ISIL Must Be Crushed Before it Destroys Our Civilization – French Expert

Political analyst Jean-Yves Camus told Sputnik that the terrorism and totalitarianism of ISIL is a civilizational threat, and requires Russia, Europe and Muslim countries of the Middle East to unite in order to destroy it.

Jean-Yves Camus, associate research fellow at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris, told Radio Sputnik that the coalition to defeat the Islamic State needs to be as broad as possible.

"We need to have as broad a coalition as possible in order to crush ISIS [ISIL], and that of course must include Russia."

 "If we do not do so, we will have this phenomenon going for years, and probably decades. But you also must not forget, that if we want to crush ISIS [ISIL], we also need the support of the Muslim countries in the area, and they also need to do whatever is necessary in order to crush the Islamic movement in their own countries."

"We cannot do it on their behalf, they also have to act, and they also have to stop Islamic fundamentalism from spreading all over the area."

Camus said he thinks it unlikely that the French government will send ground troops to Syria as a consequence of the attack, but that he believes air strikes against terrorists should be intensified.

"Those that have been undertaken by the French air force have been quite effective. We also need to gather as much intelligence as possible in order to spot those European fighters fighting along with ISIS [ISIL], and know exactly where they are. It's very simple – destroy them where they are."

Neither the French intelligence services nor French President Francois Hollande are being blamed for failing to prevent the attacks, said Camus, who said that the security services are in need of more means, staff and funding in order to stop attacks in the future.

"We have a terrorist threat that is so big, so huge," said Camus.

"They have much more funding than they used to have several years ago, and they have more than they used to have. But you cannot fill a gap that has been so wide, overnight. For more than ten years the security service has been understaffed, and did not have the necessary means, including with regard to legislation," to effectively tackle the threat of terrorism.

Russia, France and other European countries have a shared interest in destroying the terrorist threat, said the analyst, who welcomed Russia's airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, which he describes as a threat to civilization.

"This kind of very exceptional situation, which really brings the war west, and the whole Europe in a state of war, against what is probably the biggest terrorist and totalitarian threat of the 21st century, any difference, and arguments we might have with Russia on other matters should be downplayed for now when we really have to tackle what is a civilizational threat to both western Europe and Russia."

"The Russian decision to fight the Islamic State in Syria was a good one. We can't do without the Russian airstrikes, we have to understand that the Islamic fundamentalist movement is a threat not only to western Europe, but to Russia as well."