Anyone watching the Commons debate in the first week of December on bombing Syria could easily have been misled by the hype. An impression was left that somehow RAF Tornados and British Brimstone missiles were going to have a decisive impact in the fight against Islamic State (Isis).
The reality is, as David Cameron will discover on Monday morning, on his first day back after the holidays, Isis is not going to disappear anytime soon. The talk at Westminster and elsewhere around the country will be of flooding, rail fares and impending welfare cuts – but also the emergence of what looks like a replacement for Mohammed Emwazi, the British propagandist for Isis who was dubbed Jihadi John.
The reality is, as David Cameron will discover on Monday morning, on his first day back after the holidays, Isis is not going to disappear anytime soon. The talk at Westminster and elsewhere around the country will be of flooding, rail fares and impending welfare cuts – but also the emergence of what looks like a replacement for Mohammed Emwazi, the British propagandist for Isis who was dubbed Jihadi John.
There was more than an element of triumphalism in November when the US and UK announced that Emwazi had been killed in a drone attack in Raqqa, the organisation’s stronghold in Syria. That triumphalism, though understandable, was misplaced.
He was linked to horrific beheadings but he was never a senior member of Isis, whose leadership is made up of hardened fighters, ex-members of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army or al-Qaida in Iraq. His only advantage was that he had an English accent.
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