On Thursday 2nd July 2015, the UK Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, called for the UK’s armed forces to bomb ISIS in Syria (and not just Iraq) as a reaction to the attack against British tourists in Tunisia.

On 2nd July 2015, Sky News TV program ‘The Debate’, hosted a TV debate between Lt. Colonel Chris Parker and Abdullah al Andalusi on whether UK warplanes should enter Syria to bomb ISIS/ISIL?

I debated Lt. Colonel Chris Parker, former Chief of Staff of UK 7th Armoured Division (‘The Desert Rats’). The Colonel ended up contradicting himself, arguing unwittingly that UK’s bombing campaign against Nazi Germany (which he forgot to mention killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Germans) was not very effective. Abdullah argued that the UK and the West should stop interfering in the Muslim world, as 100 years of Western interference in the region is directly responsible for the conflicts, wars and instability it is facing, ultimately spilling over globally. The UK airforce has been involved in 5 major incursions into the middle east and it’s time the West stopped invading for resources, propping up pro-Western brutal dictators, and using bombing as a solution to every problem. The people in the region should now be left alone to solve their own problems and deal with the tyrannical regimes (like Bashar al Assad) and brutal groups (like ISIS/ISIL) there, themselves.

The key to defeating ISIS/ISIL, is in the defeat of Bashar al Assad. I argued on the program that Bashar al Assad is the key lifeline to ISIS/ISL, and Syria is the key supply line to ISIS/ISIL in Iraq. Bashar provides a lifeline to ISIS via paying employees of electrical and other utilities in ISIS’s ‘capital’, Raqqah. ISIS and Assad, both led by Arab Baathists, have mutually collaborated and helped each other, Assad trades with ISIS for the oil they provide, as well as providing air cover for ISIS offensives against the Syrian rebel groups. Assad attacks the Syrian rebel groups, but mostly doesn’t directly fight ISIS, leaving ISIS free to attack and sandwich the Syrian Rebels between them and the Syrian army. The Syrian rebel groups are the only groups on the ground that have ever had any successes against ISIS WITHOUT Western military support. If Assad is defeated, the pressure would be relieved from Syrian rebels who could focus their forces on fighting ISIS and expelling them from Syria. With ISIS expelled from Syria, the Iraqi ISIS branch would wither and ISIS would go back to what they were in Iraq before the Syrian civil war – in control of no towns or cities. They then can be defeated by the Iraqi Sunnis and eradicated. Unfortunately the U.S. and UK do not intend the Syrian rebels to have such a free hand to determine their own future and political system (which they know will involve Islam) – and therefore they want to control the conflict to ensure a post-revolution Syria they can control and exploit, hence their incessant intervention to ensure any resolution is fully dependent on themselves.

I was also invited onto ITN News to give my reactions to the declaration of Michael Fallon, alongside MP Harriet Harman (acting head of the UK’s Labour Party) and Michael Clarke, Defence Specialist for RUSI. [Video to be added shortly].

Categories: DEBATES, MEDIA APPEARANCES, Muslim World / Middle East, POLITICAL ANALYSIS