Editorial Desk : Russia has launched air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria on Wednesday for the first time making the Syrian civil war more complex and adding new dimension to it when the US led coalition is already bombing Islamic State held areas in Syria and Iraq (Isis). Such air strikes are killing too many innocent Muslims day after day while the Islamic State is gaining in strength through new recruitments as an angry reaction to the killing of unarmed Muslims. Even Russia has started thinking that killing of Muslims is an easy choice. Such killing of innocent Muslims is the cause of terrorism by angry young Muslims. The religion is used as motivation.Moreover the US led coalition was so far funding and supplying the pro-West and anti-Assad militants to topple him from power. In a series of defeat of Assad forces early this year when Bashar al-Assad government was closer to the brink, Russia decided to beef up its military support for Assad government by supplying additional war planes, tanks etc. Indecisiveness of the US government has given Russia the opportunity it was looking for a bolder involvement in flexing its muscle on international plane after Ukraine. Russia wants to save Bashar al-Assad while the US led coalition is supporting the popular uprising against the brutal regime of Assad. After the mass killings and destructions in the country, the US coalition has concluded that the need is to remove the destructive tyrant who refused to accept a peaceful settlement. The geopolitics has no doubt made the crisis a complex one. But Russia’s insistence on reestablishing Assad in power will intensify terrorism as a more determined response. As militants Isis know they cannot defeat the United States or Russia. They cannot form a state either. But they must express their anger as bravely or madly as they can.Russia has made clear that its involvement would remain limited to aerial strikes without committing combat troops on the ground like the US led coalition. This is a strategy of killing and destruction without fighting the Isis. The US Defense Secretary Mr Ashton Carter has meanwhile claimed that the Russian air strikes targeted non Isis held places and rather pro-West groups. It is learnt that the US and Russia will have a meeting soon to coordinate actions. Why Russia should be interested in saving a murderer like President Assad antagonizing Muslims by ignoring his brutalities against his own people is a question that cannot be answered in terms of humanity. Russia will have to occupy Syria to be able to keep Assad as a stooge. Russia will have to think if it is possible.The civil war has already turned Syria into scenes of piles of destruction. More than 2,50,000 have lost their lives and many thousands have fled the country to live as homeless refugees in other countries. It will not be possible for Assad to stitch together the country or bring unity among the people. It is the demand of humanity that Assad must leave Syria. What makes us sad and furious is that the innocent Muslim men, women, and children are being killed in false wars against terrorism. If terrorism is to be confronted then ground troops have to be deployed to fight the terrorists face to face. Most importantly the cause of Muslim anger had to be addressed. Giving Islam a bad name is a conspiracy and it must stop.
