As we witness the brutalization of Iraq by the ISIS terror
organization consider this. This Islamic march of death leads to Jerusalem.
The leading phenomenon that resulted from the call of the
people in the Arab world against unsatisfactory leaders has been their cause
being hijacked by insurgent jihadi terrorists. We saw that in Libya with the
fall of Gadhafi. We saw it in Egypt where Mubarak was replaced by the Muslim
Brotherhood, in this case an in-house jihadi movement. We see it in Syria where
the people’s cry against Assad has led to an influx of Al-Qaida type groups
vying for dominance. Now we witness the fall of Iraq by a vicious Islamic
terror regime against which Al-Qaida pales into moderation.
The Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) is headed by Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi. He transformed a few small terror cells into the most brutal and
lethal terror group on earth. Mercy is not in this man’s vocabulary. Abu Bakr
picked up the mantle after Abu Omar al Baghdadi was
killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation in 2010.
Al-Qaida in Iraq was under the
leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who, in a 2005 letter to the head of
Al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri, put the aims of Al-Qaida in Iraq into four stages;
- Drive
America out of Iraq.
- Create
a Caliphate in Iraq.
- Use
that as a base to attack other countries.
- Attack
Israel.
When both al-Zarqawi and al-Baghdadi were killed by
American forces it looked as if Al-Qaida was decimated in Iraq, but Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi reformed a weakening terror group by leading it in battle, honing
its fighters training and experience in Iraq and Syria, and by using political
savvy by linking his growing group to local and tribal demands and interests.
It became both a fighting force and social benefactor, winning local hearts and
minds along a bloody path of victory. He absorbed the al-Nusra Front terror
group in Syria into his ranks, demanding their obedience. Seeing the growing
threat, Al-Qaida’s al-Zarqawi , from his hiding place somewhere in Afghanistan
or Pakistan, criticized ISIS for not concentrating on Iraq. In response, a
confident ISIS hit back, accusing the Al-Qaida chief of “Sheikh Osama (bin Laden) gathered all the mujahedeen
with one word, but you divided them and tore them apart.”
ISIS has attracted thousands of foreign fighters to its
ranks, increasing its power and size.
The shockwaves caused by its Iraqi Blitzkreig in seizing the towns of
Mosul, Tikrit, and Fallujah was met by a mocking response by ISIS. “The battle is not yet raging, but it will rage in
Baghdad and Karbala. Put on your belts and get ready” as they contemptuously called Iraqi leader, Nouri
al-Maliki, an “underwear salesman.”
Clearly, the battle for Iraq is
along sectarian lines with the Sunni ISIS, representing the majority of Iraqis,
challenging the Shia al-Maliki rule. Clearly also was al-Maliki’s refusal to
allow American forces to stay on in Iraq, but the ISIS victories were enhanced
by the military vacuum in Iraq following the American pull-out, and this
responsibility can be put at Obama’s White House door.
Obama’s self-proclaimed foreign
policy “achievements” have been US troop withdrawals from Iraq, and “Al-Qaida
has been decimated and is on the run!” These two boasts have now come back
to haunt him. Al-Qaida has morphed into a bigger monster that is about to take
over Iraq. And what was President Obama’s response? “We don’t have the resources. Let the
local leaders deal with them.” This is short-sighted weakness, and
dangerous. This was emphasized on
Friday, 13 June, when Obama, confronted by the deteriorating situation in Iraq,
decided to head off to California for a fund-raising event and some golf.
America spilled blood and
treasure in Iraq including 4500 lives, $17 billion in military training to
Iraqi forces, and $15 billion in military equipment. Now ISIS terrorists are
seen driving around in American military Humvees.
The United States embassy in
Baghdad is the largest global American embassy. It has 15,000 workers. It would
be wrong to say that they did not pick up intelligence on the gathering Islamic
terror storm. They did, and it fed it up the chain to the State Department and
the White House, for months. Neither of those bodies acted on the intel. As one
staffer told Lt. Colonel Ralph Peters, “We couldn’t convince the President
that this is serious!”
Now the Baghdad embassy could be
under ISIS fire, making Benghazi look like child’s play. And attack on
Americans will not end there.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was
captured, imprisoned, and then released by America in Iraq, just as Obama recently
released the five top Al-Qaida/Taliban prisoners at Gitmo. America, and others,
will pay for both these foolish gestures. As Ken King, the Commander of the
Bucco Camp that was ordered to release al-Baghdadi, related on the Fox News
“Kelly Files” program, as a parting shot the ISIS leader glared at King and
warned, “I’ll see you in New York!”
In a strange twist on “the
enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Republican lawmakers called for a
partnership with Iran to stop ISIS from attacking Baghdad. Senator Lindsey
Graham warned that ISIS “will eventually march on Jordan and Lebanon. They’re
going to take the King of Jordan down.” The unspoken implication is that
Israel will be next.
ISIS is now pumping Iraqi oil.
It grabbed half a trillion dollars when it seized Iraq’s central bank in Mosul
making it the richest terrorist organization in the world.
ISIS has been called too extreme
for Al-Qaida with justification. Al-Baghdadi is being crowned “the next Bin
Laden.”
ISIS is guilty of wholesale massacres
in Syria, leaving the bodies to rot for all to see. It beheaded a top rival
rebel commander, leaving his head in the middle of the market where everyone
could see their handiwork. Amnesty International listed a few of their atrocities
in their 18 page report “Rule of fear; ISIS abuses in detention is northern
Syria.” They have conducted hundreds
of executions, beheadings, even crucifixions in Mosul, Iraq. They destroy
anything that is not Islamic, such as the Assyrian Church in Mosul. Hundreds
have been slain for being “infidels.”
Once Islamic ISIS establishes
its permanent presence in Iraq, as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon and Hamas in
Gaza, it will strengthen its grip on Syria. While looking down on Israel from
the Golan Heights, it is likely to turn its attention to a militarily weak
Lebanon, seeking to remove the Shiite Hezbollah from power, taking over its
armoury of a hundred thousand rockets, and taking control of that country. From
its northern hegemony in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria it will target Jordan with
the intention of deposing, or killing, the Hashemite king, as a preliminary
step to taking over his country. If
America, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia do not immediately move to strengthen the
Kingdom, King Abdullah will be exposed to mortal danger, granting ISIS control
over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan in their march to a global Caliphate, and
Stage 4 of their original plan.
Israel would be advised to keep
a sharp eye on a future move by ISIS to attack or infiltrate Jordan via Syria.
Who is to say that radical Palestinians and Islamists in Jordan will not open
the gates of that country to ISIS, just as Syrians reached out to them at their
cost?
When that scenario is achieved,
Israel will be exposed to a threatening and powerful terror enemy stretching
from Rosh HaNikra on the northern Mediterranean to Mount Hermon in the north
east of Israel, sweeping through the Golan Heights and down the Jordan Valley
to the Dead Sea and the Red Sea in the south.
In the turmoil that is the
Middle East, where regimes are falling and nations are toppling, who is to say
that such a nightmare scenario is not possible unless ISIS is stopped in its
tracks now?
Barry Shaw is the special
consultant on delegitimization issues to the Strategic Dialogue Center at
Netanya Academic College. He is the author of ‘Israel Reclaiming the
Narrative.’ www.israelnarrative.com
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