December 13, 2015
Akahata ‘current’ column
“ISIL is the baby of George W. Bush.” German journalist Jurgen Todenhofer said this based on his experience of travelling deep into the Islamic State-controlled territories in Syria and Iraq to write stories about their activities.
Former U.S. President George W. Bush had promoted “the war against terrorism” in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the chaos emerging from the war the IS extremist group was born and has extended the areas under their control.
“ISIS is armed with U.S. weapons.” In a news program aired on December 9, CNN cited a new report issued by the human rights organization, Amnesty International (AI). According to the report, between 2003 and 2007, U.S.-led forces provided the Iraqi Army with over one million firearms and several million rounds of ammunition. Since then, most of those arms have gone missing. Around the same period of time, a massive quantity of arms flew into black markets for weapons.
When the jihadist group took the offensive in northern Iraq and occupied national army bases in 2014, they captured a lot of arms. The United States is still supplying the Iraqi forces with tanks and warplanes. AI is calling for an embargo on the export of arms are likely to fall into the hands of the militant group again.
Experts argue that the most effective measure to take to weaken the IS would be to destroy their supply network of funds, weapons, and human resources. As journalist Todenhofer claims, increasing airstrikes on the terrorist group will lead to an increase in the number of civilian victims and only further encourage the extremists.
The Akahata Sunday edition on December 13 reports that F-16 fighter jets deployed to the U.S. Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture took part in air campaigns against the IS this year as well as in 2014. We cannot overlook the fact that the U.S. military in Japan is assisting in operations which are creating another deadly cycle of retaliation.
Past related article:
> US fighters fly from Japan to Middle East to bomb IS militants [ March 15, 2015]
“ISIL is the baby of George W. Bush.” German journalist Jurgen Todenhofer said this based on his experience of travelling deep into the Islamic State-controlled territories in Syria and Iraq to write stories about their activities.
Former U.S. President George W. Bush had promoted “the war against terrorism” in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the chaos emerging from the war the IS extremist group was born and has extended the areas under their control.
“ISIS is armed with U.S. weapons.” In a news program aired on December 9, CNN cited a new report issued by the human rights organization, Amnesty International (AI). According to the report, between 2003 and 2007, U.S.-led forces provided the Iraqi Army with over one million firearms and several million rounds of ammunition. Since then, most of those arms have gone missing. Around the same period of time, a massive quantity of arms flew into black markets for weapons.
When the jihadist group took the offensive in northern Iraq and occupied national army bases in 2014, they captured a lot of arms. The United States is still supplying the Iraqi forces with tanks and warplanes. AI is calling for an embargo on the export of arms are likely to fall into the hands of the militant group again.
Experts argue that the most effective measure to take to weaken the IS would be to destroy their supply network of funds, weapons, and human resources. As journalist Todenhofer claims, increasing airstrikes on the terrorist group will lead to an increase in the number of civilian victims and only further encourage the extremists.
The Akahata Sunday edition on December 13 reports that F-16 fighter jets deployed to the U.S. Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture took part in air campaigns against the IS this year as well as in 2014. We cannot overlook the fact that the U.S. military in Japan is assisting in operations which are creating another deadly cycle of retaliation.
Past related article:
> US fighters fly from Japan to Middle East to bomb IS militants [ March 15, 2015]
