Turning point

The US is taking off its gloves and is striking decisively and resolutely against "Islamic State" (IS). It has started carrying out airstrikes in and around the city of Raqqa, Syria - a stronghold of the IS militant group. But the US is not going it alone. It has conducted the strikes with Arab allies.

Among them, Saudi Arabia, which is suspected of having promoted, supported and funded the murderous group. This shows that the US has support in going to war against the Islamist fundamentalist group in Syria and Iraq. It is seeking to form a larger coalition, though a UN mandate has not yet been given. And the US' traditional allies - Great Britain and France - are also in position and ready to join in an attack.

Is Assad profiting of the war against IS?

This is a turning point for the Middle East. Though Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad wasn't even asked if strikes could or should be carried out in his country, destroyed and divided by civil war, it is possible that Assad is the one who is profiting most from a war against the IS. Assad has been the black sheep of the Middle East - an autocrat and ruler responsible for around 200,000 deaths and the displacement of millions of people. But in a war against the Islamist militia, Assad has suddenly become a strategic and tactical partner. The choice between the IS and Assad is truly politically unappealing, but if it came down to it, the alliance would much prefer Assad.

The war against IS is also a turning point for US President Barack Obama. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate wanted that the US wages no more wars. American soldiers withdrew from Iraq. A withdrawal has begun in Afghanistan and will be finished there at the end of next year. Under Obama, the US was a major power on the retreat. Some observers even spoke of a renaissance of isolationism.

Now, once again, the US is militarily active in the Middle East - as it stands, only in the air, however. But how long can this approach be sustained when history tells us that wars are won on the ground? With, of course, a high number of casualties.

The war against IS must also be fought in Europe

And it is a turning point in political resolve to not only fight or weaken the IS, but to stamp it out completely. The unbelievably callous brutality of the Islamists, which they publicize online, and their objective to culturally destroy the Middle East and its thousands of years of diversity will not be tolerated. This war against these medieval zealots is truly a war against terrorism, against Islamism. The war against an early interpretation of Islam is only just beginning - not only in the Middle East, but also in Europe and Germany, where thousands of young men are ready and willing to die for Allah.