Stealing a march

The year 2011 can be considered one of the most eventful years in the history of mankind because of the hectic Arab Spring that was kicked off in Tunisia, which then submerged many other Arab nations including Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab Spring, allegedly backed by Western countries, compelled rulers like Ben Ali, Gaddafi, and Hosni Mubarak, as well as the elected President Mohamed Morsi, to back off.

The anti-establishment movements in Arab were of diverse nature. Demonstrators were largely democratic in some countries; in Egypt it was both violent and non-violent, while the rebels had to engage themselves in armed conflicts intensifying civil war in Syria and Libya.

Western countries, the European Union, and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation have consistently provided diplomatic support as well as lethal or non-lethal aid to the renegades of the Arab world to establish their supremacy over the oil fields of the war ravaged nations.

The United States was the first to fall victim to the monster they have created in Libya. The first blow from the militants, once empowered by the western countries, was the attack on the US embassy of Benghazi that claimed the life of the US ambassador to Libya after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

Nevertheless, western countries had a prolonged rivalry with Gaddafi. They once used to exploit the oil fields of the Middle East. But after the rise of Gaddafi as the ruler of Libya, they were compelled to change their policy and had to pay more for oil.

During the summer of 2011, when Gaddafi was struggling in his country, NATO started backing the rebels. France and Turkey raided the sky of Libya in support of the rebels after Libyan Army defied the no-fly zone call of the UN. The continuous air assault helped the rebels to topple Gaddafi within a month. Gaddafi was killed minutes after he was captured.

After the fall of Gaddafi, only chaos was evident in Libya. This turmoil helped the al-Qaeda-backed extremists to organise themselves for fresh operations in Libya. Their first formidable offense was the US embassy attack that left four people dead.

On the other hand, random supply of arms to the Libyan rebels also endangered the entire region. During the Northern Mali conflict, the Islamic militants were seen carrying modern guns that were provided to the Libyan rebels.

The Northern Mali conflict eventually turned deadly. The militants linked to al-Qaeda took over a huge area of the country including a strategically significant oil field. France had to send their troops to halt the advance.

Not only the militants of Mali, but also organisations like Boko Haram managed to acquire some modern equipment provided to the Libyan rebels. Libya was like a sieve suspended in some Arab and African nations.

However, it seemed that the Western backers had learnt absolutely nothing from Libya or Afghanistan. Since 2011 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was facing trouble created by the rebels within the country. Western countries decided to assist the rebels to topple the ally of Iran and Russia. They kept baking the rebels of Syria under the banner of “Free Syrian Army,” to topple Assad.

Assad has always been a headache to the US and their allies in the Middle East. In Syria, most of the citizens are Sunni Muslims while Assad himself and his followers are of the Shi’ite community.

It has always been a difficult task for the Saudi rulers to bear a Shi’ite ruler in a Sunni-populated country like Syria. Saudi Arabia also started providing financial as well as military support to the rebels of Syria.

Western countries also held a meeting with a Syrian opposition leader, who was allegedly chosen by them. The leader made his call to intrude into the Syrian crisis. However, amid fresh calls from the Syrian rebels, the world leaders were at loggerheads creating prolonged chaos. The chaos gave birth to Islamic State, an extremist insurgent group formerly known as ISIL, advancing towards Damascus.

World leaders, who have allegedly backed the Syrian rebels with bags of money and arms, are observing, with great surprise, how one of the cruelest hordes in the history of the world has outpaced their Free Syrian Army and winning almost all the battles in the Middle East with the help of the weapons they have provided them with.

After achieving “horrifying” success in Iraq last month, the al-Qaeda linked insurgents of IS are currently driving a large-scale carnage in the strategically important Syrian city of Raqqa. According to some predictions, Islamic State personnel have killed almost 2,000 people in only two weeks in Syria. Prior to Eid-ul-Fitr, they massacred at least 270 people in a gas field of Homs, a strategically significant province of Syria.

In the meantime, they are consolidating their control in Iraq by blowing up mosques, shrines, and executing pro-government people as a part of creating fear among the citizens. Pits in the deserts of Iraq and Syria are turning into mass graves while the world leaders have apparently turned a deaf ear. Already, the United Kingdom and Nato officials have proclaimed that they are not thinking of any action against the IS militants amid terrifying acts by those brutal insurgents.

ISIL at first declared a goal of establishing an Islamic state in the territories of Iraq and Eastern Mediterranean. After attaining tremendous success in Iraq, they changed the name of their organisation to Islamic State and started advancing towards Damascus.

It seems that they are dreaming of something larger than before, something more terrible than ever. It is high time for the Western powers and the world leaders to realise that the IS militants are not bearing their torch, rather they have stolen a march from them.