Thursday, February 19, 2015

New York Times Editorial, "Egypt’s Crisis Across the Border With Libya": Is Obama Seeking a Negotiated Settlement With ISIS?

You will recall that I wrote in my previous blog entry:

"After ISIS beheaded 21 Egyptian Copts in Libya, Cairo sent its air force to bomb ISIS bases in Libya, and Qatar, which funds ISIS, expressed its dismay over the attack. A brouhaha between Qatar and Egypt resulted."

Well today, The New York Times is weighing in on this controversy in an editorial entitled "Egypt’s Crisis Across the Border With Libya":

"[T]he [Egyptian] airstrikes marked a significant expansion of Egypt’s direct military involvement in Libya, and there is little evidence that the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has thought through its response or coordinated it with other nations, including the United States.

. . . .

For some time, Arab states have taken sides in this civil war, turning it into a proxy fight and fostering the very chaos in which the Islamic State thrives. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have covertly backed General Hifter’s campaign to drive out the Islamists and their allies, while Qatar and Turkey reportedly have been backing Libya Dawn.

. . . .

Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, cannot afford to get bogged down in a war in Libya; there are staggering challenges at home, including reviving a battered economy and combating a domestic insurgency."

Qatar and Turkey - the two countries that Obama demanded that Israel accept as mediators in its most recent war with Hamas - are backing Libya Dawn? Just what is Libya Dawn? In fact, it is a group of Islamic militias that fly the flag of ISIS.

Or in other words, The New York Times is asking that Egypt not attack a branch of ISIS in Libya that beheaded 21 of its Christian citizens, because any such actions must be coordinated with the United States, which is conducting airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq.

Coordinate strategy against ISIS with the United States? Maybe someone would care to inform me exactly what is Obama's strategy regarding ISIS. The US State Department's Marie Harf declared three days ago, "We can not kill our way out of this war" and went on to say that we must "go after the root causes that lead people to join these groups, whether it is lack of opportunity for jobs." So is it now Obama's policy also to reach a negotiated settlement with ISIS?

If only we could know who wrote this editorial for The New York Times . . .

1 comment:

  1. Marie probably thinks that a few plane loads of social workers,or better internet service,will sway the people away from those groups.

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