memri
September 16, 2014 Special Dispatch No. 5841

Influential Emirati Business Leader: World Leaders Should Hang Their Heads In Shame For Passivity On ISIS

September 16, 2014
The Gulf, United Arab Emirates | Special Dispatch No. 5841

Khalaf Ahmad Al-Habtoor a highly successful Emirati businessman, the Chairman of the Al-Habtoor Group, a conglomerate specializing in construction and energy products and a frequent commentator on political and diplomatic affairs, wrote this article that was posted by Alarabiya.net's English service on September 8, 2014. In the article Al-Habtoor acidly criticizes the fecklessness displayed by both Western and Arab leaders in their response to ISIS an organization that they empowered due to their passivity in Syria. Al-Habtoor cannot understand why everyone is quaking in their boots before "a gang of losers seeking power". He believes that current reality surpasses fictional B-movies or parodies but the result could be dangerous if the "bunch of bloodthirsty bad guys emerge as victors.

While finding Barack Obama and David Cameron far from Lincolnesque or Churchillian as leaders, Al-Habtoor doesn't spare the Arabs, who need others to fight for them and their religion despite the armies and weaponry they possess. Should they fail to defeat ISIS, history and their great-grandchildren will judge them harshly.

Al-Habtoor's article appears below and has been lightly edited for clarity.


Khalaf Al-Habtoor (Image: Alarabiya.net)

Reality Surpasses Parody

"Oh, what an impressive show NATO is putting on in the Welsh city of Newport![1] Tom Jones’ Green, Green Grass of Home is now peppered with tanks and missiles while Cardiff plays host to mighty warships. Enemies of the West must be quaking in their boots; except they’re not. They must be chuckling at the hollow rhetoric coming out of the mouths of the Leader of the Free World and his European allies, empty words delivered in the presence of representatives from four Arab countries. Are they there to write a script for one of Adel Imam’s[2] famous humorous parodies on life; this situation is starting to look like fodder for one of this legendary Egyptian actor’s movies.

"Our planet is experiencing unprecedented man-made crises. Like me, people everywhere are asking, 'What’s happening to our world?' We look at those leaders and think, if these are the people responsible for protecting our lives, then God help us.

"As unbelievable as it sounds, here’s the plot. Take note please, Adel Imam!

"A gang of losers seeking power, wealth and territory decide to dupe feeble-minded young Muslims with the promise of an Islamist State; a Utopian land stretching from Syria to Iraq and eventually encompassing Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia where flogging, stoning, beheading, crucifying and burying children alive are accepted norms. In this supposedly 'magical caliphate' women, recognizable only by their eyes, are barred from leaving home without a close male relative. Televisions are smashed. Schools are forbidden to teach music, art and philosophy. Smokers are lashed in public. Landmarks are painted black to match the group’s fluttering flags.

"This is a place where fake Imams tell followers: 'We will take you to Paradise', even if we have to drag you in chains on the way there.” This hell on earth not only attracts educated fighters from distant shores, it holds an appeal for young Western girls eager to become brides and breed a new generation of psychopaths.

"Some 10,000 – 15,000 masked and attired in black, of course, initially succeed in taking swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territories larger than the size of the United Kingdom, virtually unopposed. Armies run from those thugs like rabbits; soldiers caught and stripped are mercilessly executed. Tens of thousands of civilians flee to a barren mountain top where many succumb to thirst. Parents weak from hunger and dehydration are forced to abandon elderly parents and young children to the sands during escapes.

"In the meantime, the fanatics consolidate their state flush with 'Made in America' weapons and a treasure chest overflowing with oil revenues, cash plundered from banks, kidnap ransoms and the sale of women and girls in the local slave market. Nobody can accuse them of being disorganised. They’re managing civil society, overseeing public institutions, passing laws, hiring experts to advise them in various fields and doing a roaring trade in Iraq’s natural resources...

"Yesterday, while watching the most powerful men on earth discussing what to do about the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) during the NATO summit, I felt an impending sense of doom. What’s there to discuss! Eradicating a handful of murderous criminals before the contagion spreads is surely no challenge for a superpower. The U.S. and its allies didn’t hesitate in going after Saddam Hussein’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction or to invade Afghanistan to smoke out a cave dweller. In truth, they must bear responsibility for this gang’s rise; ISIS, now the self-declared Islamic State, drew strength and popularity out of Obama’s inaction in Syria to end the regime’s slaughter of its own people. Its seeming success, amplified by its well-oiled propaganda machine, spawns tentacles reaching into dungeons, back alleys and tunnels creating a complex web of danger.

If Governments Can't Do The Job Outsource It To The Mafia

"Yet, in the case of ISIS, President Obama and his sidekick David Cameron have ruled out boots on the ground. Even their pledge to arm the Kurdish Peshmerga, battling to protect Arbil as well as besieged minorities, has yet to manifest. Dropping bombs on ISIS convoys won’t cut it. Why? Because those extremists will simply blend with local populations or head back into northern Syria to re-group. And as Obama has controversially admitted, he has no strategy to attack the ISIS in Syria, where it’s headquartered. Bravo David Cameron! It’s so reassuring to know that the UK government is compiling evidence against ISIS fighters for crimes against humanity. I’ll bet those cockroaches preferring death to life are suffering sleepless nights worrying about ending up behind bars in The Hague. They deserve pest control not a panel of judges.

"If the United States, Europe and NATO are too cowardly to confront this scourge they should hire mercenaries headed by former military/intelligence chiefs to do the job for them, just like security firms such as the infamous Blackwater which, in 2003, terrorized populations in Iraq. The Sicilian Mafia would be more effective than Obama and co. Perhaps the Peruvian Shining Path or the Colombian Farc could be persuaded.

"However, there is one question that bugs me more than most. Where are the Arabs? This madness is playing out on our doorstep; it threatens us directly and imminently. The fact that it hides under the banner of Islam is nothing short of a sacrilegious assault on our faith. Forget the Arab world as an entity; it’s disunited and in disarray! The GCC has the fire power and expertise to militarily intervene on its own. GCC states don’t need permission from Washington to protect themselves or our brothers in Iraq and Syria. Why aren’t we embarrassed that the Kurds are battling on our behalf? If we don’t stand up to this threat and others, such as the Shiite Houthis bent on the destruction of Yemen, not only history will stand judge, so will our great-grandchildren.

"There are no heroes in this unfolding script; only rogues, wimps and fools marching us towards Armageddon. And as for Obama and Cameron, they’re nothing but strutting bit part actors in a plot that gives them the jitters. The U.S. President appears to have stage fright desperately seeking cues and lines from the British PM. Neither displays the presence of a leader capable of rescuing the world, like Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill or Dwight Eisenhower, not to mention our great Arab personalities, such as Omar bin al-Khattab and Khalid bin al-Waleed,[3] whose word was their bond and whose bravery was beyond reproach.

"In this B-rated film, a bunch of bloodthirsty bad guys emerge as victors. I can only pray for a different ending before it hits theatres close to all of us."

Endnotes:

[1] The NATO summit convened on September 4-5 with NATO members, NATO partners and EU and UN representatives participating. Arab countries attending the summit included Jordan, Bahrein and the Union of Arab Emirates.

[2] Adel Imam is a popular Egyptian actor born in 1940, and has been called the Arab Charlie Chaplin. He starred in movies denouncing terrorism and fanaticism. During the Muslim Brotherhood Government of Muhammad Mursi he was sentenced to three months in jail in absentia for insulting Islam.

[3] 'Umar Bin Al-Khattab (579-644) a companion of Muhammad who became caliph in 634, conquered the Persian Empire and the majority of the Byzantine Empire. Khalid Ibn Al-Walid (592-642), another companion of Muhammad, was a renowned military leader who united Arabia under the caliphate.

Share this Report: