Look into His Eyes

His nom-du-guerre and title is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Quarashi al Husseini, Emir of the State of Islam in Iraq and Syria. He once was a major player within the al Qaeda hierarchy, but they were insufficiently militant in their zeal in support of a new Sunni religious answer to the evil Shiite Iran, their Shiite cronies in Iraq who were running roughshod over their Sunni minority and those nasty Shiite minorities (Alawites) running Syria. His hatred for things Western, particularly the United States, is extreme. His enemies call him the “Ghost.” Few have seen his face. He is an educated religious scholar, believes in the application of brutal Sharia law, and he is slowly carving off pieces of Syria and Iraq and forming a new Sunni nation.

He controls Sunni territories in parts of Syria bordering Iraq. While foreign extremists are a clear part of his army, the overwhelming majority of his troops were locals, religious zealots all. As Iraqi forces quickly turned and ran, Baghdadi conquered the second largest city in Iraq, Mosul, and then Saddam Hussein’s birthplace, Takrit. The extremist Islamic state being pieced together is called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL – the latter “L” being a reference to Sunni Syria situated on the Levant).

Though infamous for his beheadings of any captured forces or civilians who oppose him (reports of hundreds of beheadings were still circulating), he apparently let most of the people in these cities leave peacefully… less out of fear of his assaults than of the possible retaliatory shelling from the incumbent Iraqi government. But even as his eyes turned to one of the largest Iraqi refineries that he quickly occupied, ever closer to Baghdad, that retaliation did not happen… yet. Two more cities fell as Iraqi forces abandoned their post, Baghdadi threatened to destroy Shiite shrines along the way, and many residents in the capital city began leaving the soon-to-be-embattled city.

With the army becoming increasingly unreliable, “Iraq's most senior Shia cleric has issued a call to arms [to Shiite militias] while Sunni-led insurgents seize more towns. The call by a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani came during Friday prayers, as the militants widened their grip in the north and east, and threatened to march south.” BBC.co.uk, June 13^th.

The Shiite majority government in Baghdad is quivering in fear. They had complained bitterly that as soon as the Western powers left Iraq, that the West simply ignored this war-torn nation and let the regional al Qaeda militants grow in strength without any attempt to reverse the trend. “Following a wave of violence that has seen two major cities fall to insurgent forces, the government of Iraq has asked the United States for air assistance in quelling the uprising by al-Qaeda affiliated militants, U.S. officials confirmed to NBC News.” NBC.com, June 11^th. “Air assistance”? Hmmmm…. Most believed that the U.S. would provide the requested air support quickly, but the memory of the Iraq war has left a bad taste in Congress gaping mouth. Clearly, the notion of U.S. troops on the ground is unlikely. But as President Obama has stated, ultimately, we cannot fight this battle for them. Don’t worry, Mr. President, as noted below, there are plenty outsiders ready to fight!

The much-feared civil war had begun, recognizing the artificial nature of “Iraq,” a nation defined by a 1916 Anglo-French agreement (Sykes-Picot) that shoved incompatible religious and ethnic groups into a “nation” with borders created by powers who were simply interested in post WW-I spheres of influence.

The Americans have put $10 million on Baghdadi’s head. If the Shiite faith could have its own Islamic republic – Iran – so could Sunnis, Baghdadi reasoned. Qur’anic literalists (Sunnis) were now violently pitted against Qu’ranic mystics (Shiites). Money secreted from oil rich Sunnis states built his power. The cache of weapons and heavy equipment he captured in Mosul and Takrit armed him to the teeth. He is one of the most dangerous men in the world in one of the most dangerous regions anywhere. And he is winning, while Baghdad is whining.

But regional alliances and sympathies are spilling this from a local war into a regional conflict. “In recent days, Iran has sent about 500 Revolutionary Guard troops to fight alongside Iraqi government security forces in Diyala province, a senior security official in Baghdad told CNN… Meanwhile, Sunni tribal leaders have lined up behind radical Islamists from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, making their push toward Baghdad easier, a Saudi intelligence official told CNN's Nic Robertson.” CNN.com, June 13^th. Rumors have the U.S. actually cooperating with Iran on this one! It is a battle between two highly divergent visions of Islam, not unlike the sectarian violence that plagued Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics in recent years.

As Iran benefitted by the American removal of minority Sunnis leadership from Shiite Iraq – bringing Iraq into the Iranian camp – so did Baghdadi find the American-imposed government in Iraq an unstable force that needed to be crushed, at least in the Sunni dominated areas. Al Qaeda was too soft, too willing to let things change slowly. Not good enough for Baghdadi! Brutal conquest, decimating your enemies, and taking back Sunni control – albeit ultra-radical and ultra-violent – was the name of the game… and Baghdadi and his minions played that game exceptionally well. The Syrian rebellion played right into his hands.

Iraq is an example of a failing state, the pride of the American attempt to democratize Iraq as justification for the removal of a brutal dictator, Saddam, when the ruse of capturing weapons of mass destruction was unmasked as an American fabrication. And now, as always, the laws of unintended consequences are kicking in. Dark forces rise. The region shudders from more instability, more violence. Anti-American feelings are once again rising. Not only did we waste American lives in a futile war, incur massive deficits that plague us to this very day, but we have created regional monsters with long-term malevolence on their minds… and clearly on their agenda. Once again, Baghdad is between I-raq and a hard place!

Will we learn the lessons of our own incompetent and incomplete assumptions about those distant lands with vastly different cultures, values, and a history of being humiliated by conquering Western powers, most recently the United States? That fact that there was oil in the area was irrelevant, right? What exactly was the benefit we generated for us from that Iraqi war? Foreign oil companies got virtually all of the valuable oil leases in the Iraq. Not us! Oh, think that this little bump in the road will have an impact on oil prices? Bet on it!

How has America generated genuine value to itself from our operations in Afghanistan? Did we crush the Taliban forever? Is the government in Kabul a shining example of corruption-free democracy with solid public support? What did we really accomplish? Destabilizing Pakistan? Have our drones killed off all of these militant attacks? Are we safer than we were before? Really? There is a time and a place for military action, almost never with the United States as the prime mover unless it is directly attacked or where genocide is the evil we need to stop.

 I’m Peter Dekom, and where military action is necessary, at the very least, we really need to understand the region, the players, the culture, their faith, history and the real stakeholders first… first… first… before we fail again!