If you're following the news about ISIS, which now calls itself the
Islamic State, you might think you've mistakenly clicked on a historical
story about barbarians from millennia ago.
In a matter of months,
the group seized territory in both Iraq and Syria and declared an
Islamic caliphate, celebrating its own shocking slaughter along the way.
"I don't see any attention from the rest of the world," a member of the Yazidi minority in Iraq told the New Yorker. "In one day, they killed more than two thousand Yazidi in Sinjar, and the whole world says, 'Save Gaza, save Gaza.'"
In Syria, the group hoisted
some of its victims severed heads on poles. One of the latest videos of
the savagery shows a Christian man forced to his knees, surrounded by
masked militants, identified in the video as members of ISIS. They force
the man at gunpoint to "convert" to Islam. Then, the group beheads him.
ISIS has targeted members
of numerous minority groups in the region, including Christian nuns,
Turkmen and Shabaks, according to Human Rights Watch.
France called Thursday for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said
his country is "highly concerned about the latest progress of ISIS in
the north of Iraq and by the taking of Qaraqosh, the largest Christian
city of Iraq, and the horrible acts of violence that are committed."
The United States is
considering emergency air drops to help thousands of stranded Yazidis, a
U.S. Defense official told CNN. The department also is weighing "other
military options," a senior State Department official said.
Asked about the
possibility of U.S. airstrikes, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said
Thursday he was "not in a position to rule things on the table or off
the table."
Earlier this week, ISIS fighters tried to seize control of Iraq's largest hydroelectric dam, but Kurdish forces fended them off, the dam's director said.
"If 'IS' manages to
consolidate its territory and preserve its legitimacy, an offensive
jihad against all other countries will then be considered viable,"
Jonathan Russell of Qulliam, a think tank formed to combat extremism, wrote on CNN.com.
"Al Qaeda will now want
to challenge ISIS's appropriation of its key objectives and tactics. The
only way for al Qaeda to stay relevant now is through a violent and
spectacular attack. Although ISIS may eventually be a victim of its own
success, the real victims will be the thousands of innocent Muslims and
non-Muslims caught in the crossfire of this millennarian struggle."
Pope leads call for action
As the tales of horror
trickle out from areas ISIS controls -- including Mosul, Iraq's largest
city -- a growing chorus of voices is calling on the world to act. The
most prominent is Pope Francis.
"The Holy Father follows
with strong concern the dramatic news from the north of Iraq,
concerning defenseless populations," the Vatican said in a statement
Thursday. "Particularly struck have been the Christian communities, a
people fleeing from their own villages due to the violence that in these
days is raging and overwhelming the region."
"Dear brothers and
sisters so persecuted, I know how much you are suffering and I know that
everything has been taken from you. I am with you in faith, and with
Him that has conquered evil," the Pope said recently during the Angelus
prayer.
"His Holiness also sends
an urgent appeal to the international community, in order that they may
work towards ending the humanitarian crisis and protecting those who
are affected or threatened by violence, and to ensure necessary aid,
especially that which is most urgently needed by so many homeless, whose
fate is solely dependent on the solidarity of others," the Vatican
said.
"An entire religion is being exterminated from the face of the Earth." Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi, said in an appeal to the Iraqi parliament. She called it a "genocide."
Yazidis, among Iraq's
smallest minorities, are of Kurdish descent, and their religion is
considered a pre-Islamic sect that draws from Christianity, Judaism and
Zoroastrianism.
Analysts: West must arm Kurds
"The world now faces two
urgent challenges: to prevent the genocide of the Yazidis and to stop
ISIS from continuing to conquer swaths of the Middle East," global
affairs columnist Frida Ghitis wrote on CNN.com. "Bombing ISIS positions would help save the Yazidis, but supporting the Kurds is key to success on both counts."
Supporting the Kurds is key to success.
Frida Ghitis, global affairs columnist
Frida Ghitis, global affairs columnist
The Iraqi Kurdish army,
known as the Peshmerga, has fought ISIS but is "outgunned," partly
because the Iraqi army dropped its weapons "and fled when ISIS rolled in
from Syria and captured Mosul," Ghitis says.
Ghitis wants the United States to help arm the Kurds against ISIS.
The United States has
been reluctant to do so, wary that the Kurds will try to break off from
Iraq and build a separate state at a time Washingon is trying to bolster
a central Iraqi government in Baghdad.
"If the U.S. decided to
help the Kurds, there would be no guarantee that the Kurds wouldn't
later use those weapons to further their own interests," Dexter Filkins writes in the New Yorker. "But what other choice is there?"
Filkins notes that Iraq
has begun air strikes aimed at helping the Kurds -- but, he says, "the
Iraqi Army has proved itself utterly ineffectual in combating ISIS."
On Wednesday, the Iraqi
air force struck a building Mosul believed to be used by ISIS, killing
76 people, an Iraqi official told CNN. But local officials said dozens of those killed were actually civilians who had opposed the Islamic State.
ISIS has posted photos online showing some of its executions |
Meanwhile, Iraq's Badr Brigade Shiit militia is is training women to join men in protecting Baghdad if the Islamic State works its way to the capital.
Masrour Barzani, Kurdish intelligence and security chief, called for direct military assistance from the United States in an interview with the Washington Post.
"We've got to help our
allies to defend themselves," says David Schenker, head of the
Washington Institute's Program on Arab Politics, another voice in
support of arming Kurds.
"The other half of that
equation is working with the moderate Syrian opposition -- providing
them with robust capabilities against the regime and ISIS."
Analyst: Build a U.S. base
Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official who focuses on Arab politics and terrorism, disagrees on both fronts.
At this point, "the definition of 'moderate' in Syria is 'not engaging in cannibalism,'"
he says. "If we did not know about two Chechen brothers in Boston
before they carried out the Marathon bombings, how could we know whom to
trust within Syria?"
It's too late to arm
moderates as a means of curbing the violence in Syria, says Rubin, who
is now with the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
And among Kurds in Iraq,
there's a danger: "Kurdish leadership is just as permeated by, and just
as close in terms of a working relationship with, the Islamic
Revolution Guards Corps" -- Iran's elite force. "In the past, the Kurds
have leaked intelligence to the Iranians -- and they could presumably
leak weaponry."
The Peshmerga is also not as competent as its popular image suggests Rubin says.
He wants the United
States to accept an offer from the Massoud Barzani, head of the
Kurdistan Regional Government, to set up a base in Kurdistan.
"It would kill two birds
with one stone," he says. The United States could base drones or manned
aircraft in the region to be used in the fight against ISIS, and the
U.S. presence would help cut through some of the Iranian influence.
The Iraqi government
wouldn't like it, "but at this point, it's the lesser concern," Rubin
says. "We could mitigate this with a request to Baghdad to approve.
Baghdad has more to lose by not blessing this especially if we go ahead
anyway."
But Earnest, the White
House spokesman, said Thursday that President Barack Obama has made
clear "there are no American military solutions to the problems in Iraq.
We can't solve these problems for them. These problems can only be
solved with Iraqi political solutions."
There are no American military solutions to the problems in Iraq.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest
White House spokesman Josh Earnest
He added that Obama has
"demonstrated his clear willingness to take the kind of military action
that's required to protect core American interests," including personnel
around the globe. But any U.S. military action in Iraq would not
include boots on the ground, Earnest said.
ISIS's cruelty could be its downfall
But the West may have reason to take no immediate action, says Fahad Nazer, terrorism analyst with JTG Inc.
"Unlike other al Qaeda branches, ISIS doesn't seem eager to attack the West. It has too much to lose," he writes on CNN.com.
ISIS doesn't seem eager to attack the West. It has too much to lose.
Fahad Nazer, terrorism analyst, JTG Inc.
"While the West has
never been comfortable with Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon, it
has largely left it up to the countries of the wider Middle East to deal
with these militant, Islamist organizations," he writes.
Also, "The West may find
solace in the fact that ISIS has many enemies in the Arab and Muslim
worlds," Nazer writes. And with so many groups suffering from its
persecution and terror, such "violent ideology and brutality makes its
endurance over the long-term unlikely."
The West could work with
populations in the region to stand up against terrorism as it did with
the Iraq Awakening Councils who turned against al Qaeda in 2006, says
Schenker.
There's also the
possibility that al Qaeda and ISIS will fight each other so heavily that
they inflict casualties and weaken each other. But the risks of
inaction by the West in the immediate future may be too great, says
Schenker.
"ISIS digging in consolidating gains," he says, "will make it much more difficult to combat in the long run."
"Several Obama
administration officials have told us that our national security is at
risk from ISIS," adds Elliott Abrams, who served as deputy national
security adviser under President George W. Bush.
Abrams supports arming
Kurds and says the United States should be willing to use its military
power as well. "Otherwise," says Abrams, who is now with the Council on
Foreign Relations, "What is the Obama message: there are huge risks, but
we'll just watch for a while?"
No comments:
Post a Comment