Any hope of really combating the so-called Islamic State group, often widely referred to by its Arabic abbreviation Daesh, will require abandoning old priorities.
That is the plea from respected International Relations scholar Immanuel Wallerstein, writing at his widely syndicated column. In the short analysis, he makes mention of a number of dyads of conflict that he sees as counterproductive in fighting Daesh.
Most controversial is perhaps Wallerstein's assessment that seeking to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's government, which Turkey is especially fond of to the negation of all other priorities, is absolutely counterproductive and only plays into the hands of Daesh.
The following dyads between actors in the Middle East region are shown in Wallerstein's analysis as counterproductive and obstructing the potential for a multilateral campaign against Daesh. They show how each participant in the region is too distracted by other enemies to focus on combating Daesh:
- Egypt >< Muslim Brotherhood
- Saudi Arabia >< Iran
- Qatar >< Saudi Arabia
- Bahrain >< Shias
- Iran >< Sunnis
- Turkey >< Syria
- Kurdish movements >< Each other
- Russia >< U.S.
- Israel >< Iran and the Palestinians
Beyond these dyads, which consume all the energy of these actors and tie them down so they cannot fight Daesh, Wallerstein demands, "Name one that puts fighting the IS at the top of its list."
The propaganda of making a revolution against Bashar al-Assad, while at the same time professing the utmost paranoia and repression to deter Daesh, has rendered Western governments as hypocritical dictatorships. They have no real interest in democracy and are only interested in supporting tyrants who will protect their wealth in the region. This is Wallerstein's conclusion based on the above analysis:
What, you may ask, about existing dictatorships? Should we not be struggling against them? The efforts to do so as the great priority has actually reinforced them. The fears created by the IS have actually reduced in major ways the civil rights of citizens and residents in the United States and western Europe. There is massive hypocrisy concerning which tyrants are being opposed. In effect, everyone protects the tyrants that are their geopolitical ally and denounces the tyrants that are not.
Based on these facts, increasing pressure seems to be forcing Western governments to listen to the experts pushing them to pull the plug on the the so-called "democratic" experiment in Syria, which achieved no democracy but allowed Daesh to emerge.
