For weeks, the family and friends of Maaz Al Kassasbeh must have hoped against hope that the fighter pilot would be released from the clutches of ISIL. Since Lt Al Kassasbeh’s fighter jet came down in December, the militant group has taunted the Arab and western forces with the capture of the first pilot from the coalition that is fighting them. This week, that hope ended, in the most brutal of circumstances.
It is natural at a moment like this, faced with such unconscionable barbarity, for the resolve to waver. Some in Jordan and elsewhere have argued that it would be better to withdraw from the coalition and to stay out of the battle against ISIL. But it is the rest of that thought that is incomplete – stay out of the fight against ISIL, and then what?
For it is impossible for any country in this region or elsewhere to seal itself off from this battle. This is the Arab world’s fight. This is the world’s fight. ISIL recognises no borders. It recognises no debate. There are no words that could persuade it to change course, no religious texts that could be quoted for its followers to think again, no policies that could be amended to bring about peace. If ISIL is not fought in Syria and Iraq today, it will have to be fought elsewhere tomorrow.
But while there is a military solution to ISIL itself, there is a political context to its rise and it is this: a political solution is needed in Iraq and Syria. Indeed, Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad may have received the news about Lt Al Kassasbeh with some glee, for while the world is talking about ISIL’s brutality, it has forgotten about his.
Therefore, the Syrian civil war and the war against ISIL are inextricably linked. There can be no solution to one if the other is not solved too. For now, the coalition must stay the course, strengthen its resolve and continue the campaign against ISIL, while not ignoring the rebels fighting against Mr Al Assad’s regime. Only by bringing an end to the slaughter of the civil war can the barbarity of ISIL be brought to an end. For ISIL, the killing of Lt Al Kassasbeh is a propaganda coup. The terrorists welcome the attention and revel in their brutality. They welcome confrontation. And they must be confronted. Only by facing the threat of ISIL head-on can the Arab world rid itself of the scourge in its midst.
