On Thursday, the Belgian F-16s of the coalition taking part in the US-led international operation against the Islamic State withdrew and returned to their homeland. For the past 9 months they had operated from the Al-Azraq military base in Jordan.
The Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders had announced last month the renunciation of the armed presence in the international coalition against ISIS for reasons of financial availability. In the same period, the Belgian Ministry of Defense had released data according to which the fighters had taken part in 726 raids and flew for 3.210 total hours.
An assessment of the Belgian mission has not been made officially, however the results of the anti-ISIS raids seem to have been defined - through gritted teeth - "successful".
Yesterday an official from the Syrian Ministry of Information commented on the Belgian withdrawal, saying that he was far from surprised given the "growing doubts" of Europeans regarding the effectiveness of the operations conducted by the international coalition.
To think badly would seem to be the result of an illusion if the complaints did not come from the same stars and stripes pilots engaged on the Iraqi and Syrian skies (v. article).
Since it has strongly appeared on the front pages of the newspapers last year (but its history is much longer) the Islamic State has clearly been recognized by every player with an opponent's thumb as a "creature more or less out of control" of other players in the area, bearers of interest that have given rise to it, grow and expand. Each with their own purposes, often indirect, obviously hidden.
The question that concerns us as Italians should at this point be: but what about us who are still dealing with an international front coalition with high costs and little - if not counterproductive - effectiveness?
Andrea Cucco
(photo: MoD Belgium)
