Isis

Thursday

James Forsyth

Obama’s failure is Putin’s opportunity

From our UK edition

[audioplayer src="http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/parisattacksaftermath/media.mp3" title="James Forsyth and Ben Judah discuss whether the West should work with Putin" startat=824] Listen [/audioplayer]The principal strategic objective in the war on terror has been a failure. Ever since 9/11, the aim has been to deny terrorists sanctuary. That, after all, is why the United States and Britain went into Afghanistan — troops were sent in only after the Taliban refused to hand over the al-Qaeda leadership and shut down the terrorist training camps. But now, a large terrorist enclave exists in the very heart of the Middle East. President Obama’s reaction to this massive strategic failure has been lack-lustre.

Nick Cohen

Jeremy Corbyn isn’t anti-war. He’s just anti-West

From our UK edition

[audioplayer src="http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/parisattacksaftermath/media.mp3" title="Nick Cohen and Freddy Gray discuss whether Jeremy Corbyn dislikes the West" startat=42] Listen [/audioplayer]Before the bodies in Paris’s restaurants were cold, Jeremy Corbyn’s Stop the War Coalition knew who the real villains were — and they were not the Islamists who massacred civilians. ‘Paris reaps whirlwind of western support for extremist violence in Middle East’ ran a headline on its site. The article went on to say that the consequence of the West’s ‘decades-long, bipartisan cultivation of religious extremism will certainly be more bloodshed, more repression and more violent intervention’.

Mary Wakefield

Isis bombs have exiled the Vicar of Baghdad to Surrey… but he’s itching to go back to the Middle East

From our UK edition

Canon Andrew White, the vicar of Baghdad, is not, in person, at all as I’d imagined him. His memoir, about life as first a medic, then a cleric, is chock-a-block with famous friends. Pope John Paul II was a pal, the Grand Ayatollah of Baghdad, General David Petraeus. ‘Oh, Andrew knows everyone,’ I was told when I asked anyone about him, and I’m afraid my heart hardened. I arrived in the rain at his house in Liphook, Hampshire, preparing myself for a vain man, full of his own derring-do. More fool me. Canon White is instantly, unusually lovable. He greets me wearing a sweatshirt with the caption ‘Real men become vicars’. ‘Look!’ he says delightedly. ‘Look at my hoodie!

Wednesday

Lara Prendergast

Yes, we wear poppies. But we don’t print our faces onto them

From our UK edition

'What’s worse: people who add French flags to their Facebook profiles, or those who sneer at them?' asks my colleague Isabel Hardman on Coffee House today. 'Haven’t we always offered small gestures to commemorate sad events? Or to show respect? Why do we buy poppies in November, and feel under-dressed without them?' In some ways, I agree with Isabel - it is normal to want to show respect, and to feel an emotional response to such serious events. What troubles me about the profile picture change is not so much the act - had the option been to change your profile picture simply to a Tricolore, without your face behind it, I might have found it less hard to criticise.

Tuesday

Simon Barnes

The England vs France match was a glorious response to terrorism

From our UK edition

Ain’t it rum? Last week sport was morally bankrupt, finished, no longer worthy of taking up an intelligent person’s time for a single minute. This week it’s shining out as one of the glories of the human spirit. And yet sport can cope with the contradiction quite effortlessly. It’s hard to know the worst thing in athletics right now, but it’s either the fact that Russia has been implicated in a state-run doping programme or the possibility that the former president of the sport’s world governing body is accused of taking bribes to cover it up. In football the acronym of Fifa, football’s world governing body, means corruption: nothing more, nothing less.

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron: Britain needs to take action against Islamic State in Syria

From our UK edition

Senior politicians have so far been rather cautious in their response to the Paris attacks. But today David Cameron gave a much more robust and intentional statement on the British reaction to what happened on Friday night. He used his slot in the Commons to re-state the case for British involvement in military action against Islamic State in Syria, and said that he would be setting out in detail his strategy and reasons for getting involved in the coming days. It is clear that the Prime Minister wants to push for a vote on this soon, and given he will not bring a vote to the Commons unless he believes he can win, he’s going to pour considerable effort into convincing MPs to back him.

Monday

Michael Fallon

Britain is bringing quality, not quantity, to the fight against Islamic State

From our UK edition

Contrary to what Fraser Nelson argues, Britain is playing a major role in the military campaign against ISIL. Our planes have been flying day and night, conducting 8 per cent of the strikes in Iraq rather than 5 per cent. But this isn’t a numbers game – the UK brings a qualitative edge. The skill of our RAF pilots and the capability of our aircraft means the UK can conduct the most complex strikes – what is known as dynamic targeting. This typically means responding to an Iraqi unit engaged in combat with ISIL and in need of immediate air support as we did last week to help recapture Sinjar. We also have the Brimstone missile – a low collateral damage, precision weapon that even the US do not possess.

Theo Hobson

Islamic State are clear about their values. Are we clear about ours?

From our UK edition

Here we go again. The same mantras are dusted down: we must be more assertive of our values, less tolerant of extremism, we must challenge Muslim separatism more effectively, demand better integration. And in my opinion the same root question is somewhat evaded: what exactly are our values? It is easier to assume that this is obvious – and it gives an impression of toughness. For example Boris Johnson today: ‘This is a fight we will one day inevitably win – because in the end our view of the human spirit is vastly more attractive and realistic than theirs.’ But what is our view of the human spirit? What is our ideology, our creed? There are various words we can reach for – freedom, democracy, liberalism, maybe enlightenment.

Isabel Hardman

Cameron sees ‘hopeful signs’ of political agreement on Isis

From our UK edition

After the attacks in Paris, what has changed? Islamic State is still a threat that world leaders don't seem to know how to deal with, and for Britain, the House of Commons still hasn't approved British involvement in air strikes against the terror group in Syria. But today David Cameron hopes that things have changed enough in the last few weeks that a political solution on Syria may be closer. The Prime Minister is trying to broker a deal with President Putin in which Russia agrees to work with those fighting Isis in Syria in return for a promise that Russian interests in the country will be protected. The Prime Minister told the Today programme: 'There have been some hopeful signs - and I hope to have a positive discussion with Vladimir Putin this morning.' https://soundcloud.

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

Paris massacre: ten developments, as of Sunday morning

From our UK edition

Barack Obama flies into Turkey for a G20 conference now likely to have the Islamic State as its theme. Here are ten developments. The death toll has risen to 129, with 352 others wounded, 100 critically. Five Britons are feared dead, and another five injured. A passport found near the body of one attacker was that of a 25-year-old Syrian migrant, according to French investigators. The Greek government said he had been registeredat the Aegean island of Leros on 3 October. Another attacker has been identified as a 29-year-old Frenchman who had been on a jihadi watch list. His father and brother are being held by police for questioning Another jihadi had a ticket for the France vs Germany football game, but was intercepted by security guards in Stade de France.

Saturday

John R. Bradley

The Islamic State goes global

From our UK edition

When the creation of a new caliphate was announced last year, who but the small band of his followers took seriously its leader’s prediction of imminent regional and eventual global dominance? It straddled the northern parts of Syria and Iraq, two countries already torn apart by civil war and sectarian hatreds. So the self-declared caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, appeared to be just another thug and opportunist ruling over a blighted no-man’s land, little known and still less revered in the wider Islamic world. He was surrounded by a rag-tag army of jihadis, whose imperial hubris seemed to reflect only a warped genocidal fanaticism.

Fraser Nelson

“The first of the storm” – translation of Islamic State statement after Paris attacks

From our UK edition

This morning, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks - the first time it has laid claim to any attacks in Europe. It released a rambling statement in French, referring to a music concert as a "profligate prostitution party". It also seemed to reference Charlie Hebdo. Here is an English translation:- In the name of Allah, the All Merciful, the Very Merciful. The Very High All Said: “It is He who expelled the ones who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture from their homes at the first gathering.

Douglas Murray

Will politicians finally admit that the Paris attacks had something to do with Islam?

From our UK edition

The West’s movement towards the truth is remarkably slow. We drag ourselves towards it painfully, inch by inch, after each bloody Islamist assault. In France, Britain, Germany, America and nearly every other country in the world it remains government policy to say that any and all attacks carried out in the name of Mohammed have ‘nothing to do with Islam’. It was said by George W. Bush after 9/11, Tony Blair after 7/7 and Tony Abbott after the Sydney attack last month.

John R. Bradley

The Islamic State says France is atop its target list – and declares a new war

From our UK edition

Speaking from the Élysée Palace, Francois Hollande has said that the terror attacks which killed 127 in Paris last night were the work of the Islamic State. What happened yesterday in Paris and in Saint Denis is an act of war and this country needs to make the right decisions to fight this war. This act committed by the terrorist army, Islamic State, is against who we are, against a free country that speaks to the whole world. It is an act of war prepared and planned outside, with outside involvement which this investigation will seek to establish. It is an act of absolute barbarism. France will be ruthless in its response to Islamic State.

Friday

Douglas Murray

Drones get the job done, as Jihadi John may have just discovered

From our UK edition

Excellent news, if it is confirmed, that Mohammed Emwazi - aka 'Jihadi John' - has discovered the hard way that seventy-two virgins have not been waiting around for him on a cloud. It is more than a year since David Cameron announced that this country would chase the murderer of British, American and Japanese aid-workers and journalists to the ends of the earth. Unsurprisingly Emwazi just had to be found in Syria. But it is good news that he has been found, not just because justice is served but because it might make other people reflect on the merits of the post-Westminster university career-path that he chose.

Sebastian Payne

Jihadi John targeted in U.S. airstrikes in Syria

From our UK edition

Mohammed Emwazi, the British Isis militant better known as Jihadi John, looks likely to have been killed in an airstrike by the U.S. air force. Although there has been no official confirmation, No.10 sources have told The Guardian there is a ‘high degree of certainty’ that Emwazi was killed in the strikes. The Pentagon has released the following statement: ‘U.S. forces conducted an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, on Nov. 12, 2015 targeting Mohamed Emwazi, also known as “Jihadi John.” Emwazi, a British citizen, participated in the videos showing the murders of U.S. journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, U.S.

Thursday

John R. Bradley

The caliphate strikes back

From our UK edition

[audioplayer src="http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/jeremyhunt-scatastrophicmistake/media.mp3" title="Douglas Murray discusses what Isis might do next" startat=1814] Listen [/audioplayer]When the creation of a new caliphate was announced last year, who but the small band of his followers took seriously its leader’s prediction of imminent regional and eventual global dominance? It straddled the northern parts of Syria and Iraq, two countries already torn apart by civil war and sectarian hatreds. So the self-declared caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, appeared to be just another thug and opportunist ruling over a blighted no-man’s land, little known and still less revered in the wider Islamic world.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Russia suspends all flights to Egypt. What will it do next?

From our UK edition

Just yesterday, Vladimir Putin criticised David Cameron’s decision  suspended all flights to Egypt. This afternoon, he has done the same - which suggests that the Kremlin now agrees with Britain that there is a strong chance that the Airbus 321 was downed by an Isil bomb. And if Putin does believe that, then we expect some kind of retaliation. Yesterday, the Russians were telling Brits to wait for the outcome of the investigation before suspending flights to Egypt. This afternoon, Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB security service, said: ‘Until we know the real reasons for what happened, I consider it expedient to stop Russian flights to Egypt. Above all, this concerns tourist routes.

James Forsyth

Our policy towards Islamic State makes no sense

From our UK edition

If Islamic State is a threat to Britain that requires a military response, then surely we should be attacking it on both sides of the Syrian/Iraqi border? Our current policy of only hitting it in Iraq, when its operation there is directed from Syria and resupplied from there, makes neither strategic nor moral sense. So, why is Britain not hitting Islamic State in Syria too? Well, that goes back to the legacy of 2013 and the Commons refusal to back bombing Syria then. But the truth is that bombing Islamic State in Syria is not the same as ‘bombing Syria’; it is hitting a terrorist group in a part of the country where Assad’s writ has not run for quite some time.

Brendan O’Neill

Why are student-union officials censoring criticism of Islamic State?

From our UK edition

Just when you thought the self-important, ban-happy uber-bureaucrats who run student unions couldn't get any worse, they go and No Platform a guy who fought with the Kurds against Isis. Yes, not content with expunging lads’ mags from campus, crying for the censorship of everyone from Germaine Greer to Dapper Laughs, and wailing about Robin Thicke’s 'Blurred Lines' like outraged nuns at a school disco, now they have silenced someone who spent five months facing down the head-choppers of the Islamic State. Macer Gifford, a former student at University College London (UCL), was due to give a talk at UCL this week on his experiences with the YPG, the fighting units of Syrian Kurdistan who have valiantly stymied the spread of Isis.