotic element of the strategy is that in Syria, the United States will continue to support the anti-Assad insurgency in the vain hope that the rebels will be used to fight the IS movement.
President Obama and the other leaders in the emerging coalition are in need of a reality check.
The campaign against IS will only be won when redundant positions are abandoned so that the countries that are natural enemies of the movement, in the context of Middle East political and religious affiliations, and the balance of military power, are brought on board.
Any successful strategy demands that the US reassesses its past mistakes and accept that it must work with regimes it does not like, but who provide stability and predictability in a volatile region.
[email protected] Twitter: @MachariaGaitho
