There is a great feud between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, I still did not figured out what it is I also have been seeing this reported around in the news.. And just seeing the coverage that Al-Jazeera is focusing on lately, it's all Gaza, all day.. (with a mix of their imprisoned journalists in Egypt)..
But not much on ISIS, which provides to me a certain counter-indicator that suggests they don't want to highlight the activities of the Islamic State..
Which suggests that Qatar is backing that group.
We know the Saudis are scared enough to request Pakistani and Egyptian troops be sent to help cover their border with Iraq..
And ISIS has publicly stated that they are focused on the Shi'a, both in Iraq and Iran, and THEN they will go after the Israelis.
Watching who is supporting Hamas, we see Qatar, Turkey, and Iran.. So while Qatar's "proxies", if that is what they are, are in line with Iran in Gaza, ISIS provides a direct threat to the Iraqi and Iranian Shi'a, threatening a regional sectarian war..
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain have a sizable Shi'a population.. Qatar's population is about 10% Shia as well..
So I'm not sure if it's possible to paint ISIS with a broad brush approach.. They are now pretty damn wealthy.. FAR wealthier than Al-Qaida ever was after raiding the banks in Iraq and Syria, and pumping oil on the black market. And they are about taking territory, not just random terrorism..
So I think it's still an open question as to WHO is actually backing ISIS, and if it was part of a grand-strategy.
We should remember that ISIS existed back in 2005, where it was led by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.. And we hunted the heck out of that network in order to get close to tearing down it's chain of command..
So I kind of rule out (for now) the US having anything to do with it's creation/strategy..
Hawk |
