How can we stop the Islamic State?
Imagine yourself shaken awake, rushed off to a strategy meeting with your presidential candidate of choice, and told: “Come up with a plan for me to do something about ISIS!” What would you say?
What Hasn’t Worked
Stock markets across the Middle East have collapsed following Iran’s addition of 500,000 barrels of oil, sending markets in Dubai and Saudi Arabia into freefall. As economic sanctions were lifted from the Islamic Republic, Iran threatened to unleash a huge wave of oil onto global markets, saturating a market that is already drowning in excess supply Yahoo Finance reports: All seven stock markets in Gulf states tumbled as panic gripped traders.
Submitted by Gregory R. Copley via OilPrice.com,
Senior-level sources in numerous Middle Eastern governments have privately expressed bewilderment at recent and current U.S. government strategies and policies toward the region.
But a closer examination of U.S. policies, now almost entirely dictated by the Obama White House, shows no cohesive national goals or policies exist, but rather an ad hoc set of actions and reactions, which are largely dictated either by ideological positions, ignorance, whim, or perceived expedience.
Policymakers and media people—as well as anyone interested in the Middle East, Islam, terrorism, and related issues—need to be talking about al-Jazira. I am not talking here about the Qatar-based media operation that we usually call al-Jazeera. Rather, I am referring to those regions of Eastern Syria and Northern Iraq that have been in the news so much recently because they are the main stamping grounds of ISIL, and the core of the Islamic State, the Daesh.
Submitted by Nauman Sadiq
Islamic radicalism, a consequence of Petro-imperialism: