Let America clean up its own mess in Iraq and Syria

Let America clean up its own mess in Iraq and Syria

October 23, 2014 Ajay Kamalakaran

Unless Russia and India’s interests are directly threatened by the Islamic State, they should stay away from the quagmire created by Washington’s reckless and foolhardy policies.

Kobani is yet another example of America making a mess in the Middle East.

Our friends in America never learn their lessons. It feels like déjà-vu when we see the Islamic State exerting its powers in Syria and Iraq. There are parallels to how a stable and relatively prosperous Afghanistan was turned into rubble by U.S.-sponsored jihadis, who first fought the occupying Soviets, and then formed the Taliban once the USSR withdrew. Those who want an idea of how Afghanistan was before Messrs Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter and company decided to ruin the country should read Khaled Hosseini’s fine and eye-opening novels, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.

We are witnessing a similar situation in Middle East now, with American-armed and inspired militants forming the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. It’s no wonder that Vladimir Putin said that everything America touches turns into Iraq and Libya!

Before God told George W. Bush to “end the tyranny in Iraq,” the Arab country was no paradise. In fact it was an authoritarian and oppressive state, but it was secular, stable and posed no threat to its neighbours after its misadventure in Kuwait. The 2003 illegal invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation of the country by the “torchbearers of democracy” only plunged it into turmoil and set the stage for the creation of one half of this Islamic State.

India free to use Russian weapons against Islamic State - Sergey Lavrov
The second half of this terrorist organisation was formed when the Americans and their allies in the Gulf decided that “bad man Bashar Al-Assad” had to go. While the Syrian leader was not as much of an international pariah as Saddam Hussein, he remains an authoritarian leader with no tolerance for dissent. That did not give America the right to arm and train militants to overthrow the legitimate Syrian regime.

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[link to in.rbth.com]