RAED JARRAR, [email protected] Policy impact coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, Jarrar said today: President Obamas four-pronged strategy, announced in a brief speech last night, is still based on the myth that extremism can be defeated by military force. The plan includes using direct U.S. airstrikes, arming local partners (i.e. proxy groups) for ground combat operations, preventing attacks against the U.S., and continuing humanitarian aid. The word political was not mentioned a single time while discussing the situation in Iraq. Bombing Iraq and Syria into moderation and stability is one of the main underlying assumptions of the Presidents strategy. While I wish there was a way to get rid of extremism this easily, this is why the Presidents plan will not work: - The U.S. tried this before, and failed. Actually, the U.S. tried to destroy ISIS while we had a full-on military occupation of the country with over 100,000 boots on the ground. The group, dubbed as ISI [Islamic State of Iraq] at the time, was weakened but -- as we can all see now -- was never defeated. - Our Iraqi partners are not that different from ISIS. Theyre brutal, corrupt, sectarian and dysfunctional. Although the White House makes it seem like were stepping in to support our good friends to get rid of the one bad guy, facts in Iraq suggest that there is no legitimate Iraqi force that the U.S. can support. As Reuters reported earlier this week, in a piece entitled Iraqs Shiite militia, Kurds use U.S. air strikes to further own agendas, Shiite militia and Kurdish forces fought under their own banners and the least visible flag was that of Iraq. A Kurdish commander quoted in the piece described the Shiite militia hes coordinating with as the Shiite ISIS. Human Rights Watch and other international organizations have documented numerous war crimes and gross human rights violations committed by Iraqi factions supported directly and indirectly by the U.S. - Like in Syria, where the White Houses refuses to lump all armed opposition factions into one umbrella, Iraq has other armed opposition groups behind the uprising. These groups include remnants of the old regime and army, tribal militias, and other local groups. None of these agree with the ideology of ISIS, but they tolerate or coordinate with it hoping to get some leverage in addressing their legitimate grievances. Rather than attempting to draw a wedge between them and ISIS, the Presidents plan will end up uniting them. There are very thoughtful and long term plans that can eliminate extremism in Iraq and Syria, but the U.S. military intervention, and continuing to support some Iraqi factions against others, will only delay real solutions.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 15:09:44 +0000
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