War! What Is It Good For? Absolutely ISIS!

War

One of the main things I feel strongly opposed to is war. I feel there is no place for it in any modern day society. As Edwin Starr once said so poignantly. War! What is it good for? - absolutely nothing! As most people have heard in the media lately, we are dropping missiles once again in the middle east. The aim is focused currently at a terrorist organisation called ISIS. Now this terrorist group are disgusting, they are a real deplorable, sick and inhumane bunch but I just can't see how bombing is going to solve this. The last time we went all trigger happy in Iraq thousands upon thousands of people ended up dead. No doubts countless more were injured and millions of lives have been ruined (from all countries involved). This is just part of a war that the West have undertaken against differing Muslim Countries in the middle East that has raged for some decades now, probably longer. Actually, America have now bombed 14 Countries around this region that have Islam as their principal religion since 1980. Britain have backed them in most cases too. 

Understanding

Now for me looking at a group like ISIS it's easy to just call them animals and put their aims down to the actions of mad men desperate to watch the world burn. I have to doubt it is that simple. Yes there will be those kind of crazy twisted individuals involved but there are many examples of young men with no past history of violence or criminal record joining up to this organisation. From reading their messages and watching their videos it is clear ISIS needs to be stopped and there are greater minds than mine out there in the world that surely have to come to a better conclusion than solving this with violence and that is what baffles me the most. Giving these guys violence is what they crave. The leaders of these haunting groups thrive on the West doing this. It confirms we are the bad guys. Masses of the recruits ISIS gain are from the cities and towns that WE in Britain and the West have decimated. Some of the people in these places don't know why their world is caving in, they just know they have had a roof blown from over their head, a family member and possibly friends killed. Their life broken. They are able to buy into the ISIS philosophy and thus are brainwashed into thinking fighting is the only option a lot of the time to gain revenge. Sectarianism has also crippled their towns thanks to the previous government in Iraq and in MY opinion they probably genuinely feel it is us against them and that is the mentality that fosters this hatred for us. These guys are experiencing a 9/11 type scenario all the time on their doorstep. I don't know about you but if that was a situation happening to me I would be very hateful. Especially if I possibly didn't have the education to know much of the outside world.

I once again say ISIS are disgusting. They are vile. I wished they didn't exist but we have to face up to the fact we also helped arm them, let us not forget that is what OUR government did. Same with Al Qaeda. Let me use the example of a weed. Cut it at the bottom of the stock and it appears to have gone, give it a few weeks and it will have regrown completely. I feel we need to look at the root of the problem. It seems to me it is the social situations at the moment in these Countries. Have we ever tried to tackle them. No we haven't! We haven't heard much about that though. The reason is the media isn't exactly very honest about what they report. They conveniently leave out information but that is also for another blog. 

If Britain and the US are the countries as hell bent on preserving democracy as they claim then why are they not tackling these social issues? Why don't we attempt to bring back more of an Arab identity to these places. Why don't we use some of the things that create these jihadist fighters to our own advantage. Start it at home. Social media and things like that are powerful recruitment tools. It's one of the main things that is used in recruiting our own fellow Britons to go out there and fight. What makes a young British Muslim go to Iraq and join ISIS? "Oh they've been brainwashed" people say. Well yes, of course they have. So why have they been able to be? Could it possibly be to do with the fact that they have problems integrating into society over here? I think it has a lot to do with it. This is something both Muslim's in Britain, us as citizens and the government obviously have a responsibility to sort out. I genuinely feel though that these communities have been allowed to grow alienated from the rest of Britain. We need to deal with this and that will stop a huge huge majority of young Muslim's perpetrating acts of terror and leaving our shores to join ISIS. They don't feel they are part of our Country and I genuinely feel we dare not underestimate that feeling of being left out and the need to belong to something. We have the money to deal with these problems if we have 3 billion or whatever it is to spend on air strikes. I just know that education surely is one of the answers. To me the government thrive on having minorities to blame. It keeps the rest of the population from looking above them as to why real inequality has happened. Under a capitalist regime every benefit more or less comes at someone's expense. If you can constantly shift the blame or focus on to those least able to defend themselves (minorities) then you keep people from standing together to improve their existence. We are all in it together but divided we will never see an end to inequality. UKIP have made successful inroads because they have successfully pushed blame onto the immigrants, which encourages racism, which alienates those suffering against the prejudices from the rest of the population. It's happened before in our Country. A baffling example I read was that it used to be witches hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The population were led to believe that they were suffering hardships down to the fact that witches were casting spells on them. Innocent men and women lost their lives due to this crazy notion, but it is worth recalling how a group can be made up and blamed for the ills of the day. Sounds ridiculous but really it was a cruder version of events in the present day.

Let us try and target the supporters of ISIS in the region too. The tribal leaders for one. The Sunni Muslims see the air strikes as the West sticking up for the Kurds and shia'a Muslims. If America is asking the Sunni's to turn their backs on ISIS, (mainly Sunni Muslims) then it's actions are not showing them this, because we all are aware ISIS base themselves between these civilians. These Sunni Muslims have suffered horrendously under the sectarian regime led by the former prime minister. They didn't get the help they needed then either. That means we must not ignore the atrocities carried out by our allies or by those who may not be officially our allies in the bombings of civilian areas. That must be acknowledged to show we are going to be neutral. The admission of mass murder isn't always easy to admit to I would imagine.

Now, surely allow diplomacy to win. Send a diplomatic group of some kind to speak with ISIS. That doesn't mean they have won, and don't tell me it definitely wont work because there is zero evidence we have tried it. Try to use the financial aspects to our advantage and communicate with these people to a higher degree. If they begin to meet conditions by helping themselves surely rewards to improve their current quality of life would go a long way. Repairing the damage for example. Look I might be a million miles off but I know for sure my examples are a lot better than just a simple bombing initiative that will stir up a hornets nest. Get back to trying to see what we can do to help these places rather than through violence. Negotiate with these places and don't tell me it cannot be done. They know it can because Israel do it all the time with Hamas. I don't mean negotiated through giving weapons but listen to what they have to say. Not every demand is going to be met but at least attempt to show alternatives to the demands perhaps. It's not going to get any worse for us doing that. We aren't going to come across as a soft touch. They know our weapons arsenal is unlimited. Show our human side for the refugees. More aid must be delivered to Countries we obliterate. It's our responsibility if we are bombing these places. The UN needs to ensure this happens on a greater scale, not just little pockets of aid.

Ignite Change

My point in this whole spiel is that there is always an alternative to blowing people up. There is a reason that Britain and America aren't bothering to negotiate. They need an enemy in ISIS perhaps. I personally feel that has to be the case. There is a reason why they are involved in Iraq. It isn't to preserve democracy. If it was they would be involved more heavily with China over Hong Kong for example. They aren't because they cannot win that battle. Capitalism is unfortunately the reason. There is money to be made in the middle east and until we the people truly open our eyes to this then ISIS will grow and so will the fear and tensions on both sides. It isn't far fetched to assume our government due to the corporate will of the West, want us to desperately fear these people. It keeps the cycle going and we need to start looking for the answers and reasons into why the Middle East crisis continues. If we all start looking into it and all of us protested our involvement in these areas then it would hopefully and surely eventually stop. Some people will say to me - is it such a bad thing us having the resources and not them? Well yes because the resources from their Country are needed to provide them with a better quality of life. Granted if it were to be used fair and rationally. One day perhaps the world can share resources equally I hope. We all must keep probing for a solution and and ask the right questions. I understand people want these ISIS beasts to be brought to justice but to see how they tick we me must think like them and then our government need to simply take a huge share of the responsibility for their resurgence and to some degree existence. Such groups wouldn't need to exist if the right conditions were created in their towns and villages. We can set up blogs, protest, but really what we can't do is nothing. There are innocent children and people being blown to bits. Whether you agree with my alternatives to bombing or not then fine, but don't disagree that civilians are dying. That alone should be enough to stop the atrocities I assure you are taking place. Just look at the facts. I'll post a link to it below. Our soldiers don't deserve to die either, I know a few and a lot of them are baffled as to our reasoning for being there. Keep the faith though folks and a change in the existing power structures will come. Believe me when I tell you, it's clear they need this continuing war and without a true passion for change, it wont come so lets all help to ignite it.

https://www.iraqbodycount.org/

BY EM