Middle East “Allies” decline to Commit Forces, Resources against ISIL

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/09/decline-resources-against.html

Middle East “Allies” decline to Commit Forces, Resources against ISIL
By Juan Cole | Sep. 13, 2014

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s meeting in Jedda with ten Middle Eastern foreign ministers produced a communique on Friday, but little more. The regional states promised to do more to stop the transit across their territory of volunteer vigilantes seeking to join the so-called “Islamic State” of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and to stop their citizens from sending money to the extremists. That neither of these steps had been taken earlier shows how unseriously Middle Eastern states took the ISIL challenge.

On Friday, faced with another visit of the indefatigable Mr. Kerry, state officials in Cairo, Egypt, were careful to say that they would and could not devote troops on the ground to defeat ISIL. Cairo maintains that its troops are already stretched thin by their current tasks . The Egyptian military is deployed within the country to keep order and to stigmatize the previous regime, on the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo. In Sinai and along the Red Sea coast, guerrillas stage frequent attacks on Egyptian troops. In any case, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has other things to do with his army than deploy it directly against ISIL. Perhaps if he stopped maintaining that all Muslim Brothers are terrorists he might have some troops left over with which to deal with ISIL.

Turkey, likewise, has announced that it doesn’t want to get involved with ISIL. The Turkish government has even declined to allow the US to fly anti-ISIL missions from Incirlik Air Base. They will only allow US forces to use Turkish air bases for logistics, i.e. things like ammunition resupply.

Jordan’s main role is apparently intelligence cooperation.

[merrily]

1. But, have we heard from Lichtenstein?

[newfie11]

2. I wonder how long before oil trade is not in dollars

And this is setting up for US boots on the ground!
Either would be a disaster for America.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Interesting concept ...

how many barrels of oil is a soldier worth? At least it would be out in the open; what US™ is fighting for.

[newfie11]

5. We shouldn't be there at all

IMHO the disasters in the ME all began way back when we put the Shaw in and look what it's led up to.

No oil is worth soldiers dying or being maimed for life.

Why are we shipping fuel out of America?
Why are we not doing what Germany is and has been doing for years in renewable resources.

I'm appalled at what we've done and continue to do to other countries.

[flamingdem]

3. I flew next to a guy from Qatar last

Night. He was blase about Isis and said the problem is that everyone is related ti someone in another country and they do not want to kill them..