Tag Archives: ISIS

It's not too late for the United States to help get Afghanistan back on its feet.

Militants from at least two Bangladeshi banned outfits may be preparing for attacks in the country, including targeted assassinations. But Dhaka lacks a dedicated counter-terrorism response.

Top US policymakers increasingly speak of Egypt as a problem to be managed, their attention focused on avoiding the worst-case outcomes of state collapse. The past four years have taken a serious toll on U.S.-Egypt ties. But 2015 offers potential opportunities, requiring the two countries to learn some lessons from the past and to look to the future.

Pakistan and India are vigorously expanding their fissile material production capacity to increase their nuclear weapons stockpiles. One report says Pakistan has operationalized its new plutonium producing facility at Khushab, about six weeks after reports appeared that India has almost completed the construction of its second gas centrifuge facility near Mysore.

The jihadists have been making inroads among the Muslim youth in Canada. But despite overwhelming evidence documenting the spread of extremism among the youth, most Muslims are still in denial.

Once the IS problem is defused, though, the conundrum of what to do with Assad will return. It is doubtful that the international community is really willing to pursue regime change in Damascus, so Turkey may have no choice but to soften its rhetoric and seek a diplomatic exit strategy from the Syrian quagmire.  Otherwise, the civil war could conceivably go on for years to come and continue to destabilize the entire region.

The reason that Turkey supports ISIL and al-Nusra's war against the Kurds is that it seeks to prevent a Kurdish autonomous region on its southern border with Syria. By eliminating "Rojava," the Kurdish appellation for "West Kurdistan," Turkey also hopes to further weaken the Kurdish nationalist movements, especially the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its politically affiliated organizations.

President Obama’s strategy to fight ISIS has the cautious support of majority of Americans. But some of America’s overseas allies are showing skepticism about the new strategy. Here are two opinions of Australian and Turkish analysts.

The reason why Sunni Gulf States support the IS is its strong opposition to the Shiites. It is not just Iran, which is 90 percent Shiite, that the Gulf Arabs believe to be a threat, but the Shiite population in their own countries. But the Saudis recently seem to have realized that their support of the IS and jihadism has resulted in the “chickens coming home to roost.”

If Libya, Syria and Iraq are coming undone and Ukraine has been gravely destabilized, it is the result of interventions by big powers that claim to be international law enforcers when, in reality, they are lawbreakers.