{"id":89419,"date":"2017-03-27T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=89419"},"modified":"2017-03-26T15:09:04","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T14:09:04","slug":"daesh-creature-of-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/03\/daesh-creature-of-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Daesh, Creature of the West"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

AP photo. Militant photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

James Shea, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Emerging Threats at NATO \u2013 now that\u2019s a lovely title \u2013 recently gave a talk at a private club in London on the Islamic State\/Daesh. Shea, as many will remember, made his name as NATO\u2019s spokesman during the NATO war on Yugoslavia in 1999.<\/em><\/p>\n

24 Mar 2017 – <\/em>After his talk Shea engaged in\u00a0a debate with\u00a0a source I very much treasure. The source later gave me the lowdown.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Saudi intelligence, Daesh was invented by\u00a0the US government \u2013 in\u00a0Camp Bacca, near\u00a0the Kuwait border, as\u00a0many will remember\u00a0\u2014 to\u00a0essentially finish off\u00a0the Shiite-majority Nouri al-Maliki government in\u00a0Baghdad.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t happen this way, of\u00a0course. Then, years later, in\u00a0the summer of\u00a02014, Daesh routed the Iraqi Army on\u00a0its way to\u00a0conquer Mosul<\/a>. The Iraqi Army fled. Daesh operatives then annexed ultra-modern weapons that took US instructors from\u00a0six to\u00a0twelve months to\u00a0train the Iraqis in\u00a0and\u2026surprise! Daesh incorporated the weapons in\u00a0their arsenals in\u00a024 hours.<\/p>\n

In the end, Shea frankly admitted to\u00a0the source that Gen David Petraeus<\/a>, conductor of\u00a0the much-lauded 2007 surge, had trained these Sunnis now part of\u00a0Daesh in\u00a0Anbar province in\u00a0Iraq.<\/p>\n

Saudi intelligence still maintains that these Iraqi Sunnis were not US-trained \u2013 as\u00a0Shea confirmed \u2013 because the Shiites in\u00a0power in\u00a0Baghdad didn\u2019t allow it. Not true. The fact is the Daesh core \u2013 most of\u00a0them former commanders and soldiers in Saddam Hussein<\/a>\u2019s army\u00a0\u2014 is indeed a US-trained militia.<\/p>\n

True to\u00a0form, at\u00a0the end of\u00a0the debate, Shea went on\u00a0to blame Russia for\u00a0absolutely everything that\u2019s happening today \u2013 including Daesh terror.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sykes and Monsieur Picot, you\u2019re dead<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s go back to\u00a0the proclamation of\u00a0the Daesh Caliphate in\u00a0June 29, 2014. That was choreographed as\u00a0a symbolic abolition of\u00a0the Sykes-Picot border that split the Middle East a century ago. At the same time, abandoning the option of\u00a0a military push to\u00a0take Baghdad, Daesh chose to\u00a0regionalize and internationalize the fight, creating their own transnational state and denouncing regional states as \u201cimpostors\u201d. All that coupled with\u00a0the amp up\u00a0of any chaos strategy capable of\u00a0horrifying Western public opinion.<\/p>\n

For large swathes of\u00a0a Sunni Arab audience, this was powerful stuff. Daesh was proclaiming themselves, in\u00a0a warped manner, as\u00a0the sole real heir of\u00a0the different Arab Springs; the only totally autonomous regional movement, depending exclusively on\u00a0its own local base, made up\u00a0of numerous Bedouin tribes.<\/p>\n

But how did we get here? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go back once again \u2013 now to\u00a0Iraq in\u00a0the 1990s, during\u00a0the Clinton era<\/a>. The strategic logic at\u00a0the time spelled out\u00a0an instrumentalization of\u00a0UN resolutions\u00a0\u2014 with\u00a0Washington de facto controlling Iraq\u2019s oil, manipulating the price as\u00a0a means of\u00a0pressure over\u00a0trade competitors much more dependent on\u00a0Iraqi oil such as\u00a0China, Japan and selected European nations.<\/p>\n

9\/11<\/a> turned this state of\u00a0affairs upside down \u2013 leading to\u00a0the 2003 neocon ideological stupidity and subsequent amateurism managing an occupation in\u00a0total ignorance of\u00a0history and the ultra-complex dynamics between\u00a0the Iraqi state and society. Saddam Hussein was the de facto last avatar of\u00a0a political arrangement invented by\u00a0imperial Britain in\u00a01920. With the invasion and occupation, the Iraq state collapsed. And the Cheney regime had no clue what to\u00a0do with\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

There was no Sunni alternative. So Plan B, under\u00a0major pressure by\u00a0Shiites and Kurds, was to\u00a0give voice to\u00a0the majority. The problem is political parties ended up\u00a0being religious and ethnic parties. The partition of\u00a0power, Lebanese-style\u00a0\u2014 Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds \u2013 turned out\u00a0to be a dysfunctional nightmare.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Between 2005 and 2008, this American attempt to\u00a0rebuild the Iraqi state yielded a horrendous confessional civil war between\u00a0Sunnis and Shiites. The Sunnis lost. And that largely explains the subsequent success of\u00a0Daesh in\u00a0creating a \u201cSunniland\u201d.<\/p>\n

The US occupation-Arab Spring love affair<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s turn to\u00a0the Syrian version of\u00a0the Arab Spring<\/a> in\u00a0February\/March 2011. Initial protests against\u00a0Assad\u2019s iron rule were peaceful \u2013 multi-communitarian and multi-confessional. But soon anti-Alawite rancor started to\u00a0radicalize a significant part of\u00a0the Sunni majority.<\/p>\n

As historian Pierre-Jean Luizard, a specialist in\u00a0Iraq, Syria and Lebanon at\u00a0the French CNRS reminds us, Syria was the favorite land of\u00a0Hanbalism \u2013 a most conservative branch of\u00a0Sunni Islam that highly influenced the emergence of\u00a0Wahhabism in\u00a0the Arabian Peninsula. That implies a virulent anti-Shiism. Thus the emergence among\u00a0the Syrian armed opposition of\u00a0multiple Salafi-jihadi groups, most of\u00a0all Jabhat al-Nusra \u2013 a.k.a. al-Qaeda in\u00a0Syria.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Assad fine-tuned a message to\u00a0the West and his own Sunni bourgeoisie oscilating between\u00a0allegiance and dissidence; it\u2019s me, or chaos. Chaos ensued, anyway; horrendous structural violence, all-around institutional decrepitude, total territorial fragmentation.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So it\u2019s fair to\u00a0argue that both US occupation and the Syrian Arab Spring ended up\u00a0producing the same result. With some differences; in\u00a0Iraq, Daesh enjoys the (silent) support of\u00a0a majority of\u00a0Sunni Arabs. In Syria, Sunnis are divided; Daesh may rule the desert\u00a0\u2014 Bedouin culture, but\u00a0it\u2019s Jabhat al-Nusra that captured significant Sunni support in\u00a0big urban centers such as\u00a0Aleppo. In Iraq, the borders between\u00a0the three large communities \u2013 Sunni, Shiite, Kurd \u2013 are more or less frozen. In Syria, it\u2019s a never-ending jigsaw puzzle.<\/p>\n

What happens next is a mystery. The de facto independence of\u00a0Iraq Kurdistan may solidify. The Baghdad government may increasingly represent only Shiites. Yet it\u2019s hard to\u00a0see Daesh consolidating its control of\u00a0Sunni Iraq \u2013 not with\u00a0the ongoing Battle of\u00a0Mosul.<\/p>\n

Blowback rules the wilderness of\u00a0mirrors<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to\u00a0dismiss Daesh as\u00a0the apex of barbarian<\/a> cultural idiosyncrasies. Even wallowing in\u00a0gruesomeness, Daesh has been able to\u00a0project a universalist dimension beyond\u00a0its Sunni Arab Middle Eastern base. It\u2019s like\u00a0the clash of\u00a0civilizations playing in\u00a0a wilderness of\u00a0mirrors. Daesh amplifies the clash not between\u00a0East and West, or the Arab world and the Atlanticist hegemon, but\u00a0mostly between\u00a0a certain (warped) conception of\u00a0Islam and assorted infidels. Daesh \u201cwelcomes\u201d everyone, even Catholic Europeans while persecuting Arab infidels and bad Muslims.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder the Caliphate\u00a0\u2014 a concrete utopia on\u00a0the ground \u2013 finds an echo among\u00a0young lone wolves living in\u00a0the West. Because Daesh insists on\u00a0the colonial Franco-British \u2013 and then neocolonial American\u00a0\u2014 history of\u00a0Muslims being trampled upon\u00a0by a dominating, infidel West, they manage to\u00a0channel a diffuse sentiment of\u00a0injustice among\u00a0the young.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Everyone \u2013 US, France, Britain, Russia, Iran\u00a0\u2014 is now at\u00a0war with\u00a0Daesh (Turkey only half-heartedly, as\u00a0well as\u00a0the House of\u00a0Saud and the GCC petrodollar gang; for\u00a0them this not a priority.)<\/p>\n

But this is a war without\u00a0a serious political long-term perspective. No one is discussing the place for\u00a0Sunni Arabs in\u00a0an Iraq dominated by\u00a0the Shiite majority; how to\u00a0put the Syrian state back together; or whether private donors to\u00a0Daesh from\u00a0Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates will simply disappear.<\/p>\n

The encirclement of\u00a0Raqqa and the re-conquest of\u00a0Mosul will mean absolutely nothing if the causes of\u00a0Daesh\u2019s initial success are not addressed. It starts with\u00a0the West\u2019s mission civilisatrice<\/em> as\u00a0the cover story for\u00a0unbounded colonial domination, and it straddles the methodical, inexorable, slow motion American destruction of\u00a0Iraq. Blowback will continue to\u00a0reign over\u00a0the wilderness of\u00a0mirrors; an attack near\u00a0the British Parliament by\u00a0a knife-carrying lone wolf \u201csoldier answering \u201cits call\u201d killing four people mirrored by\u00a0US jets bombing a school near\u00a0Raqqa killing thirty-three civilians.<\/p>\n

Petraeus may have trained them in\u00a0the deserts of\u00a0Al-Anbar. But most of\u00a0all that rough beast, slouching towards\u00a0Camp Bacca to\u00a0be born, bore the touch of\u00a0a Western mind.<\/p>\n

________________________________________<\/p>\n

More:<\/em><\/p>\n

Squeezed Out of Syria, Daesh’s Next Target Could Be the House of Saud<\/a><\/p>\n

Military Training in Iraq Fails, Militants Stronger, US Officials Say<\/a><\/p>\n

Will Saddam Hussein’s Ghost Join the Fight Against Daesh?<\/a><\/p>\n

Dig In! WikiLeaks Publishes Hillary Clinton’s Iraq War Emails<\/a><\/p>\n

Americans ‘Clearly Know’ That US-Made Weapons Now in Hands of Syrian Terrorists<\/a><\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Telecoms Watchdog Blocks Thousands of Daesh Propaganda Pages<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Global Intelligence Sharing Key to Combating Daesh – UK Foreign Minister<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Why US ‘Should Change Its Iraq and Syria-Centered Strategy’ Against Daesh<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pepe Escobar is a Brazilian independent geopolitical analyst. He is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia Times Online. He has been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9\/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of \u201cGlobalistan<\/a>\u201d (2007), \u201cRed Zone Blues<\/a>\u201d (2007), \u201cObama does Globalistan<\/a>\u201d (2009) and \u201cEmpire of Chaos<\/a>\u201d (2014), all published by Nimble Books. His latest book is \u201c2030<\/a>\u201c, also by Nimble Books, out in December 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 sputniknews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Shea, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Emerging Threats at NATO \u2013 now that\u2019s a lovely title \u2013 recently gave a talk at a private club in London on the Islamic State\/Daesh. Shea, as many will remember, made his name as NATO\u2019s spokesman during the NATO war on Yugoslavia in 1999. In the end, Shea frankly admitted that Gen David Petraeus, conductor of the much-lauded 2007 surge, had trained these Sunnis now part of Daesh in Anbar province in Iraq.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-militarism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}