Nations Now Uniting Against ISIS

ISIS is certainly not afraid to make enemies. Their latest round of terrorist strikes may have succeeded in uniting international action to finally begin bringing an end to their barbaric outrages. The horrific terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday, November 13 that have claimed 129 lives thus far came close on the heels of the October 31 murder of 224 in the downing of a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, apparently by an explosive stowed in baggage, and the killing of 43 by twin suicide bombers on November 12 in Beirut, Lebanon. 

French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed retribution and have sent warplanes to deliver heavy attacks against ISIS targets in Syria. American planes are already conducting their own campaign in Syria and Iraq at the head of a coalition that includes 16 nations. Their strikes paved the way for Kurdish Peshmerga forces to seize the important crossroads town of Sinjar from ISIS militants.

France has invoked article 42.7 of the European Union Lisbon Charter, which calls for aid to any member state under attack. All 27 nations of the EU President have responded positively. Hollande is about to go to Washington to confer with President Obama and then will cross the Atlantic again to meet with President Putin in Moscow. Putin was shown on Russian TV today ordering his military forces to treat France, which is sending an aircraft carrier to the Easter Mediterranean, "as an ally."  

The Foreign Ministers meeting on Syria, held in Vienna on October 30 has now led to a semi-permanent group, styling itself  the International Syria Support Group. Participants include the Arab League, China, Egypt, the EU, France, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, the UK, the United Nations, and the U.S. The group has declared that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Da'esh, in its Arabic initials) as well as the Jabhat al-Nusra Front, and ″other terrorist groups, as designated by the UN Security Council, and further, as agreed by the participants and endorsed by the UN Security Council, must be defeated.″

The tricky part is that the U.S. and its Western allies want Bashar Assad out as Syrian leader while Russia and Iran are trying to prop him up. This has so far prevented joint action among the international community on the Syrian problem. Meanwhile the war has dragged on, creating the refugee crisis and giving ISIS the chaos it has used to establish its territorial sway over much of Eastern Syria and Northern Iraq. It may well have angered enough powers now that they will put aside their differences, at least long enough to focus all their firepower on crushing ISIS first. Talks are underway to arrange a cease-fire of the various factions in Syria by January 1 that would permit effective coordination against ISIS. Don't be surprised if these talks bear fruit. ISIS's latest terror ventures have been way too successful for their own good.