ISIS
After having gotten out of Iraq just a couple of years ago, we now find the country falling apart and being taken over by a new out-of-control insurgency. This new group to grace our front pages and TV news shows has a cool acronym: ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Note the ambition: they want both of the unstable countries. These jihadists considered al-Qaida to be too tame for them.
The Republicans are blaming Obama for pulling out of Iraq too early, as if it would not always be too early. This was the war that was supposed to be wrapped up in a summer and which lasted a decade. Mission Accomplished! Obama is ruling out combat troops, but he is considering other military options, probably bombings and air power. But I don't suppose anyone knows how this will play out. I don't think there is a lot of optimism.
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What’s happening in Iraq is a disaster and it is astonishing that the Iraqis and the Americans, who have been sharing intelligence, seem to have been caught flat-footed by the speed of the insurgent victories and the army defections.
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is said to be in a panic. It is hard to be surprised by that, because more than anyone he is to blame for the catastrophe. Mr. Maliki has been central to the political disorder that has poisoned Iraq, as he wielded authoritarian power in favor of the Shiite majority at the expense of the minority Sunnis, stoked sectarian conflict and enabled a climate in which militants could gain traction.
With stunning efficiency, Sunni militants in recent days captured Mosul, the second-largest city; occupied facilities in the strategic oil-refining town of Baiji; and are now headed for Baghdad. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their homes and untold numbers have been killed.
The insurgency’s gains will not be a threat just to Iraq if the militants, who have also been fighting in Syria, succeed in establishing a radical Islamic state on the Iraq-Syria border. No one should want that - not the Kurds, not the Turks and not the Iranians. [And not us, I imagine.]
-- New York Times Editorial Board, "Iraq in Peril"
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The Republicans are blaming Obama for pulling out of Iraq too early, as if it would not always be too early. This was the war that was supposed to be wrapped up in a summer and which lasted a decade. Mission Accomplished! Obama is ruling out combat troops, but he is considering other military options, probably bombings and air power. But I don't suppose anyone knows how this will play out. I don't think there is a lot of optimism.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
What’s happening in Iraq is a disaster and it is astonishing that the Iraqis and the Americans, who have been sharing intelligence, seem to have been caught flat-footed by the speed of the insurgent victories and the army defections.
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is said to be in a panic. It is hard to be surprised by that, because more than anyone he is to blame for the catastrophe. Mr. Maliki has been central to the political disorder that has poisoned Iraq, as he wielded authoritarian power in favor of the Shiite majority at the expense of the minority Sunnis, stoked sectarian conflict and enabled a climate in which militants could gain traction.
With stunning efficiency, Sunni militants in recent days captured Mosul, the second-largest city; occupied facilities in the strategic oil-refining town of Baiji; and are now headed for Baghdad. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their homes and untold numbers have been killed.
The insurgency’s gains will not be a threat just to Iraq if the militants, who have also been fighting in Syria, succeed in establishing a radical Islamic state on the Iraq-Syria border. No one should want that - not the Kurds, not the Turks and not the Iranians. [And not us, I imagine.]
-- New York Times Editorial Board, "Iraq in Peril"
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