Defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - Essay Example

SHOULD THE UK GOVERNMENT DEPLOY MILITARY FORCES TO DEFEAT ISIS? Department Should the UK government deploy military forces to defeat ISIS? ISIS stands for the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria. This is a well-established jihadist group with extremist tendencies and it is speculated to act from Iraq and Syria. Military interventions by the UK in both Iraq and Syria against ISIS activists have been profound which has attracted both appreciation and criticism from the international world. The president David Cameron has always vigorously defended the country’s right to confront the extremist jihadists militarily. This is because this jihadist group is considered a direct threat to the country. The participation of the country in air strikes against Islamic state forces in the Middle East has in particular attracted some criticism, though this strategy to combat terrorism is encouraged by a majority of members of the UK parliament. It is declared that these air strikes will only attack the moving targets and not the fixed targets to ensure only rebel forces to be present at the receiving end of havoc. Despite military interventions, it is an understood fact within the UK that the war against terrorism is a long campaign which cannot end soon despite the growing number of ground troops and air strikes. ISIS has killed some very notable Britons recently. One of them is David Haines and another who is being currently threatened to be murdered by the Islamists is Alan Henning. There has been increasing pressure on the president from the family of Henning to send more troops to Syria and Iraq so that the extremists who have captured Henning could be arrested. There is a growing awareness that this menace should be dealt with as soon as possible to protect the British people. Murder of David Haines as shown in the video released by ISIS has given birth to great outrage which knows no bounds. Responding to the public outcry, Cameron has assured that every necessary step will be taken to demolish the network of ISIS and air campaign is just one of those steps. It is assured that this extremist group will be destroyed step by step, but results can be accomplished if air strikes to kill moving rebel forces are continued (Mason, Black and Chulov 2014). This makes the UK air campaign a very important part of the war against terrorism. The most important reason behind the involvement of the UK military is to protect the British people. It is declared that the country cannot simply go on without noticing the prominent threats and effectively dealing with them. It has become a routine of extremists ISIS jihadists to capture the notable UK humanitarians and activists and threat them until the time comes to mercilessly behead them. The masked fighters in these videos warn the UK president that if the country continues to play a military role in the Middle East, more British citizens will be captured and beheaded. However, Winston Churchill once rightly claimed that “battles are won by slaughter and maneuver” (cited in Jablonsky 2013, p. 54). Likewise, ISIS is an evil which is spreading rapidly and threats based on kidnapping and slaughter should not be taken silently. Field Marshall Slim said in his book “Defeat into Victory” that morale is very important. “It is that intangible force which will move a whole group of men to give their last ounce to achieve something” (Slim, cited in Farmer, Smith and Yellowley 2012, p. 96). The UK government and the troops should also keep their morale up despite failures to dismantle ISIS. Individual efforts made by them contribute greatly to the bigger picture. Every little effort counts as was once said by the great British army officer, Bernard Montgomery, that “every soldier must know, before he goes into battle, how the little battle he is to fight fits into the larger picture” (cited in Burke Jr 2013, p. 134). This shows that the UK government is only trying to follow the war ideology of Montgomery and of other great figures like Churchill and Slim in reference to ISIS. In the past, the UK military forces have been used to battle extremism in Iraq after the 2003 US invasion. One difference between the military involvement back in 2003 and presently is that the UK relied more on ground troops in 2003, while more stress is laid on the bombing campaign presently. Many ground troops were sent to Iraqi areas controlled by jihadists after the 2003 invasion because it was possible to control the opponents’ actions from ground. However, both the US and UK have agreed that conditions are different now which is why it is declared useless to send more ground troops to Syria and Iraq. Rather, focus is concentrated on conducting air strikes against ISIS (Mason, Black and Chulov 2014). The military involvement in the past cannot be considered completely successful because it has its disadvantages also. It put quite a lot of economic and financial burden on the country because the UK got caught up in the Iraq war to a great extent. This is the reason why many MPs are still hesitant to back up Cameron’s actions against terrorism because they fear that the country will against get caught up in another Iraq war. The mood in the parliament is claimed to be “more mixed this time” (Mason, Black and Chulov 2014). Concluding, the above discussion shows that it has always been a practice within UK to combat terrorism. This is because threats to public and the world at large are not taken lightly. The UK made military interventions post 2003 invasion of Iraq and made some victories and encountered losses also. But, the losses have not stopped the country from reacting to the ISIS threats encountered recently. There is a growing interest in air campaign against ISIS which has already started in Syria with the hope to achieve positive results. It is feared that the government will again get all wrapped up by the war against terrorism putting financial burden on the country. However, majority is with the president David Cameron on continuing the fight against ISIS extremists. References Burke Jr, James W. 2013. The Weekend Warriors. iUniverse. Farmer, Marilyn, Paul Smith, and Wendy Yellowley. 2012. Organizational Behaviour. Routledge. Jablonsky, David. 2013. Churchill, the Great Game and Total War. Routledge. Mason, Rowena, Ian Black, and Martin Chulov. 2014. “Stop this menace: UK steps closer to taking military action against Isis.” The Guardian. Accessed October 09, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/14/isis-david-cameron-david-haines-alan-henning-military-action Read More