The Common Ills: Iraq realities so much of the west ignores

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Iraq realities so much of the west ignores

The last two decades have been hard for the United Kingdom's SPECTATOR. The Iraq War has been an outright disaster. When you're a pro-war, conservative publication, it's like owning an Aston Martin you can never take out of the parking garage.

So they've been forced to make the same noises many others have made about the Iraq War and it's killed them, it's really, really killed them.

They've been itching to get their war on.

Now they think and hope they've finally found their way: Genocide.

Luke de Pulford rushes to declare there is a genocide in Iraq: The Islamic State is conducting a genocide.

The problem there, of course, is that the Islamic State is a response.

It's not the initiating action.

The Islamic State rose to power in Iraq as a direct response to the persecution of the Sunni population.

Persecution carried out by the government.

The government of Nouri al-Maliki sent military forces into politician's homes and compounds. There was the infamous dawn raid, for example, which resulted in multiple civilians injured and killed.

The government of Nouri al-Maliki, as US troops drewdown at the end of 2011 -- days after, sent military tanks to surround the homes of Sunni politicians.

The Shi'ite-led government has persecuted the Sunni community and that happened for years.

The response was voting, then appeals to politicians, then protests and then, finally, the Islamic State has its toehold in Iraq.

So you can rewrite history, as the Conservative Party in the UK would like to do now, and pretend that genocide starts with the Islamic State, but the targeting began with the Shi'ite-led/dominated government. And if you try to pimp that lie, just grasp that the west and the Arab world will grow ever further apart because the Arab community is well aware of what has been done to the Sunnis in post-war Iraq.

For decades, centuries, the western world has been able to stampede over the Arab world with little fall out but demographics have changed that as has tools of communication.

You can be a liar in the west -- or a stooge who fails to pay attention but wants to be a 30-second expert when you see a headline -- but don't fool yourself that you're helping, that you're informed or that your actions are not fueling frustration and hatred.

That's what diplomacy is supposed to address.

But not in the US.

When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, she refused to share any plan for Iraq with the Congress. Acting in secrecy? Wow, that's so unlike her (sarcasm).

John Kerry has done her one better -- acting as if he's the Secretary of Defense and not Secretary of State. Yes, Kerry's managed to out War Hawk the original War Hawk herself.

There has been do efforts, in all these years of ongoing war, to address improving Iraqi lives. Instead, the US repeatedly installs some Shi'ite who fled Iraq in a fit of cowardice decades before, installs that coward as prime minister of the country. And then? All US efforts are focused on keeping the puppet in place.

Those are concerns that aren't addressed in the US currently.

Maybe State Dept spokesperson John Kirby can just screaming at press briefings that he's in charge -- in that ridiculous and ever raising high pitched voice?

AP reports Shi'ite cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr is terming the current situation in the Parliament to be a "crisis" and calling on the Organization of Islamic Countries and the United Nations to step in and help -- possibly even via national elections.

Is it a crisis?

No.

Parliament has not voted to dissolve Haider al-Abadi's Cabinet.

He may not want to meet with it but they still hold office.

He now wants a 'do over,' the chance to get a new Cabinet.

He doesn't want to follow the Constitutional rules for doing that.

And he's saddened, truly saddened, that the Iraqi Parliament won't just roll over and give him everything he wants -- despite it being unconstitutional.

Moqtada's proposal?

Early elections might be the only answer.

But the US government better grasp that keeping Haider installed will require even more work than it took to keep Nouri in power after he lost the 2010 elections.

Yes, they kept him in power through August of 2014.

But it cost Iraq a great deal and sent the country into its current turmoil.

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley -- updated: