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The Herald November 5, 2015

THE United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia have been involved in creating the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group to overthrow the legitimate Syria government, a former US Senate candidate says.

“The United States has introduced all of these terrorists into Syria in conjunction with Israel and with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and it’s abundantly clear that the aggressor in this entire situation has been the United States,” said Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster and pastor in San Antonio, Texas.

Washington has been “acting through these Takifir extremists at the behest of Israel, which wants a regime change in Syria as a prelude to improving their position for a potential attack on Iran,” Dankof told Press TV.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The crisis has claimed the lives of more than 250 000 people so far and displaced millions of others.

US warplanes have been bombing purported Daesh positions in Iraq and Syria for over a year now. The US has largely limited its military role to “training” and “advising”.

Iraqi forces and militant units in Syria. US President Barack Obama’s decision last month to deploy dozens of special operations forces to Syria to “advise” US-backed militants on the ground has reignited the long-stalled debate on war authorisation.

On Tuesday, US Senator Lindsey Graham said the US Congress is unlikely to reach an agreement on a war authorisation against Daesh terrorists in Syria, where “the next 9/11 is coming from.”

“I think Democrats and a few Republicans have absolutely no clue as to the threats that we face,” the South Carolina Republican said to The Hill. — Press TV.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

Foreign policy is a major cornerstone of successive American administrations. It is through their foreign policy that Americans have covertly and overtly shown that they do not have permanent friends, but permanent interests.

American foreign policy has created more enemies than friends on the global stage. They have used their military might and financial muscle to effect illegal regime change and/or impose illegal economic sanctions like they did with Zimbabwe in 2001.

The Central Intelligence Agency and other well-funded organisations have been fingered in the overthrow of legitimately elected governments; in wars not sanctioned by the United Nations and in the rise of terror groups such as al-Qaeda, al-Shaabab, Boko Haram or ISIS.

Dubious wars have been fought in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria to protect American interests.

The United States policy in the Middle East is one of the most closely watched, considering its close relationship with  Israel.

ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), also known as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) uses Daesh as its Arab acronym and was led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who nearly succeeded in creating a caliphate before he was killed in October 2019.

Considering that the presidential candidates did not hold a debate on foreign policy, all we can conclude is that a Trump re-election will entrench his “America first” mantra, while a Biden win will see him continuing with Obama’s policies.

Africa must speak with a united voice to ensure that they are not short-changed by major powers such as the United States. Unity among Africans will also ensure that they are not used as pawns against each other.