Alwaght | News & Analysis Website

An American journalist and political analyst says that the ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria are an outcome of US interventionist policies towards West Asia, stressing that the so-called US-led coalition against ISIS threatens to create a slippery slope toward endless war.


“…the result of US policy has not been the stabilization of Iraq. Since the invasion, Iraq has become far more unstable than before. As Iraq was beginning to stabilize in 2014, under a President who was very close to Iran and increasingly friendly to Russia and China, we saw the rise of ISIS. Iraqi oil exports, in the few months before ISIS emergence, were the highest they had been since the US invasion,” New York-based Caleb Maupin of International Action Center told Alwaght News Website in an exclusive interview.


He further added, “This is also displayed in US policy in Syria. The US has been supporting the most crazed and violent religious extremists, attempting to overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Maupin stressed that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Jordan are among the main financial backers of the ISIS terrorists in the volatile region of West Asia, adding that Turkey has reportedly been the main entry point for arms smuggling to Syria.

What follows is the full text of the interview:

Alwaght: The ISIS terrorist group launched an offensive in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily-armed terrorists took control of the country’s Northern city of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s heartland. Many analysts are of the opinion that the ISIS is the product of US polices in the region. What's your take on that? What objectives are US and its allies pursuing by waging another war in Western Asia?


Maupin: George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was launched with the stated purpose of “stabilizing the region” and “bringing democracy,” in addition to halting the proliferation on non-existent “weapons of mass destruction.”
However, the result of US policy has not been the stabilization of Iraq. Since the invasion, Iraq has become far more unstable than before.


As Iraq was beginning to stabilize in 2014, under a President who was very close to Iran and increasingly friendly to Russia and China, we saw the rise of ISIS. Iraqi oil exports, in the few months before ISIS emergence, were the highest they had been since the US invasion.


US foreign policy, in the current period, is clearly not seeking to create stability. This is also displayed in US policy in Syria. The US has been supporting the most crazed and violent religious extremists, attempting to overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic.


The regimes that the US is opposing throughout the West Asia are all bastions of stability and independent economic development. In Syria, Christians, Sunnis, and Alawites have lived in relative peace for the last several decades. In Iran, religions co-exist very peacefully as well. Both of these countries have economies in which the government plays a very large role, regulating industries. Both of these governments come out of popular anti-imperialist struggles.


The US has consistently supported the destruction of any notion of stability in the region.
ISIS is a direct result of those policies, without a doubt. 50% of the US armed, funded, and trained “Free Syrian Army” defected to join ISIS during 2014.


The CIA has spent over $1 billion on military training camps in Jordan for anti-government extremists in Syria.



Alwaght: The US formed an international coalition in September to battle ISIS terrorists operating in Iraq and Syria through aerial bombardments. The air strikes have so far failed to stop the military gains of the Takfiri group. According to a report published by Fox News on May 29, US military pilots carrying out the air war against the ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria are voicing growing discontent over heavy-handed rules of engagement hindering them from striking targets.
For what purposes are such attacks being launched? Why have former and current US officials repeatedly raised the specter of a prolonged war against the ISIS terrorist organization in Iraq and Syria?


Maupin: It’s been documented that a number of the US airstrikes said to be directed against ISIS are actually hitting the infrastructure of the Syrian government, including oil pipelines.
The only forces win substantial victories against ISIS have been forces aligned with the Iranian government and the Syrian government.


Who is ISIS attacking? They are attacking the Syrian Arab Republic, the Iranian aligned Shiite community in Iraq, and the Revolutionary Peoples Committee of Yemen. These are all forces that the United States is also very opposed to, and seeking to destroy.


Furthermore, ISIS has declared “God has commanded us never to attack Israel.”
A report from Twitter has documented that the overwhelming majority of social media activity supporting ISIS comes from Turkey, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.


The weapons they continue to flow to ISIS are proven by the Syrian government to be flowing across the Syrian border with Turkey.


All of the sources of ISIS funding and support are US allies like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Turkey.
US officials are expanding their presence in Iraq, and continuing their globally unpopular drone strikes program on the basis of supposedly fighting ISIS, but in reality, ISIS is getting stronger, and the US is enabling it.


Alwaght: The ISIS terrorist group has been committing heinous crimes in Iraq and Syria, including mass executions and beheading of men, women and children. Many political commentators maintain that an international fact-finding commission ought to be formed in order to prosecute the ISIS and its backers under international law. What do you think?



Maupin: An international investigation would be highly productive. It would be important that it include representatives who are not blatantly tied to the United States and are impartial.
US media likes to use ISIS’s horrendous activities as a way to justify US militarism and aggression. However, what is not highlighted is that the US is responsible for ISIS in the first place, and that it is anti-imperialist regimes targeted
by the US that are scoring real victories against it.



Caleb Maupin was born in Ohio, and studied political science at Baldwin-Wallace College. He is a youth organizer for the International Action Center and was involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement since its beginning in early August, 2011. He is a member of Workers World Party and Fight Imperialism – Stand Together (FIST). His articles and commentaries have appeared on Russia Today, New Eastern Outlook, Press TV and other publications.