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11 Sep, 2014

The IS behemoth, yet another Western project gone wrong – DAWN.COM

It is a typical summer flick, but it holds a great lesson for the global power politics. Hercules, released earlier in the summer, shows how the son of Zeus fights against tyrants only to realise later that he has been tricked into fighting against the good guys.

President Barak Obama must also feel very Herculean. He and other Western leaders supported the Syrian rebels against President Bashar Al-Assad.

The same rebels either amalgamated with, or were overpowered by, al Qaeda militants resulting in the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a consortium of fanatic mercenaries whose control extend from Syria to the Sunni-majority parts of Iraq.

Compared to these extremists, who are massacring Shias in Iraq and beheading American journalists, Bashar Al-Assad may look like a saint.

The West and the wealthy Arab states jumped into bed with the Syrian rebels to counter the rising influence of Iran in the region. It took al Qaeda fewer than two years to take over the rebels in Syria and march towards Baghdad while it also threatened the Western countries.

From Osama Bin Laden to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (the self-proclaimed caliph and head of the ISIL), the long list of western supported turncoats suggests that the West has yet to learn from its past mistakes of sponsoring militants who turn against their interests.

Read the rest: The IS behemoth, yet another Western project gone wrong – Blogs – DAWN.COM.