West must change Middle East policy to halt this new blowback terrorism

What you need to know:

  • The recent attacks should be understood as “blowback terrorism”: an unintended result of repeated US and European covert and overt military actions throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Central Asia that aimed to overthrow governments and install regimes compliant with Western interests.

  • The public has never really been told the true history of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, or the rise of Isis in Iraq and Syria.

  • Starting in 1979, the CIA mobilised, recruited, trained, and armed Sunni young men (the Mujahideen) to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

  • At the end of the 1980s, with the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan, some elements of the Mujahideen morphed into Al-Qaeda.

Terrorist attacks on civilians, whether the downing over Sinai of a Russian aircraft killing 224 civilian passengers, the horrific Paris massacre claiming 129 innocent lives, or the tragic bombing in Ankara that killed 102 peace activists, are crimes against humanity.

Their perpetrators — in this case, the Islamic State (Isis) — must be stopped. Success will require a clear understanding of the roots of this ruthless network of jihadists.

Painful as it is to admit, the West, especially the United States, bears significant responsibility for creating the conditions in which Isis has flourished.

Only a change in US and European foreign policy vis-à-vis the Middle East can reduce the risk of further terrorism.

THE RISE OF THE MUJAHIDEEN

The recent attacks should be understood as “blowback terrorism”: an unintended result of repeated US and European covert and overt military actions throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Central Asia that aimed to overthrow governments and install regimes compliant with Western interests.

The public has never really been told the true history of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, or the rise of Isis in Iraq and Syria.

Starting in 1979, the CIA mobilised, recruited, trained, and armed Sunni young men (the Mujahideen) to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden, from a wealthy Saudi family, was brought in to help lead and co-finance the operation.

By promoting the core vision of a jihad to defend the lands of Islam (Dar al-Islam) from outsiders, the CIA produced a hardened fighting force of young men displaced from their homes and stoked for battle.

It is this initial fighting force — and the ideology that motivated it — that today still forms the basis of the Sunni jihadist insurgencies, including Isis.

At the end of the 1980s, with the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan, some elements of the Mujahideen morphed into Al-Qaeda.

UNPROVOKED WAR

Blowback against the US began in 1990 with the first Gulf War, when the US created and expanded its military bases in the Dar al-Islam, most notably in Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s founding and holiest sites.

This expanded US military presence was anathema to the core jihadist ideology that the CIA had done so much to foster.

America’s unprovoked war on Iraq in 2003 unleashed the demons.

Not only was the war itself launched on the basis of CIA lies, it also aimed to create a Shia-led regime subservient to the US and anathema to the Sunni jihadists and the many more Sunni Iraqis who were ready to take up arms.

SYRIA'S MILITARY INSURGENCY

In Syria, following President Bashar al-Assad’s violent suppression of peaceful public protests in 2011, the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other regional allies helped to foment a military insurgency that has pushed the country into a downward spiral of chaos and violence.

It is this turmoil that has enabled Isis to capture and defend territory in Syria, Iraq, and parts of North Africa.

Three steps are needed to defeat Isis and other violent jihadists.

First, US President Barack Obama should pull the plug on CIA covert operations.

The use of the CIA as a secret army of destabilisation has a long, tragic history of failure, all hidden from public view under the agency’s cloak of secrecy.

Second, the US, Russia, and the other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council should immediately stop their infighting and establish a framework for Syrian peace.

They have a shared and urgent stake in confronting Isis; all are victims of the terror.

ROLE OF THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL

Moreover, military action against Isis can succeed only with the legitimacy and backing of the UN Security Council.

The UN framework should include an immediate end to the insurgency against Assad, a Syrian ceasefire, a UN-mandated military force to confront Isis, and a political transition in Syria dictated by a UN consensus to support a non-violent political reconstruction.

Finally, the long-term solution to regional instability lies in sustainable development.

The entire Middle East is beset not only by wars but also by deepening development failures: intensifying fresh water stress, desertification, high youth unemployment, poor educational systems, and other serious blockages.

A surge of investment in education, health, renewable energy, agriculture, and infrastructure, financed both from within the region and globally, is the real key to building a more stable future for the Middle East and the world.

The writer is professor of sustainable development, professor of health policy and management, and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is also special adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2015.