ISIS are not from Mars

Reuters photo

By

Sami Jamil Jadallah

“There undeniably will be no ISIS if we did not invade Iraq” –  David Kilcullen, former Chief Strategist in the Office of the Coordinator of Counter-Terrorism. ISIS just like the “Mujahideen” is a creation of the West in partnership with Arab countries.

If you are like me then you must be confused about all the news, documentaries and statements made about ISIS – or DAESH, or better yet, ”The Islamic State”.

One thing is for sure, ISIS and its fighting members did not come from Mars. Most are mercenaries with substantial numbers, mainly from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Morocco with at least 7,000 from Western Europe, most from immigrants in North Africa; a product of the Salafi Jihadist ideology that took a hold in Europe over the last 40 years.

Now it seems that the war on ISIS in Syria and Iraq may be coming to an end, the US and Russia doing most of the fighting from the air, while the Iraqi army is fighting remnants of ISIS on the ground. Arab allies who initially supported ISIS, only to later on turn against them, abandoned the fight some time ago, withdrawing their fighter jets from the battlefield and shifting efforts to Yemen.

There have been many documentaries on the origin of ISIS, including PBS Frontline, National Geographic, BBC, CNN and Aljazeera among others. One thing for sure is that we know ISIS has its origins in Iraq made up of remnants of Saddam Hussein’s army and no thanks to the stupid, reckless and criminal decisions by Ambassador Paul Bremer as the governor of “Occupied Iraq” who decided on the “De-Ba’athification” of Iraq starting with the disbanding of the Iraqi Army that overnight put 400,000 well trained and loyal Iraqis on the streets, thus unleashing the worst wave of terrorism seen in modern times, forcing the American invasion forces to withdraw.

Ambassador Paul Bremer and his bosses in the White House should take full responsibility for the deaths of thousands of American soldiers, tens of thousand soldiers injured and the millions of Iraqis killed and take legal responsibility for the destruction of Iraq and the consequences the American invasion had on the entire region including the rise of ISIS.

No one in Washington, or London or in the Gulf gave much thought to the consequences of invading Iraq and toppling Saddam who for a long time was one of the CIA’s loyal subjects in the region.

One would think after all the disastrous wars we have been in, one would think of the consequences of starting new wars. As we have seen in Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Syria, it is so easy to start a war, but even the best General could never predict the consequences.

It is a known fact that the brain behind ISIS in Iraq is Samir Abd Muhammad al Khlifawi, a former intelligence officer in Saddam Hussein’s air force that helped organized this “insurrection” turning it into “sectarian” war against the Shiites when Iran began to play a major role in Iraq post the American Occupation.

Giving the cause a “sectarian flavor” helped unite the Sunni countries mainly the Arab Gulf to support the insurgency, not against the American forces but against the new Iraqi Army.

We must not forget the role of Abu-Musab Al-Zarqawi who with his Sunni terrorists waged a relentless war against the American Occupation forces in Iraq but also against the Shiite dominated government, turning Iraq into another “Killing Fields”.

One must wonder how with so many intelligence agencies, so many bright and not so bright military and civilian “terrorists” expert does someone like Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi rise to the scene and almost overnight occupy a third a of Iraq and declare his Islamic Caliphate State.

We also must wonder about the competency of the “intelligence community” who failed to see this coming and failed to prevent al-Baghdadi fighters from routing several divisions of the American trained Iraqi army stripping them of brand new tanks, Humvees, anti-tanks and anti-aircraft missiles worth one billion and looting $500 million sitting in the central bank of Mosul, not to mention the hundreds of brand new land cruisers.

In early 2000 “Arab Sunnis” began to talk about the “Shiite Crescent” extending from Iran to Iraq to Syria and Lebanon and the need to do something about it. Well, ISIS was the answer.

The opportunity came in March 2011 when Bashar al-Assad‘s security forces detained and tortured 15 young boys who wrote graffiti in support of the Arab Spring. One of the boys, Hamza Al-Khateeb, was murdered as a result of torture.

Soon after, hundreds of protestors were killed and murdered by Bashar’s security forces, causing a number of Syrian officers and enlisted men to defect and form the Free Syrian Army.

While key Arab countries did their best to snuff out the Arab Spring, mainly in Egypt and Yemen, they were very happy to jump in and throw their political financial and military weight on the side of the “rebels” choosing the most extreme of “Islamic” militias to support like Jabhat Al-Nusra which received hundreds of millions in American and Gulf weapons to fight Bashar and the “Shiite Crescent”.

Now we have to ask, how in the hell can over 30,000 foreign fighters from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, Chechnya and as far away as Central Asia or Pakistan make their way to Syria’s heartland joining al-Baghdai forces from Iraq.

Certainly they did not come to Syria by cruise liners and certainly did not come to Syria through Damascus but came mostly through Turkey entering Syria and joining ISIS.

Bashar’s priority was not these invaders, on a religious missions to defeat the “Shiites”, but to defeat the legitimate uprising of millions all over Syria. Using barrel bombs and chemical weapons Bashar succeeded in killing over 500,000 and forcing 12 million to take refuge outside and within the country, causing a massive dislocation of population in modern times.

Unable to defeat these invaders and the local uprising, Bashar turned to his long time allies; Iran to provide leadership and strategy, Hezbollah to provide fighters to augment his failing Syrian Army and also calling on Russia who where more than willing to come to his aid, establishing an air and sea basis in Syria not only to secure the regime but to act as guardians on the ground for Israeli interests.

Now after seven years of civil wars and invading armies, the Syrian Arab Spring is coming to an end. The Americans, Russians and their Arab and Israeli allies in the region are all in agreement that Assad for the moment is going nowhere. The Syrian Opposition turned out to be a shameless sham, serving different masters but not the Syrian people whom they claim to represent.

Tens of billions wasted on the destruction of Syria and Bashar it is sad to say, stuck to his guns, security forces unable to address what began as a modest demand, the end of the role of both the Ba’athist Party and the intelligence services in the daily lives of people.

As the war comes to an end, the BBC reported that thousands of ISIS fighters and their families under the protection of US forces are finding their way from Riqqa to another country, perhaps to another mission somewhere, perhaps the Sahel, Libya to North Africa, even to Lebanon.

The question on the minds of many Arabs is when will these wars incited by geopolitical competition and promoted as “sectarian” wars come to an end. Will Lebanon be the next stop, let us hope not! Enough wars for a while. The people of the region need a break. It has been non stop wars since Saddam decided to invade Iran.

I always have to wonder, Arab armies with hundreds of billions worth of weapons have been defeated over and over, in days if not weeks, yet the might of the US, Russia, and Iran is unable to defeat 30,000 Salafi-Jihadists mercenaries.

The costs of America’s wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan reached $ 5.6 trillion, while the cost of fighting ISIS for Iraq is close to $100 billion. Imagine; just imagine if these funds were invested in education, health, housing and infrastructure.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah is a US citizen, an immigrant from Palestine with over 35 years of international legal and business experience in the US, Middle East, Europe and North Africa. He is a Veteran of the US Army and holds a BA degree in political science and economics, a master degree in public and environmental affairs and doctor of jurisprudence from Indiana University.

Active in international and local affairs, Sami is a co-drafter of the Pre-Ample for the Constitution of the One State for All of its People in Palestine and is active in veteran’s affairs in support of their re-integration in American society. He lectures and writes on a variety of topics including terrorism, social, economic and political issues related to the US and the Middle East.

Sami believes that education is the only way to transform the Middle East into a peaceful productive region and calls on all foreign troops to get out of the Middle East, leaving the people to shape their own destiny. Sami is in semi-retirement but fully engaged in voluntary work and engaged in the peace movement in the Middle East.