And the follow-up
Many would agree with President Putin that US involvement in Iraq and Libya fostered a power vacuum which was filled by extremists and terrorists. One would only add Syria in the list. During the last four years, a number of Gulf countries and Turkey, encouraged by the US, tried to tear Syria into pieces because President Bashar al-Assad was considered by them to be a close ally of Iran. In the process 210,000 Syrians were killed and about four million forced to flee. By weakening the Syrian government, they created a vacuum which was filled by killers like al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra and finally IS. Sectarian killings and barbarous human rights violations committed by these groups have created new atrocity records. It was shameful on the part of the US-led west to look the other way as ignominies continued to be committed for four years.
The US felt perturbed only after the IS started drawing volunteers from the west who could pose danger to America also. A contingent of military advisers was dispatched to Iraq and a coalition of western and Gulf countries started bombing IS. The cruel but resilient IS developed new tactics to reduce the impact of the air raids and continued its exploits. A war weary US, however, declined to send ground troops that alone could wipe IS out.
The decision by Russia to send a small number of troops and initiate air attacks on terrorist strongholds has caused jitters in the west. Russia is being accused of focusing only on “moderate” forces trained by the US against Bashar al-Assad’s government. This is only partly true as the western press has carried reports of Russian air strikes on IS bases also. Instead of calling upon Russia to halt attacks, the US and its allies should join hands with Russian forces to eradicate all terrorist groups without cherry-picking. It is perverse logic to maintain that attacks on rebel groups would strengthen the Assad regime and thus prolong the war and increase the suffering of civilians.
