IS and the blowback brewing

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-02-190914.html



IS and the blowback brewing
By Emile Nakhleh
Sep 19, '14

WASHINGTON - As the wobbly anti-Islamic State (IS) coalition is being formed with the prodding of the United States, the Barack Obama administration should take a strategic look at the future of the Arab world beyond the threat posed by the self-declared Islamic State. Otherwise, the United States would be unprepared to deal with the unintended chaos.

Driven by ideological hubris, the George W Bush administration on the eve of the Iraq war rejected any suggestions that the war could destabilize the whole region and rock the foundations of the Arab nation-state system.

That system, which was mostly created under the colonial Sykes-Picot treaty of 1916, is now being severely stressed. The Obama administration should avoid repeating the tragic mistake of its predecessor. While trying to halt the advance of ISIS by focused airstrikes, and regardless of the coalition's effectiveness in "degrading" and "defeating" IS, President Obama should instruct his senior policymakers to explore possible architectures that could emerge from the ashes of Sykes-Picot.

The stresses and fault lines we are witnessing in the region today could easily lead to implosions tomorrow. Rightly or wrongly, Washington would be blamed for the ensuing mayhem.