The mess in Iraq

I’ve been following the messy situation in Iraq closely since last week after the Islamic Extremists (ISIL) announced the takeover of the city of Mosul. I think this was not entirely unexpected. Most people would agree that Iraq is not only a failed state but that the politicians over there are mostly sell-out.

Most of us would probably not care about the mess in Iraq…(something bad is happening in Nigeria, something bad is happening in Pakistan, something bad is still happening in Syria, something bad is always happening somewhere..)

except Iraq has something everyone loves…oil and lots of it. So the situation in Iraq becomes extremely serious and requires global intervention.

I’m summarizing what I saw/read on the news and what I think about it:

Maliki’s right-hand man embarrassed himself (and possible his boss) by whinnying about how the US was still responsible for Iraq’s safety and should at least help in sending a few missiles towards the terrorists’ hideout. I was actually happy when Obama said No. Whatever messy situation Iraqis find themselves in, they need to learn to take care of it. If you can’t do it then it’s probably time to leave the office and let someone else do the job.

The US wanted Iraqi politicians currently dominated by the Shias to be more insular and less sectarian. The timing of the request is a little bit late because now, after seeing what the barbaric Sunni Extremists are capable of, most of the Iraqis will naturally gravitate towards sectarianism. If someone was not sectarian before, he/she is now. I also think the US had ten years to do something useful in Iraq (in regards to Nation Building) but they didn’t/couldn’t do much. Now, that the US is out, I don’t think they are in a position to order someone to do what they want; furthermore they should not even expect the Iraqi to listen or obey them, unless the US can provide Iraqi some incentives..which I can’t think of any.

Saddam’s daughter was cheering the terrorist takeover of Mosul and Tikrit and praised one of her father’s ex-general. Lots of angry ex-Baathists still sees violence as a mean to show their dissatisfaction. That’s how things used to work in Saddam’s Iraq. Regime change doesn’t really change the psychology of the people.

The ISIL (Sunni Extremists Group) has unleased unimaginable horrific violence. Thanks to technology, you can now watch human getting dismembered and butchered in high definition and almost real time.

I’m again reading about this stupid suggestion about how Iraq should be divided into three segments: one for the Shiites, one for the Sunni Arab and the last segment for the Kurds who are mostly Sunni. I don’t think the Sunni Arabs would like to be ‘contained’ in rat-holes like Tikrit and Fallujah. How about Baghdad? Who gets it? Both Sunni and Shia live there. What about many of the Iraqis who are in mix-marriages like a Sunni Arab married to a Shia Arab, a Sunni Arab married to a Sunni Kurd or a Shia Arab married to a Sunni Kurd– how do you resolve such situations? And what if someone has in them 1/2 Shia Arab blood, 1/4 Sunni Arab and 1/4 Kurd blood..so what are you and which segment of Iraq do you get to live?

I’m also observing Sunnis on social networks; trying to see their reaction and what they think about the latest takeover of some of the Iraqi cities by the Sunni Jihadist. A lot of people are surprisingly silent! The same bunch of people who used to cheer the Syrian Jihadists (the exact same folks of the ISIL) for their ‘bravery’ in fighting Hafeez al-Asad is strangely quiet. Is this Sunni hypocrisy at play here? Yes, No?

I believe the difference in attitude is because most of the propagandas video was able to point Hafeez al-Asad of Syria as a Kafir Shia Dictator (he’s not actually Shia by the way) who is running a country of a majority of the Sunni population and oppressing them.

Saudi Arabia the biggest supporters of the Syrian Jihadists who hates the Shias and their leadership in Iraq and Iran are okay with seeing ISIL mischiefs here and there but they are also not keen to see ISIL becoming a powerful entity. After all, the ISIL fantasy of a global Islamic Caliphate would probably get rid most of the Sunni dynasties of many of the Arab kingdoms in the Gulf including Saudi Arabia.

I was reading something interesting today about how Iraq may never become a stable democracy. :(

I hope the author of the article is wrong, unfortunately most of the things he's saying about Iraq can be corroborated. I'll talk about this in the future, time permitting.

Reference

[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2014/06/20/war-without-end-why-iraq-can-never-be-a-stable-democracy/