General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSo, just to be clear, ISIS has now made implacable enemies of:
The United States
The UK
Belgium
NATO as a whole
France
Russia
Egypt
Saudi Arabia
The Gulf states
Iran
Assad
Turkey
The Kurds (if I have to guess, that's who's going to actually finish this. Seriously: do not fuck with the Kurds)
Pakistan
India
Bangladesh
Hezbollah
Hamas
Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade
Fatah
Al Qaeda (whatever's left of them)
Chad
Libya
Kenya
Somalia
South Sudan
Am I missing anybody?
MADem
(135,425 posts)leftynyc
(26,060 posts)The first five on the list could sit back and let all the others take care of isis. You think that's going to happen? Maybe Russia but they really don't care about isis - only propping up al assad. The Kurds are really the only ones worth a damn when it comes to fighting. The rest I wouldn't count on to take out the garbage.
Turborama
(22,109 posts)At G20, Jokowi urges stronger counterterrorism cooperation: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/11/16/at-g20-jokowi-urges-stronger-counterterrorism-cooperation.html
Township75
(3,535 posts)They had a massacre
By an Isis loyal group al Shabab I believe but it technically isn't Isis
Recursion
(56,582 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,837 posts)since they have been clandestinely funding extremists to keep them from turning on the Saudi royals internally. Seems to me that if the money stream from the KSA got cut off, ISIL and the like would be weakened considerably.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)SA has done a fairly good job of stamping down on this (except for people with Kuwaiti contacts. Which is most of them.)
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Russia isn't just attacking ISIS. Russia is also attacking the syrian rebels that fight ISIS.
Qatar is actually a sponsor of ISIS.
But you can't call them that because they are an ally of Saudi-Arabia and Saudi-Arabia is an ally of the West.
Turkey willfully turned a blind eye when ISIS funneled its recruits from Europe through there. (Because Turkey wanted to use ISIS for a proxy-war against Assad.)
ISIS-supporters were capable of publicly threatening turkish students who opposed them with murder. Where was the turkish outcry on that?
AND after some pretend-bombings against ISIS at the beginning, Turkey is now bombing the Kurds, who fight ISIS.
AND it's mightily suspicious that ISIS was capable of pulling off the bombings of Suruc and Ankara (both targeting Erdogan's opponents) without the turkish intelligence receiving warning-signs beforehand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Suru%C3%A7_bombing
AND the Ankara-bombing happened just when Erdogan had sabotaged the formation of a turkish government that would have seen him weakened and happened JUST IN TIME to see him win the follow-up election big-time by pulling off the topic of "national security".
Hamas, Fatah, Chad, Libya, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan they only deal with the ISIS-offsprings in their own territory. They do not deal with the IS.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)They need someone to prevent the formation of Kurdistan. Because if Kurdistan is founded, Turkey will have a large problem with the sizeable chunk of Turkey that wants to join it.
Russia also does not hate ISIS. Russia is bombing anti-Assad rebels who are also anti-ISIS. Russia's goal is to restore Assad, and Syria's position as a client state of Russia. ISIS helps because the anti-Assad rebels have to fight ISIS as well as Assad's forces.
Similarly, many of "The Gulf States" fund ISIS. As does parts of Saudi Arabia - they like that ISIS is attacking Shia muslims. That can draw militants away from Yemen, where they are fighting a proxy war against Iran.
The current civil wars/terrorist insurgency is overlaid upon centuries of underlying conflicts. There is no simple "these are the bad guys".
bklyncowgirl
(7,960 posts)As for the Saudis, officially they are on our side but it is Saudi and other Gulf nations money that's funding them. Please don't tell me that these absolute monarchs could not stop rich people in their country from send them money and supplies including those shiny Toyota trucks that they drive.
There are very few good guys here.
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)What you have described is exactly what they want.
DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts).
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Bucky
(54,065 posts)Jester Messiah
(4,711 posts)Hm. There's an idea. Do this thing Gulf War I style. Let France take the top slot, they've earned it.
Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)- the Yezidi communities in Iraq (brigades of whom have joined the Kurds in the liberation of Sinjar three days ago)
- The Alevite and Shi'ite communities in Syria
- The Shi'ite communities in Iraq
- Several Sunni tribes in the Syrian desert
- The Kasa'esbeh tribe, and through them the whole kingdom of JORDAN
- Pretty much all of Libanon
- Armenia
- Albania
-------------------------------------------
And as for Al-Qaeda, in Syria they are known as Jabhat Al-Nusra, and they are considered (by Petraeus) as a group the USA should arm in order to defeat ISIS. In Syria, there's quite a lot left of Al-Qaeda.