World should join Russia in fight vs Islamic State

I agree completely with   Russian Embassy’s press attache, Ilya Perenkov (“Give up old biases, global community told,” Opinion, 10/9/15). Let us not lose sight of the actual political situation in the world. Russia as a global player is important and our companion in fighting terrorism. It is good that the Russian Army is now active in Syria helping to destroy the most terrible terrorist organization of our time, the Islamic State (IS). All western countries should be happy with this development and join Russia and President Vladimir Putin in this undertaking. The IS terrorists, who have burned humans inside a cage alive and showed them on the Internet for all the world to see, have brought terror to new, the ultimate, heights of brutality.

Criminals usually don’t want attention and hide their crimes. The IS terrorists is the exact opposite. They want to display their brand of terror, their atrocities. This is what we call “psychological warfare.”

In the case of Ukraine, no doubt, if Russia would not help in the diplomatic efforts, the war there might go out of control. A total war in Europe or in Near East will without any doubt easily escalate, like what happened in World War I and World War II. What this means in this era of weapons of mass destruction must be clear to every intelligent person.

So it is good that Russia and the United States work together to fix the problems and put an end to IS terrorism by every thinkable means.

 —DR. JÜRGEN SCHÖFER, PhD, [email protected]