A Secret Force Fighting ISIS

We know about allied air strikes against the Islamic State, the Sunni caliphate wannabe. The pesh merga Kurdish fighters are making heroic stands against IS fighters, especially in the Syrian border town Kobani. ISIS has been particularly successful in areas where drought-plagued, impoverished Sunnis have been abandoned and ignored by the countries they live in, but ISIS is beginning to run into pockets of its conquest targets that do not find anything attractive in the Islamic State’s message or goals.

“[A]fter months of steady expansion, the Islamic State has taken most of these [IS-sympathetic] areas in Iraq while failing to seize areas with non-Sunni populations. And although it could still expand in Syria, the group also faces resistance from rival rebel groups there.

“‘ISIS can only expand in areas where it can enter into partnerships with the local population, and that largely limits the scope of the expansion of ISIS to Sunni, disenfranchised areas,’ said Lina Khatib, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

“It is in Iraq, where coalition forces began bombing in August, that the Islamic State has lost the most ground. In recent weeks, combinations of Iraqi government units, Kurdish pesh merga forces, Shiite militias and armed Sunni tribesmen have seized the Rabia crossing with Syria; taken back the area of Zumar in the north and Jurf al-Sakr south of Baghdad; opened crucial roads in the country’s center; and held off Islamic State advances elsewhere.” New York Times, November 5^th.

But the most interesting reality in who is countering IS with serious success resides in the long-standing hostility between Shiites and Sunnis. Inasmuch as Iran is the focal point for the global Shiite minority, funding Hezbollah (very active in Lebanon, for example), aligning heavily with the largely Shiite government in Iraq (a nation that is 60% Shiite) and staring down the IS’ gun barrel, feeling the anti-Shiite venom as IS executes Shiites wherever they can find them, they have slipped into the battle in subtle ways.

“When Islamic State militants retreated from the embattled town of Jurf al-Sahnhith military commanders ahead of the operation.” Christian Science Monitor, November 5^th.

Interesting. So if the United States and its allies implement strategic air strikes against ISIS targets at the direction of Iraqi authorities, they may well be providing air support for designated terrorists (Hezbollah, for example) and enemies of the American state? Oh! Exactly how does that work? Iran’s religious leadership still calls us the “Great Satan,” and recent celebrations of the Iran hostage crisis in Tehran had “death to America” cries laced with burning the American flag… routine stuff, until you think of American forces flying in support of military units from or sponsored by Iran.

Ghasem Soleimani (pictured in the poster above) is a master military tactician, feared by his enemies and notorious for his effective ruthlessness. As we contemplate countering the Islamic State, we are going to face incredible conflicts in our stated goals and values, and we are going to have some very nasty bedfellows in a battle to which we still remain resolute in avoiding committing U.S. ground forces. So we are stuck with the ground forces that are willing to step into the fray, noting how ineffective the Iraqi Army really is, how unwilling Turkey is to commit , and, who is stepping in to fight.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we are going to face some very tough choices in the coming years in this battle against real terrorist with death to us as a priority.