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Iraq Burning

Posted by ousman ceesay at Thursday, June 12, 2014



This is my two cents on the Iraq conflict. I have written about it on these pages in the heydays of the US invasion of Mesopotamia. I have not been blogging for a while now, but this Huffingtonpost headline gave me the impetus to write down what i believe to be the reason behind the ISIS surge in Iraq. Here goes.

When we (the United States) left Iraq, the insurgency was over, thanks in part to the surge, but mostly to the fact that previously disaffected Sunni factions were won over to the side of the government. They help purged insurgents from their midst. Maliki threw that victory away through short-sighted and selfish sectarian policies, that favor Shia over Sunni and Kurds. This insurgency has revived because Maliki provoked it. He lost allies and created enemies where a conciliatory policy would have solidify peace for all. But as it is the norm for dictators, Maliki saw democracy as a process whereby his group gets to lord over everybody else.

 ISIS and groups like it are far more dangerous to the United States than some ragtag terrorist group in Yemen or Mali, primarily due to the economic importance of Iraqi oil. But no amount of drone strike (as Maliki is asking the US to do) will make a difference here, as the problem is primarily political.

 Also, I think it is reasonable to ask, why it is that the united states have such a dismal record in training foreign troops. The performance of US-trained forces in these hot spots has mostly been distinguished for ineffectiveness, abandoning their equipment and running away. This might be evidence that an army's effectiveness is not only in the equipment they carry, but depends on the intangibles. Perhaps, we train them in our ways, which poorer nations cannot support logistically. Either way, we should re-examine this question before committing to doing something about another conflict.

 

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