What should the world do about ISIS?

[Perspicuo]

That is all that matters to the East and West.

That is somewhat of a cynical view. Israel matters. Realpolitik concerning balance-of-power matters. Petro is one of the concerns, but the others should be taken into consideration, unless the US is very irresponsible. Unhappily, the US has been very irresponsible in the past... and very well may continue to be so if this doesn't become a multilateral decision.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Did someone mention W and his fellow assclowns?

You really can't blame Shrub. I can remember the situation and most Americans were rah rah - lets get the WMDs! It was unbelievable how so many people could be so stupid. I felt like Einstein must have felt, that the country had gone mad.

And it is ultimately a question of wealth - oil - and who controls it. That makes the American corporocrat a powerful influence.

 

[funinspace]

This Caliph/ISIS thing is most probably a flash in the pan, as the “surge to Baghdad” has obviously died out. The SE Shiites in Iraq will block any further inroads there with Russian and Iranian assistance, Maliki or no Maliki. The NE Kurds seem to be able to hold their own against ISIS. Its not that the US should do nothing about ISIS, the US should do less shit than they are now in the region. The best thing the west/US could do is give up our fetish of wanting to topple Syria’s Assad, and pressure (or even block) SA and Qatar to end their support of anti-Assad terrorists. But like any modern Prostitute (I mean President), they will get on their knees for the military-complex, so there is no way we will do less shit there. With Assad stabilizing Syria, then they can help behead this jihadi Frankenstein.

A good satirical article on the show:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-110714.html

No matter his raw ambition, The Caliph will have to get his act together. A lot of Syrian jihadi outfits have turned against IS. The same thing is happening in Iraq; Sunni militias are turning against them in Nineveh province.

Enter tribal Sunni sheikhs - the ghosts in this infernal machine. The Caliph must have enough trusted moles to tell him that once the sheikhs have finished using IS as a tool to "destabilize" the al-Maliki administration in Baghdad, they will definitely advance to smash the caliphate. This is an extremely temporary alliance of interests - a sort of remix of the previous Islamic State in Iraq having its emirate smashed because of the American cash-propelled Anbar Awakening.

The Caliph will also have to face Athel al-Nujaifi, the governor of Nineveh province; he wants a different Sunnistan with a high degree of autonomy (and lots of still unexplored oil) but still inside Iraq. Al-Nujaifi is the most influential Sunni politician in Iraq and head of the largest Sunni political party. For the moment, The Caliph seems to be taking no chances. IS operatives have arrested scores of former Iraqi army officers and Ba'athists around Mosul.