Daesh is Arabic shorthand for the Islamic State. With the post-fall-of-Sunni-leader-Saddam-Hussein (thanks to the U.S.) powerful alliance with fellow Shiites in Iran (well over 90% of the population are Shiites), Iraq (60%; Shiites dominate the government) is exceptionally distrustful of the anti-Iranian United States of America. Despite the fact that the fundamentalist Sunni Islamic State would love to annihilate every Shiite on earth, neither the Iraqi nor Iranian governments are happy about seeing the United States military in their sphere of influence.
Why else would the Iraqi government suggest that the Iraqi Army is more than enough of a ground force (keeping whatever assistance they get from the U.S. military up in the sky with almost no presence physically in Iraq) to protect their country? Yup, that same Iraqi Army that turned tail and deserted their posts, turning over the cash cow of productive oil fields, leaving hundreds of millions of first rate military equipment for ISIS to take. Daesh now controls an area of Syria and Iraq roughly the size of Indiana.
There are few American generals with recent Iraqi field experience who believe that the Iraqi Army is remotely capable of fending off the well-trained, well-funded, highly motivated, and well-equipped Islamic State military. Our own Congress is afraid of “mission creep” whereby the United States – first through special ops and then through a steady but great deployment of additional ground forces as Iraqi forces fail to protect major strategic targets.
But many regional Shiites fear the United States more than the Islamic State. As odd as it seems, too many of them – even many in their leadership – believe that the United States maintains a secret relationship with that Islamic State specifically to crush the equally-heavily-anti-American Shiite power in the region (Iran and its supporters in Iraq). We witness innocent Americans being beheaded by the IS. That the United States is secretly allied with the IS is ludicrous to anyone in the West, but this theory is growing in popularity in Shiite-dominated lands. And for many Shiites who don’t buy that theory, they at least blame American interference in Iraq and elsewhere in the Islamic world for the very power and existence of the Islamic State; but for the United States, there would be no IS, they reason… and perhaps there is a touch of truth to that assertion.
So when U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, suggests there is a role for Iran in the battle against the Islamic State, Iranian eyes roll and skepticism is so strong that few believe that such an alliance is remotely possible. Iran does not believe the Islamic State could ever mount a successful military campaign against the powerful Iranian army. Would that feeling change if IS ever wound up invading Iran itself? Would Iran still believe that the IS was acting with the covert support of the U.S. itself?
While Sunni or secular-dominated regional states fear the IS beyond words, when you see how open local Iraqi leaders are about U.S. responsibility for the Islamic State, you have to wonder how any coalition could ever work... rather strange when you accept that Iran and Syria are the two areas that have most suffered from successful conquest by the IS (Daesh).
“‘We know about who made Daesh,’ said Bahaa al-Araji, a [Shiite] deputy prime minister… at a [September 20th] demonstration called by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr [leader of the one of the Shiite militias] to warn against the possible deployment of American ground troops. Mr. Sadr publicly blamed the C.I.A. for creating the Islamic State in a speech [in mid-September], and interviews suggested that most of the few thousand people at the demonstration, including dozens of members of Parliament, subscribed to the same theory. (Mr. Sadr is considered close to Iran, and the theory is popular there as well.)…
“The prevalence of the theory in the streets underscored the deep suspicions of the American military’s return to Iraq more than a decade after its invasion, in 2003. The casual endorsement by a senior official, though, was also a pointed reminder that the new Iraqi government may be an awkward partner for the American-led campaign to drive out the extremists…
“The demonstration on [September 20th] was the latest in a series of signals from Shiite leaders or militias, especially those considered close to Iran, warning the United States not to put its soldiers back on the ground. Mr. Obama has pledged not to send combat troops, but he seems to have convinced few Iraqis. ‘We don’t trust him,’ said Raad Hatem, 40… Haidar al-Assadi, 40, agreed. ‘The Islamic State is a clear creation of the United States, and the United States is trying to intervene again using the excuse of the Islamic State,’ he said.” New York Times, September 20th.
There is a general prevalence of thought across the Middle East and other Islamic regions, even among our allies, that the United States pretty much did itself vast harm in its failed efforts in the Iraq and Afghanistan. They see United States’ involvement as an evil necessity because of our capability plus our willingness to fund a very expensive part of this military effort, but they also squirm in discomfort at the thought of another American military foray into the Middle East.
That so much funding for the IS is coming from within some of our closest allies doesn’t make this effort any easier. The Islamic State would love a direct confrontation with the United States and the West; they believe God is on their side. Our fear, of course, is that if we do not contain the Islamic State “there,” they will find ways to bring their fight “here” to American shores… attacks that might make 9/11/01 seem relatively minor. Just think about how many IS “recruits” are coming from various nations around the world, places like the U.K., Germany… and the United States.
I’m Peter Dekom, and our mishandling of and military policy for well over a decade has complicated our very necessary commitment to help crush the ultra-malevolent, al Qaeda on steroids, Islamic State.
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