The Islamic State of Iraqi and Syria as a Militia and Terrorist Group - Essay Example

ISIS will be defeated The Islamic State of Iraqi and Syria (ISIS) otherwise called the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) is a militia and terrorist group that conducts majority of its activities in the destabilized Middle East region. The militant group is primarily composed of fundamentalist Sunni Muslims in addition to foreign jihadists. As the terrorist group continue spreading terror and abusing human rights in the Middle East, it is evident that global leader needs to take more decisive steps to this terrorist group. The group operates on the Islamic ideologies, and many people tend to view it as an Islamic organization. However, many Muslims and Islamic governments have refuted any association of the group with Islam. The group has continued to spread to Egypt and Libya. The Nigeria based militant group, the Boko Haram recently pledged allegiance to the ISIS. In the recent years, ISIS has proved to be the worst and most dangerous body of organized criminals the world has ever experienced. According to Lohlker (7), the dangers and harshness of the group are real considering its wide involvement in killings, abuse and violation of human rights. For instance, the group handles women and young girls with brutality. Several cases of group members gang raping women and inducting young girls to sexual slavery have been reported. The group has kidnapped, tortured and killed many people. Majority of the ISIS victims whose executions have touched the hearts of many have been Western journalists. As well, pilots have been cognizable victims of ISIS operations. The group beheaded Jordanian and Japanese pilots in the month of January 2015. The inhumane way that ISIS has been executing its captives and terrorizing societies alongside its fast spread has driven every world and contain the group. The military force is an addition to the UN security council strategies that are intended to eliminate the group in the near future. There is hope that the militia outfit, the ISIS, will be defeated soon. Such a view can be explained by the realization of the whole world, and specifically the nations that have huge global influence, that ISIS is a common enemy. In fact the American president Barrack Obama asserts that, the ISIS is a great threat to the citizen of Syria, Iraq and the entire Middle Eastern region. In addition, he identifies American citizen and facilities to at threat of the ISIS attacks. Big global powers like USA, UK, and the larger EU and Eastern powers have analyzed and realized that the group should not have any supporter. The group is terrorizing communities, races, religious believers and tribes without discrimination. The style of its operation and its fast spread across the world is surprising many. Every country feels the impacts of the group and wants to fight it to extinction. Already USA, EU and some Eastern countries have been conducting coalition attacks on the ISIS bases in Iraq, and Syria. The coalition provides good intelligence and logistics support that assist in scaring of the ISIS. In the coalition, different parties play different roles that end up in helping to scare, scatter and suppress expansion plans of the ISIS. For instance, the Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan with their intelligence, The Turkish Intelligence Organization and Jordan are supplying intelligence information. Since USA does not want to involve in ground operations, it has been using the intelligences briefs to launch airstrikes against the militia outfit. Considering the amount of fire that ISIS has been receiving in recent days, their defeat and collapse is imminent. Jordan is one of the countries bewildered by the ISIS act of beheading its air force pilot. As a result, the Jordan administration has mapped out plans to start the third world war against the ISIS. According to Glint (43) the government in a quick response to the burning alive of the Jordanian Royal Air force pilot, hit back by executing two terrorists it imprisoned, and whom the ISIS was demanding their release. Additionally, the army through an operation dubbed Moath the Martyr conducted air raids against the group's training bases. In a statement the army asserted the airstrikes were just a beginning and the terrorist will soon taste wrath the Jordanian. The two terrorists, one named Sajida al-Rishawi were planning to conduct suicide bombings. According to Greg and Karadsheh, The Jordan government has vowed to not let another one of its citizen to die at the hands of the terrorist outfit. Though the Jordan army has not succeeded all attack against the terrorist outfit, they have remained persistent and cooperative to the coalition forces. According to security analysts, Jordan needs to remain aggressive and relentless so as to attain victory against the group. Jordan had initially plated down any involvement in attacks against the ISIS, Jordanian had questioned why the nation could involve itself in the offensives. Street protests that took place all over the nation seemed to be a clear voice mandating the government through the military to join the coalition aimed at crippling the terror group, ISIS. The pressure by the Jordanian citizens against the actions of ISIS is an inspiring support that will lead to good war against the group. Upon reception of news about the killing of the pilots, protesters filled the streets of Amman, which is the capital of Jordan, and the hometown of the slain pilot. The protests signify the support that the government already enjoys. This situation means that the public will support any expenditure by the governments aimed at advancing the war against the ISIS. The government has already promised to conduct lethal attacks against the ISIS militants. Since the actual form of governmental retaliation is unclear, there are speculations that the response may be in the form of launching independent aerial strikes or moving ground forces and artilleries near the bases of the group. Security analysts asserts that if Jordan actualizes its threats against the militant group, then ISIS will receive a detrimental and destructive defeat. However, any attack by Jordan can only be effective if conducted in coalition. The reaction by Jordan will have great significance towards defeating ISIS considering that the public that does not like foreign forces to fight Arab Sunni have already supported the war. The mountainous nature of Iraq is posing an obstacle for the advancement and coordination of the war against ISIS group. As things stand, a corporation encompassing the Iraqi government troops, the Kurdish and the American forces is posed to cause ISIS a real loss. According to assertions by Bronstein & Griffin, while the ISIS was advancing deep into Iraq, there were fears that terrorists groups based Baghdad would join its ideologies. Fortunately, the Iraqi forces that are primarily concentrated in Baghdad resisted the group. The Shia community faults ISIS ideologies, and will not accept its access to Shia-dominated cities. The militants can only operate in the northern and western Iraq dominated by Arab and Sunni respectively. Another sign of defeat for the ISIS terrorists is related to its financial challenges. Lack of enough funds is likely to compromise and cripple the group's operations in middle east. The group seems to rely on oil sold at cheaper prices to raise revenues for its operations. Sekulow (37) asserts that the group primary source of fund has been sale of oil from the northern Iraq and northern Syria where the resource is in scarce supply. The Obama administration in Washington DC sought congress authorization to fight the terrorist for three year. Already, the USA has conducted air strikes over the ISL’s oil facilities that have been sources of their revenues. Lohlker reports that the Kurdish and the Iraqi forces have blocked the ISIS from advancing toward the southern oil rich Iraq (15). The ISIS also relies on taxation and illegal trades to raise parts of its total revenues. Some individuals in the Gulf States are also supporting the ISIS financially. Since the group has to continue with war, it spends a lot in purchasing ammunitions and paying salaries of the soldiers. There are plans by the joint intelligences to identify and destroy the sources of revenues for the group, which will jeopardize its operations. The Kurdish group in Syria has continued to play a major role instrumental to defeating the ISIS militants. The Kurdish Democratic Union Party considers fighting ISIS as one of its central objective. Glint comments that while other rebel groups in Syria oppose the US offensives against the ISIS, the Kurdish group has continued to support the operations of USA (31). Even as this happens, the US government has refused to authenticate the Kurdish Democratic Union Party. However, security analysts argues that offensives by the USA against the ISIS can only be effective if the former liaises with the Kurdish force in Syria. In fact, the airstrikes by the USA have been fruitful because the Kurds have been occupying spaces that the ceded by the ISIS. Associated Press reported that the effectiveness of Kurdish forces was manifested in the war for Kobane town. The ISIS fighters were approaching the town in a strong wave of force, and chasing citizens away. The advancement had great determination that would see the group capture Kobane. However, Kurds forces in Syria with the support of those from Iraq in addition to the support offered by US worked to fight back and block the ISIS from succeeding in its campaign to seize Kobane. Reports by the Syrian Observatory Human rights showed that about 600 ISIS fighter and 370 Kurd fighters died during the war (Associated Press). The distribution of the deaths indicates that ISIS received a defeating resistance and is losing strength. The fact that US public supports the government to advance its attacks beyond the mere airstrikes, but opposed to sending American soldiers to the work on the ground gives the government good opportunity to use Kurds and similar factions to defeat ISIS. From the analysis, it is evident that defeating the ISIS in Syria is only a matter of USA authenticating, training and equipping the Kurdish forces as boots on the ground. Acting as the global super power, the USA is involved in many anti-terror wars. In many cases, USA has won in the wars and proved an indomitable force when it comes to international battles. Defeating the ISIS is easy for America, as it requires varying its strategies slightly from the current ones that are failing to yield significant success. USA needs to intensify its air operations and drop many strikes that will silence the ISIS. According to Bronstein and Griffin, the use of multiple strikes worked well for USA during the war against Al-Qaeda and Taliban immediately after the 9/11. During the war, USA spent seventy-seven days to fly 6500 strikes over Afghanistan and drop 17500 munitions over the bases of the militants. In contrast, the USA has done little in the case of ISIS after managing to conduct only 632 strikes and dropping 1700 munitions over ISIS bases in Iraq and Syria. These strikes are less and insignificant for a serious group like ISIS that has determination to shake the Middle Eastern region and world in general. The USA forces have not fully exploited their strategies to counter the ISIS group. The time USA establishes ground networks the ISIS menace will approach its dead end. In an interview with CNN, the Secretary of States John Kerry mentioned that USA would not deploy its soldiers to the services. Bronstein and Griffin assets that the Americans plan is to selectively identify, train and empower rebels and terrorist groups that are opposed to the ISIS ideologies. In fact, the US is already training anti-ISIS factions from Syria, Iraq, and Jordan. They are concentrating on building some bases in the hard hit countries. USA plans to use its trainee forces to counter ISIS by leading ground operations and providing sufficient and reliable intelligence. The strategy by USA though indirect, presents some hopes that ISIS will suffer pathetic defeats. According to Lohlker the defeat of ISIS is highly predictable considering the group plans the establishment of a particular Islamist State. The group vision is a government purely based on strict caliphate ideologies. To achieve this mission, ISIS has to fight and capture actual territories consisting of people subscribed to its beliefs. This establishment will gather and concentrate the ISIS forces and make the group easy to target and destroy through air strikes. In addition, since the group is a terrorist entity, it lacks proper financial base to run state functions that it can establish as an independent country. Recent speculation of ISIS financial details shows that it has slightly over $1 billion, which is insufficient to support fundamental operations of a standard state (Bronstein & Griffin). The fact that the desired Islamic State will be landlocked exposes ISIS to more danger and weaknesses. It will be easier for the coalition and independent forces opposed to ISIS to launch effective attacks through the borders. It is also easy to cut supplies to the ISIS by closing access points passing through the neighboring states. As the terrorist group continue spreading terror and abusing human rights in the Middle East, it is evident the global leader needs to take a more decisive step against the group. The group poses a great danger to not only the Middle Eastern region, but to the world as a whole More global forces needs to join the coalition to prevent the spread of the terrorists ideologies any further. Works cited Associated Press. Islamic State group pushed out of Syria's Kobani. 2015. . Bronstein, Scott and Griffin Drew. Self-funded and deep-rooted: How ISIS makes its millions. 2014. . Glint, Michael. Can a War With Isis Be Won? - ISIL/Islamic State/Daesh. New York: Conceptual Kings, 2014. Print. Lohlker, Rüdiger. Jihadism: Online Discourses and Representations. Göttingen, Niedersachs: V&R unipress, 2013. Print. Sekulow, Jay. Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can't Ignore. New York: Simon and Schuter, 2014. Print. Botelho, Greg, and Jomana Karadsheh. "Jordan Launches Airstrikes against ISIS in Syria - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 6 Feb. 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2015. . Read More