Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Don’t expect to hear anything about Islamic State during the election campaign

Granted, you don’t really expect foreign policy to feature much in an election campaign – we’re not saints – but it’s still shaming the way that the biggest foreign policy issue simply doesn’t register on the radar right now. I refer obviously to Islamic State, the group that just keeps on giving when it comes to reasons to want them wiped out. It’s a toss up really whether you go for the recently exhumed mass graves of the soldiers they massacred in Tikrit, the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp they seized control of, the images they obligingly posted of themselves smashing artefacts at Hatra or the blowing up an Assyrian church over Easter. Take your pick.

And the response from the British Government? The last thing anyone heard was last month, when the MoD declared it would be sending 75  military trainers to train up Syrian rebels, ones that have been carefully screened for extremist Islamist tendencies and are fighting both IS and Syrian government forces. Both? Really? The US, which is leading this particular initiative, is right now focussing its efforts on those who are fighting IS. Yet the government seems never quite to have recovered from its chagrin that the Commons refused to sanction military action against Assad in 2012, though MPs did later approve air strikes against IS. The Foreign Office was caught unawares when Islamic State first captured Mosul, because at that time its attention was focused on William Hague and Angelina Jolie’s very worthy initiative for tackling sexual violence in war. Right from the outset the Government has been paralysed, impotent, clueless when it comes to IS. The Commons Defence Committee pointed this out last month when it observed that Britain had mounted only a small percentage of air strikes, had only a handful of troops in Baghdad and no clear strategy.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in