The Puzzle of ISIS's Strength

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

ISIS is a strange phenomenon, and its ability to spread provokes a great deal of puzzlement, driving one to ponder the secret of its strength. The ISIS organization spread across the world in a short period of time, and had managed to seize control of vast areas of Iraq and Syria at an astonishing speed that surprised those who had not expected it to possess such capabilities.

Within a short time, ISIS seized governorates in Iraq, and large sections of the Iraqi army fled before it, and it managed to carry out killing and bloodshed among Iraqi army soldiers. Just as quickly, it seized vital areas in Syria, and managed to overcome several organizations with long experience fighting in Syria. It even seized Palmyra with ease, leaving Syrians stunned at the organization’s ability to maneuver and establish defensive belts.

It is strong regular armies that possess superior capabilities in reconnaissance, surveillance, speed of movement, and rapid establishment of defensive installations, and that possess the capacity for command, control, and leadership. ISIS is an organization that managed to reach a high level of combat efficiency, and managed to coordinate between the various sectors of its fighters. On top of that, it managed to obtain advanced military equipment, and enough money to continue waging war.

The puzzling question is: how did the ISIS organization manage to mobilize thousands of fighters, invade large parts of Iraq, and gain control, without the world’s reconnaissance apparatuses and satellites managing to detect this huge number riding massive military vehicles?

The skies of Iraq and Syria are crowded with satellites and reconnaissance aircraft, and with deployment on the ground, to monitor military movements, and yet information requiring military mobilization and readiness for confrontation, or for delivering preemptive strikes, never arrived. ISIS does not possess the technical capabilities enabling it to monitor army positions on a broad scale, and does not possess factories enabling it to produce the military materiel battlefields require. So who fed ISIS the information? And who concealed information from the Iraqi and Syrian armies?

ISIS spread rapidly into Sinai, most likely forming cells inside Egypt itself, then spread into Libya, then Algeria, then France, then Belgium, and may soon reach the farthest West and the farthest East.

What is strange is that most ISIS members who came from Arab or Western countries are known to the security apparatuses, and their names circulate, but we have not seen serious pursuit of them, and the greatest evidence of this is what Belgium failed to do to protect itself from terrorist acts.

ISIS members leave Syria at their leisure. The borders are open before them, and they board planes to their countries under the full knowledge and watchful eye of Arab, Turkish, and Western security apparatuses. They arrive in their countries without being questioned, detained, or monitored. We only hear about the security apparatuses’ knowledge of these terrorists after they have carried out their criminal acts. Doesn’t this prompt us to raise questions about the world’s seriousness, or that of some of its states, in pursuing terrorism?

There are those with an interest in the continuation and spread of terrorism, who provide the appropriate facilitation for ISIS members to move from one place to another, and to obtain funds. The matter of money is easy enough to unravel, in that the wealthy Arab states have enough to spend on ISIS. But these states cannot fund terrorism without the masters’ permission, and the masters are found in Washington. The world has prior experience in this matter, in that Arab states funded the al-Qaeda organization, while America provided the necessary military and security support.

If we were to ask Karl Marx about the matter, he would answer that wars are the wars of capitalism, always arranged to break out in order to achieve profits at the expense of the poor. Wars consume equipment, buildings, industrial and agricultural facilities, and so on, and it is the capitalist states that manufacture and export weapons, and also carry out reconstruction projects. Wars constitute an enormous investment opportunity for capitalists, who are always looking to corrupt nations so they are dragged into wars. In other words, the Western states are essentially the ones concerned with terrorism that wrecks and destroys.

On another note, it is well known that the United States tries, in its various activities, to affirm to the European states and Japan that it is the one preserving these states’ interests. America always tries to tell Europeans and Japanese that it is the one protecting the sources of oil and the sea lanes, and that it is the one fighting the terrorism that threatens everyone — so that these states acknowledge their interests are tied to America’s military and economic capabilities, and that their approval of American foreign policy is necessary for the continuation of the American security umbrella.

So is America now trying to encourage terrorist activities that frighten Europeans, so they embrace America to help them overcome the terrorist challenge they face? As for Japan, America contents itself with the North Korea policy to keep Japan an obedient state.

And what of the Arabs? Are there Arab states involved in the process of spreading terrorism? It is possible, especially if there is, among the Arab states, one that aspires to lead the Arab homeland while marginalizing or striking at others, so that they never rise again. Perhaps Saudi Arabia has an interest, especially since it has worked to push Iraq and Syria out of the way, and tried hard to drag the Western states and Israel into confrontation with Iran. Is Saudi Arabia cooperating with Israel to facilitate the missions of Arab and non-Arab terrorists?

This means the questions raised must be investigated, because terrorism is not merely the experiment of an organization. What the organization does confirms the involvement of states in providing services and facilitation.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الحيرة في قوة داعش” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.