Can Islamic State help unite UN's veto powers?

There’s one sure way of getting the ‘international community’ to act against a problem, affect one of the big dogs; unfortunate as the recent Paris attacks were, they have helped swing the United Nations into action against the latest offshoot of global terrorism, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). I have never seen Europe so scared, worried and glaringly vulnerable in recent years but whoever listened to the French Ambassador to the UN, Francois Delattre, make his case on Thursday, these signs were all on display. For the better part of this year, Europe, with the backing of United States, has engaged in a shouting match with Moscow over Russia’s alleged annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, a matter whose cause is highly disputed. Regarding the matter of Syria and its long civil war, we were all here when it begun. After a failed attempt to sow the seeds of the Arab spring in Damascus and force the overthrow of President Assad, the West, led by USA, resorted to arming civilians to form an army. Since 2011, the chaos has ranged on with firepower from both warring parties helping ruin a country with so much history and yet the end to this madness is still far from sight. What we know are the hundreds of thousands that have perished in the conflict, millions who have fled the fighting and the state of lawlessness that has created the perfect environment for the birth and breeding of the deadliest terrorist outfit since Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda. If you look at the place where ISIS is operating, in Syria and Iraq, then we can easily apportion blame and say that the West helped create this mess by creating a chaotic environment in countries that were previously relatively stable when the men otherwise regarded as dictators were in charge. The destabilization of Assad’s government in Syria and the illegal removal and assassination of Sadam Hussein in Iraq removed the statecraft that these men, regarded as dictators by the west, had put in place for the stability of their countries. Now we have ISIS filling the gaps left behind by these developments. On purely egoistic grounds, countries such as USA still believe that Assad is the problem and want him removed. Moscow has been playing solo, providing the only voice of reason in this matter with President Vladimir Putin arguing that Assad’s government must be helped to restore order in his country and eliminate the vacuums that ISIS is using to organize world-wide havoc. I have a feeling that both USA and Europe secretly know that Putin is talking sense and that his approach needs to be supported; unfortunately, no one wants to be seen agreeing with Russia, publically, something that is going to cost all of us. How will it cost all of us? I mean, the attack in Paris and lately in Mali, on public spaces such as international hotels and restaurants, could have claimed any person of any nationality out there on either business or tourism. So, what we have is that, a few countries helped create a problem whose effects are now affecting other people whose countries were never involved in the first place. What France’s latest UN security resolution means is that every country has been officially invited to join in the fight against Isis by doing everything in their capacity to counter the terror group. This is a clever way of saying, we are joining Russia and we therefore support its campaigns against Isis in Syria; but did we have to wait for the Paris attacks to have such a decision? It’s a good thing to see that finally, the five veto powers of the United Nations finally agree that they need to work together to defeat the latest threat to global peace. Russia which has been leading this lone campaign should be allowed to continue leading. My only worry is that, we might be walking into an ISIS trap, which is, bait the world powers to start a global-scale war against Islamic elements. I mean, think about it; why would ISIS work so hard to attack France? The ISIS plan could have been as simple as; hit France, get them annoyed and embarrassed enough to have all their allies unite and declare a global war against Islamic elements. That seems to have already started. Unfortunately, in my assessment, a global war against ISIS works in the terror group’s favour as it helps send the message that it’s “the world against them, so they have to fight to protect themselves from the infidels”. It’s precisely the same message they have been vending. So while I welcome joint action against ISIS, I think the UN and its controllers need to act not on emotion but rather with reason otherwise we might be walking into a well organized trap by ISIS to start a fully fledged global war. At worst, we could inadvertently be pressing the start button for a third world war.

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Can Islamic State help unite UN's veto powers?