A protest against Russian attacks on Ukraine in London, UK on 12 March 2022 [Raşid Necati Aslım/Anadolu Agency]
News that Syrian terrorists groups such as Tahrir Al-Sham, the former Jabhat Al-Nusra outfit, have entered Ukraine to fight the Russian Army on behalf of the neo-Nazi Ukrainian Army, is very confusing. We have been led to believe for years that the western powers led by the US are fighting terrorism across the globe, and yet here we have a bunch of known terrorists basically joining the West on the side of Ukraine against Russia.
Groups demonised by the US, such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda, are the most hated and dangerous terrorist outfits in the world; the common understanding is that the "free world" must fight and destroy them. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the then US President George W Bush declared to the world that, "You are either with us or with the terrorists"; one or the other; no middle ground. Designated terrorist groups became Public Enemy Number One overnight.
Now we see the US and its Western allies giving designated terrorists free passage to go to Ukraine to fight the Russians. Why aren't these fighters being detained and hauled off to the International Criminal Court? Hypocrisy is not too harsh a word to describe what is happening, which discredits the whole "war on terror" mantra that the West has been chanting for two decades.
It defies logic to fight terrorists when it suits you, and use them when it suits you. Such groups as Daesh and Jabhat Al-Nusra are well known for their cruelty in Syria, to the extent that their claim to be representative of the faith of Islam is doubted by Muslims. They have been disowned by almost all Muslim leaders, regardless of which branch of Islam they belong to. They need to be apprehended and taken before the ICC in The Hague; there is no reason or excuse for this not to happen. And yet… there they are in Ukraine, fighting on the same side as the West.