THE burning to death of 45 people in western Iraq and the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic hostages in Libya should make regional states and world powers revise their pusillanimous strategy if they are serious about destroying the criminal hordes operating as the self-styled Islamic State.

The response by the US-led coalition hasn’t served to break the IS militia’s strength, for it continues to remain in occupation of large chunks of territory and seems to be expanding its area of influence.

Its stunning advance from western Iraq to Syria as far as the Turkish border has come to a halt, and now, like similar militant groups looking to conquer territory, it will need time to consolidate. However, there is no room for complacency, for it would be a great mistake to let IS consolidate its gains and plan for more ‘conquests’.

Egypt has called for UN intervention in Libya, and a military ‘summit’ conference is in session in Riyadh. However, going by media reports the task before the generals is not the drawing up of a new strategy that would turn the tide against the IS but ‘a general reappraisal’ of the situation and ‘what needs to be done’.

Also read: Kerry says any Iran strikes against IS 'positive'

That only shows that the military chiefs stand circumscribed by their governments’ lack of required political will to wipe out IS.

Turkey, the region’s strongest military power, has shown little or no interest in joining the anti-IS coalition, even though the militant outfit is knocking at its door. Jordan, following the burning to death of one of its pilots, has shown greater zeal for punishing IS for its crimes.

But why regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are coy about combining forces against a common threat is a question that remains unanswered. The generals can do little unless the political leaderships in the Gulf states,

Tehran and Ankara first put aside their geopolitical differences and paper over the cracks in order to unite on a common strategy for destroying the source of terrorism in the region.

Published in Dawn February 19th , 2015

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