Reports from Syria point to the unspoken REALITY! Take note Trinidad and Tobago!
North Atlantic corporate media has replaced reporting on reality from on the ground in Syria with political discourse that seeks to assure their audience that the Islamic State (IS) is being and will be dismantled. But as in the case of the removal of Saddam in Iraq there is no concern with reality on the ground, the social forces that are unleashed and the possible and probable scenarios that will impact reality in Syria and by extension the North Atlantic.
Politicians of the west are not able to separate the discourses that they unleash for public consumption and the reality on the ground they are supposed to deal with. Politicians effectively drink their own kool aid meant for public consumption and in so doing literally screw up thereby creating enduring threats as Iraq and Afghanistan with Syria being the next. The discourse of the Shia crescent stretching from Iran through Iraq then Syria and ending in Lebanon is the potent example of political kool aid induced stupidity in the quest to engage with Iran since 1979. The overwhelming majority of the population of Syria are Sunni Muslims who are denied political power by an Alawite oligarchy in alliance with Shia, Christian, Druze and Sunni families. Syria under the Assad dictatorship is then an apartheid state where ethnic minorities dominate and rule over the majority ethnic group utilising a totalitarian state. Syria is not Iraq and it’s the prime real estate for the 21st century sectarian war within Islam where the majority Sunni population will reverse their dominance by minority groups considered to be outside the pale of Islam. The sectarian drive is potently palpable in Syria and those who lust after hegemony over Sunni Islam cannot evade openly committing to this sectarian conflict much longer. The excuse so far has been the extremism of IS and Al Qaeda but changes in the strategy of Al Qaeda has impacted this excuse but the gravest impact will come from IS and the post Baghdadi strategy. In this scenario Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey and Egypt will be in the line of fire and this is illustrated by Putin’s strategic play to earn new terms of endearment from them as Russia is in need of an exit strategy.
Today Syria has sucked into the growing singularity Russia, Turkey, Iran and the US with their proxies with no hope of restoring the Assad hegemony or completely obliterating it and as events play out in Iraq the sectarian divide in Syria heightens in response to the reality that Iraq exists in its colonial imperial given name only. Such is the fate of Syria. The most potent impact Islamic State will have on Syria is not when Raqqa falls but when the al Baghdadi faction is purged and the organisation returns to its original mandate and intent of being the vanguard of the sectarian war in the Muslim lands that destroys the colonial imperial millstone around the neck of 21st century Islam and purges Islam vitally necessary to the Islamic apocalypse. The Al Qaeda attack in Damascus on the Iraqi Shia pilgrims with two suicide bombers on their pilgrimage to shrines including the tomb of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed (uwbp) is indicative. This is in keeping with Islamic State’s previous attack which now illustrates the escalation and redefinition of the sectarian war. (http://www.dw.com/en/militants-claim-responsibility-for-deadly-damascus-bombings/a-37911381)
A report in RT news speaks of the migration of the personnel of IS from various parts of Syria to north western Syria forming an IS enclave that is close to the Turkish border. What the report does not state is that this north western enclave is in military striking distance of the Alawite heartland of Syria setting the stage and the battleground for the primary sectarian strike in the Syrian conflict that is aimed at the operational heart of Assad’s totalitarian apartheid state. Assad, his militias, the Russians and the Iranians and their militias and proxies must then respond to this threat setting the stage for the pre apocalyptical battle where Islam will face off with the apostates and their kaffirun allies. This is the basis of the call to Hijrah to do battle with the apostates and the kaffirun in Syria/Sham the land of the Islamic apocalypse. The news report insists that this new IS enclave will receive from and export fighters to the west. (https://www.rt.com/news/380308-second-isis-syria-rebels/)
The Jamestown Foundation carried an analysis of the power Islamic State wields in Deir al-Zour province of eastern Syria in spite of the reports on the attack on Mosul, fall of Aleppo and the coming assault on Raqqa. The Assad oligarchy only controls the capital city of the province and has only been able to do so by dint of Russian military intervention. Deir al-Zour province borders Iraq and on both sides of the line drawn on the map by the colonial imperial European powers Sunni Muslims dominate the population. The Islamic State purged of the al Baghdadi faction needs Deir al-Zour as a base of operation to realise the dream of a Sunni expanse comprising the Sunnis of Syria and Iraq as an effective redoubt against a Shia crescent and the launching pad for the final solution to the sectarian war. This Sunni expanse against the apostates and their kaffirun allies will call all Sunni Muslims to commit to the battle and those countries desirous of hegemony over Sunni Islam will be faced with a grave assault on their Islamic legitimacy. Turkey will be especially vulnerable as is Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The Kurds will have the gauntlet thrown down for them as they must indicate whether they are Sunni Muslims first and an ethnic group after or the opposite. In this call out Turkey and Islamic State can be dancing partners. The stage is then being set for the escalation of the sectarian war that will deepen the quagmire and enhance the singularity towards its completion. (https://jamestown.org/program/islamic-states-deir-al-zour-offensive-puts-syrian-regime-pressure/)
Finally, the Assad oligarchy is following the Iraqi Shia model by placing the task of cleansing and exercising hegemony over territory and its inhabitants reconquered from enemies of the Assad oligarchy in the hands of its militia. These are predominantly Sunni Muslim Syrians now subjected to Assad’s militias and their reign of terror, criminality and criminal enterprises all wrapped in impunity. This is sending a salient message to all Sunni Muslims of Syria as the message is being sent in Mosul and was already sent in Tikrit and other Sunni majority areas of Iraq. The salient question on the ground is not then the destruction of Islamic State that is the major concern of the west but the survival and hegemony of Sunni Islam in Syria/Sham and Iraq. Islamic State is then challenged by this reality on the ground to respond adequately and sustainably to this reality. Islamic State will have to decide if this response demands the end of the pursuit of the caliphate and the lust for territory, people and wealth derived from for an oligarchy to benefit from as they are mutually irreconcilable. And by extension the continued hegemony of the al Baghdadi faction and their discourse and worldview. What is assured is the continued actions of the Assad oligarchy that generate pressure on all Sunni Muslim groups in Syria to review their discourse and operational strategies and in this environment extremism abounds.
Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) is boxing way out of its weight category as a contributor of Muslims undertaking Hijrah to the Islamic State. These reports indicate that those from T&T within the ranks of IS can be now on the move or have moved to alternate operational theatres in Syria. The position that the conquest of Mosul and Raqqa will eliminate the T&T foreign fighter problem is then flawed at best. The attacks on the forces of the Assad oligarchy in January 2017 Deir al-Zour revealed battlefield tactics entirely different from those utilised by the al Baghdadi faction in Mosul etc. which have all failed some will insist that they are learning from past mistakes but this is an indication of a new order on the ground which means a redefining and reformulation of the strategic use of foreign fighters. This reformulated strategy when revealed will be too late to make a pre-emptive response. The next grave concern is the ability of Muslim migrants to once again travel to and enter territory under the control of the Islamic State in Syria via various smuggling routes both land and sea. With this capacity in place the post Baghdadi IS can make its appeal for obligatory Hijrah now for the sake of the defence of Sunni Islam in Sham and Iraq towards realising the Islamic apocalypse. This is a call for the hard core committed mujahidun and their families entirely different from the call of the al Baghdadi faction which is a failed venture. Trinidad and Tobago now faces the prospect of a new call to hijrah and the survival of a larger than expected core of mujahidun and their families from T&T in Syria whose role and function in the IS of Sham will be redefined and reconceptualised. The reality is only resolved in the public discourse of denial of politicians.