Sanction-Drunk West Forgets to Target ISIS Sponsors

As the US and Europe prepare another round of sanctions against Russia
over the ongoing Ukrainian conflict, the third round of such sanctions
since the conflict began shortly after the Euromaidan unrest resulted in
the installation of a NATO-backed regime in Kiev, a curious and
inexplicable oversight appears to have been made.

While wild accusations have been leveled against Russia over its
involvement over the violence in Ukraine, claims ranging from covert
support up to and including unsubstantiated claims of a “full scale
invasion,” prominent media organizations across the Western World have
for years reported a flow of cash, weapons, equipment and fighters from
America’s allies in the Persian Gulf as well as from nations like NATO
member Turkey, and into the conflict raging within Syria’s borders.

While baseless claims leveled against Russia have served as ample
justification for the West to continue leveling sanctions against
Moscow, no sanctions have as of yet been leveled against the overt
sponsors of militancy and, in fact, terrorism in Syria. So widespread
has state-sponsored terrorism become in the Middle East that what began
as a limited proxy war against Syria has transformed into an immense
regional army with tens of thousands of paid soldiers requiring millions
of dollars a day to operate across multiple borders and confounding the
forces of Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon combined.

ISIS is State-Sponsored, So Why Aren’t These States Being Sanctioned? 

Clearly, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria also known as ISIS or ISIL,
are the benefactors of vast state-sponsorship and yet the West has not
identified nor condemned these sponsors, let alone move toward leveling
sanctions similar to what it is seeking to impose upon Moscow.

News articles by prominent British and American news outlets like the
Daily Beast’s “America’s Allies Are Funding ISIS,” the London
Telegraph’s “How Isil is funded, trained and operating in Iraq and
Syria,” and the Daily Mail’s “Cameron tells European leaders to ‘be good
to their word’ and stop funding ISIS with ransom payments,” give
explanations ranging from outright admissions that Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
Jordan, and Turkey are directly arming, funding, aiding and abetting
ISIS, to descriptions that read like an immense money laundering
operation, to ridiculous claims including “ransom payments” and “robbed
banks” have been behind ISIS’ regional rise to menace.

At one point in the Daily Beast’s article it claims, “the U.S. has made
the case as strongly as they can to regional countries, including
Kuwait. But ultimately when you take a hands off, leading from behind
approach to things, people don’t take you seriously and they take
matters into their own hands.” If ever there was a case to use sanctions
to be “taken seriously,” it would appear to be in this case, yet sure
enough, no sanctions appear to be on the table.

Systematic Hypocrisy Undermines Legitimacy 

American and European hypocrisy so stark undermines the legitimacy of
both their governments and institutions as well as their agenda
domestically and abroad. Condemning and leveling sanctions against
Russia for allegedly doing in Ukraine what the West is openly doing in
Syria and Iraq with its own immense proxy army leaves the global
audience to decide between Russia managing a crisis on its borders and a
West meddling thousands of miles from its borders.

Beyond sanctions, the West’s presence across the Middle East has had a
negative impact on public perception both across the region and back
home. This is owed to a larger pattern of hypocrisy, deceit, and
meddling that has been done under various pretenses but for obvious
self-serving interests.

What West’s Missing Sanctions Tell Us About Its “War” on ISIS 

Versus Russia, the United States and Europe have used every means at
their disposal to support their regime of choice in Ukraine as well as
undermine both eastern Ukrainians and Russia who has emerged as their
champion upon the international stage. From multiple rounds of
sanctions, to threats of direct military force, and an overall strategy
of geopolitical and military encirclement of Russian territory has been
pursued to exact from Moscow concessions regarding Western designs in
Ukraine.

Why hasn’t a similar full-spectrum commitment been used to render from
Persian Gulf monarchies the same desired capitulation to Western desires
in the Middle East and more specifically, in regards to ISIS? The
answer is simple, the West does not desire an end to the massive
state-sponsorship of ISIS via its own allies, namely Saudi Arabia,
Qatar, Turkey, Jordan, and others.

It appears instead that the West and its partners are pursuing a
dual-track strategy of inflaming the region with barbarism and violence
so appalling, global public opinion will desperately beg for military
intervention by the United States and its allies it has been so far
utterly unsuccessful selling to the public under any other pretense.

The lack of biting sanctions against state-sponsors of terrorism aiding
and abetting ISIS in both Iraq and Syria is an indictment of the West’s
lack of sincerity in its “war” on ISIS. Short of a signed confession, no
other indicator could be more telling of yet another war being sold
within a pack of lies than a West eager to sanction every nation on
Earth to the point of isolating itself to exact global obedience, but
absent of sanctions amid overt support for terrorists it believes are so
dangerous it must militarily intervene in Iraq and Syria.

Source: Land Destroyer Report