The Sorcerer’s Apprentices

The Middle East is a never-ending challenge to our ability to understand. Perhaps it’s never been like it is now; there are so many conflagrations, actors, interests and ways of interpreting, that those who say they can explain everything are probably lying, unless, intentionally or not, they are lying in the process of explaining.

One of the incontrovertible elements of this tangled web is the Islamic State. This group, and with it several similar groups, allies or competitors, appear as a haunting specter from Nigeria to Iraq, passing through Libya and the rest of North Africa, throughout the Arab Levant and the Gulf, including Yemen, now under attack from the Saudis.

Stories of their extraordinary violence are multiplying everywhere and their numbers, strength and ability to act are making an impression. This enormous danger, which could not have come about spontaneously, seems to have suddenly shown up on our radar, and only just recently.

It’s true that before this, under the generic name of al-Qaida, and in the context of the so-called war on terror, much was said about the same messengers of a skewed vision of Islam and the violence perpetrated by them.

However, what was a scattered cell network devoted to acting sporadically, transformed into legions of well-trained and well-armed men with access to huge amounts of material resources. For some reason, here in the West, it was decided that it was not necessary to pay much attention to them, for a long period of time.

The metamorphosis took place originally in Iraq and Syria. Its most important moment was when the Islamic State group and other similar groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra began fighting the Syrian government. This question of the timeframe serves as a clue for explaining, at least to an extent, our silence as well as the phenomenal growth in strength of these armies of opportunity. Nothing was said about what was being nourished, directly or indirectly, with the hope of changing the balance of power in the region by overthrowing the Syrian regime and weakening its most obvious allies, Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Islamic State and similar groups appear in this light to be instruments, as dangerous to their handlers as they are to their immediate victims, in a game that pits these actors against, as I mentioned, the Western powers and their regional clients, including the Gulf countries and Israel.

Nonetheless, even though they still have not totally escaped their supporters’ control, these groups are like lovers or spouses with whom one is embarrassed to go out in public. That’s why no one confesses to having dangerous ties with them. Thus, we are urged to go beyond the talk and observe various actors’ behavior.

Even after the Islamic State group’s advance on Iraqi Kurdistan and images of executed Western victims being published, crossing the line of what was permissible and thus provoking Western public opinion, the response was very weak.

There is no significant advance against the Islamic State group in Iraq or Syria that can be attributed to the actions of the coalition formed by the United States, actions that, for all other matters, are seen as merely cosmetic by observers.

Neither is there is any visible action on the part of partners and clients of the United States in regard to effectively stemming financing sources, shutting down training camps or stopping the arrival of combatants, etc.

Similarly, Saudi Arabia itself, now bombing Yemen in outright violation of international law under the pretext of protecting institutional legality from the Houthi advance, did not think any action against al-Qaida or its offspring in that country was necessary.

The sorcerers’ apprentices continue to play with fire.