Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Super powers fight against jihadists' that was published in Newsband

Super powers fight against jihadists

British jets are bombing Islamic State locations in Syria. Four of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have formally joined the war against the jihadist group. Besides Britain, the United States, France and Russia are already in the fray. There is no coordinated strategy among the nations fighting the jihadists.

Of course, the war against IS needs air cover. But it should be in a supplementary role. The main fight has to take place on the ground and for that, the coalition needs coordination among the forces fighting IS, including the Syrian and Iraqi national army.

But this is an incomplete characterization. Every one of the great powers is playing on both sides of the line. The Western powers claim to be fighting terrorists in Syria-Iraq but they have no compunction in being hand in glove with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, both of which have been contributors to the building up of jihadi ranks. Russia claims to be fighting jihadis but really it helps jihadis by bombing those opposed to Bashar al-Assad, whom Russia and Iran continue to support unabashedly and in fact declaredly. The proper way to fight IS is to send land troops – just the Western troops – to surround IS controlled territory and to ensure that not one of them would have the chance to escape. The Western powers are doing everything except the right things. The result is bound to be failure: after some time Western powers will get tired of airstrikes and will give up, leaving IS alive and in control.

All superpowers must reunite themselves and follow a common plan rather than follow divergent strategy. It's time to unite the rebels and make use of ground forces keeping the aircraft fighters in secondary role then only we will be successful because bombing gives the superficial picture of ISIS, it is the ground forces which are effective in destroying IS to the roots.

China is the only member of the "P 5 plus 1" are trying to warn everyone to base their strategies on international law and respect for sovereignty of nations. What China calls an illegal attempt of the West led by the US to destabilise Syria (in support of Israel) could lead to a dangerous confrontation with Russia.

Destruction of terrorism is not easy task. It can only be ended by effective strategy and planning. Reality is that, air striking is not only solution of ending IS, members of UNSC needs coordination among their army groups.