USA and Western allies were pressuring Turkey to help Kurdish town of Syria, Kobani, against ISIS assault. The airstrikes by USA are not enough to stop the ISIS. The Turkish government decided to act, but against Kurds and not ISIS.

The fight of Kobani shows the mess we have decided to jump into. Turkey has refused to join the coalition because it considers Kurds, Assad and ISIS its enemies and wants USA to act against all of them and not just ISIS. The USA wants to focus only on ISIS and wants to forget previous conflicts with Iran, Assad and PKK. USA has declared long ago PKK, Turkish Kurds organization fighting for independence, as terrorist organization. The Kobani Kurdish army( P.Y.D an affiliate of PKK) has been fighting along with Syrian Army of President Assad against the Syrian rebels. The Turkey is happy to see its two enemies, Kurds and ISIS, kill each other and see no need to intervene.

President Obama hosted today a meeting of top military brass of 60 countries to organize a strategy against ISIS. Shadi Hamid, a Middle East expert says in Washington post” “The coalition partners have very different conceptions about the regional order and don’t even agree on what the primary threat is,” he said. “You have all these different actors who want different things and in some cases also strongly dislike each other.”

In many regards, the corrupt States surrounding the ISIS territory may not be any better than the ISIS itself. In many of these states beheadings and other human rights violations is a routine. Why protect them ? Let it play out itself and we should get out of there.

Justin Logan argues in Politico that Middle East does not much matters and writes “Nonetheless, three fears have turned this small, poor, weak region into the central focus of U.S. foreign policy: oil, Israel and terrorism. Each of these concerns merits attention, but nowhere near the amount they have received over the last several decades. And certainly, none of them calls for the sort of forward-deployed interventionism both Republicans and Democrats favor”

USA has jumped again in Middle East to take a lead in war against ISIS.  Again there is no clear end game, and it may turn out to be as disastrous as our previous endeavors in Middle East.

ISIS originated out of blue as a consequence of Iraq war when our backed ex-PM of Iraq Mr. Al-Maliki refused to accommodate Iraqi Sunni in the Government and embarked on revenge killings. The situation has not changed much even with the election of new PM of Iraq. The Iraqi Sunni still prefer to back ISIS than Iraqi Government. The Kurdish Army is still poorly equipped. Many nations have promised to join the fight, but they, especially Gulf States, will provide fig leaf support as in the past.

Even if we are successful in eradicating ISIS, then what will follow?  There is a strong possibility some other extreme group will rise to fill the vacuum because there is no strong legitimate Government that can effectively govern the area grabbed by ISIS. We are betting on moderate Syrian rebels, but as history dictates, they may not turn out to be as moderate as we think.

At present it is a civil war and we have jumped into a civil war. We should have let it play out and when other neighboring states were threatened, these states should have taken the lead against ISIS and we should have just supported them. These States deliberately did not take the lead, because they knew USA will jump in. Now we have become the face and target of this war and these Middle East states will take a back seat and blame USA to appease their masses. It will further fuel anti-USA sentiment and terrorist activity.

Although recent barbaric beheadings by the ISIS is an evil act, but in many other aspects it is just a matter of toss of coin to differentiate between ISIS and many current Middle East states. If we have let this civil war play out, ISIS and these states may have been busy settling their scores among themselves, and most likely USA and other Western States would not have become the target.

We may become a party in this civil war, but we cannot prevent this civil war. Let Middle East stand for itself or face the music.If we are doing this to prevent the oil fields falling in the wrong hands, the corrupt rulers has the same incentive to prevent their source of income fall in the wrong hands-and it may force them to defend themselves.

( Brief Thought)

Since last elections Sharif brothers continue to rule in old ways without realizing that Pakistan’s political landscape has changed. Imran Khan badly wanted another bite of the apple while he is still popular and did not want to wait for the next elections. Tahir ul Qadri wanted mayhem to prove his credentials. All this brought Pakistan to a collision course resulting in needless loss of innocent lives and bodily injuries.  All the politicians, and a Pir turned politician, used masses for their personal devious designs in the name of democracy.

Army is having a meeting of its core commanders today. I hope Army does not use this irresponsible behavior of politicians and violence in the streets to grab the power and impose Martial Law. No matter how terrible and irresponsible behavior of politicians, Martial Law is never the solution. It puts the country back to square one. The politicians have made this mess and they have to learn and clean this mess. This does not put country in danger. A Political process, no matter how messy, does not put country in danger. Such slogans are made by opportunistic forces. Let this process play out and have politicians find the way out.