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The ISIS-defeater club seems to be expanding, as the UK, France and Estonia among others also announced they had, in fact, defeated the terrorist group.
All these followed a statement by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces who also acknowledged that ISIS had been defeated in the Euphrates Valley.
On March 23rd, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the fall of the last bastion of ISIS in Syria removed a source of potential terror attacks against France.
The Syrian Democratic Forces have announced that the last bastion of Isis has fallen. I pay tribute to our partners and to the armies of the international coalition, of which France is a member. They fought the terrorists with determination, for our security. https://t.co/2GjO30khjC
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) March 23, 2019
UK Prime Minister Theresa May also went to Twitter to announce that the UK had defeated ISIS:
The liberation of the last Daesh-held territory wouldn’t have been possible without the immense courage of UK military and our allies. We will continue to do what is necessary to protect the British people, our Allies and partners from the threat Daesh poses.
— Theresa May (@theresa_may) March 23, 2019
Her claim for the credit the UK deserves in the fight against ISIS followed reports that the British Royal Air Force killed 4,013 ISIS members and injured 302 others in Syria and Iraq in the period between September 2014 and January 2019. At the same time, the British Defense Ministry admitted to being responsible for 1 (one) civilian casualty.
Estonia was ahead of the curve and actually announced that it had strongly contributed to the defeat of ISIS and proclaimed it as early as in February 2019. Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser on February 6th visited the US to attend a meeting of foreign ministers of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
The Estonian side admitted that the fight is not over and that even if it wasn’t against ISIS it was prepared to combat Russia and its “malign influence.”
It also should be reminded that on December 12th, 2018, Estonia decided to continue its deployment of up to 10 (ten) military personnel to Operation Inherent Resolve to continue defeating ISIS.
Comments by Turkey and Germany regarding the defeat of ISIS have not been provided yet, but Turkey has been claiming that it is near defeat for a while now. So it would be no surprise if Turkey claims it defeated it, and it would be no surprise if Germany also claims credit.
If given the chance, US-Proclaimed Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido would also take credit for the defeat of ISIS, after all he is also combating Hezbollah’s alleged presence in Venezuela, too.
At a closer look, however, it becomes more than apparent that the Global Coalition against ISIS, which consists of over 30 countries is barely even attempting to fulfill its purpose and was formed to further some regional and global interests, mostly US ones.
This is substantiated by two observations:
- The actual fight against ISIS began just a few months after Russia began its operation in Syria in September 2015. The coalition had been “active” for over 1 year at that point. In the one year of activity it accidentally dropped weapons to ISIS, supported Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria, which has recently renamed to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) and others. There were also on-going reports of mysterious black helicopters extracting ISIS members.
- The Global Coalition against ISIS also undertook no action against the caliphate’s oil business, whereas Russia immediately tackled it, purging oil convoys and destroying ISIS oil infrastructure. It also pressured bodies linked regional actors, such as Turkey to immediately stop their clandestine business with ISIS.
The most active year in the Global Coalition’s war on ISIS was 2016, and it can be tracked according to official Pentagon data: At that moment, the US-led coalition has 180 combat aircraft deployed for the operation. This air force was conducting about 19,68 combat sorties per day. This means that in general 1 coalition aircraft was making 0.1 combat sortie per day. In comparison one aircraft of the Russian air group in Syria was making 1 combat sortie per day at that time.
Thus, the activity of the Global Coalition is just enough to signify that something is happening rather than seeking results.
Israel, whose interests are propagated to no end by the US said, as early as in 2016, that it prefers ISIS than Iran at its borders.
In 2018, that statement changed to preferring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Iran.
Truth of the matter is that it is “surprising” that ISIS was defeated with the low-effort and low-intensity approach that the Global Coalition undertook. That’s mostly due to the fact that since Obama, the US-led coalition wasn’t really aiming at defeating the caliphate.
However, efforts by the Syrian Army, Russia, Iran and Turkey forced the Global Coalition to “defeat” the caliphate, otherwise the credit would entirely go to the “wrong side.” This, in turn, would lead to the result of Bashar al-Assad’s government consolidating the Syrian territory much easier and earlier.
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