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World Community Turns Blind Eye on Mosul
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
July 23, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria stormed the multiethnic northern Iraqi city of Mosul June 10, Iraq’s
Shiite leader Nouri al-Maliki yawned, watching Iraq’s oil-rich second largest
city fall to radical Islam.
Al-Baghdadi has been busy capturing Shiite cities in Syria and Iraq, re-branding
his group’s name as the “Islamic State.”
While President Barack Obama pulled the plug on the Iraq War Dec. 15,
2014, watching Mosul’s Christian community decimated by al-Baghdadi proves the
U.S. learned nothing from the Iraq War.
Spending over $1 trillion and losing 4,800 U.S. soldiers shouldn’t blind
the U.S. from a sensible foreign policy that meets the test of U.S. national
security. Watching the Islamic
State take over Mosul hints at more to come—including Baghdad—unless the White
House shows some common sense in a post-Iraq War foreign policy.
Few Americans wish to re-litigate the Iraq War. But when Islamic extremists encroach
on the U.S. –backed government in Baghdad, the White House must pick and chose
its battles. Kicking al-Baghdadi
out of Mosul wouldn’t take that long for the U.S. military. With al-Maliki’s military in
shambles consolidating defenses around Baghdad, there’s no one to stop the
carnage in Mosul. Watching al-Baghdadi’s Islamic thugs desecrate Mosul’s Fourth Century Mar Behnam
monastery is shameful. Al-Baghdadi
kicked out the monks without any possessions, forcing Christians to convert, pay
a tax or die by the sword. After al-Baghdadi declared himself July 1 the new caliphe of Islam, his Islamic war
machine continues to consolidate gains and seize new territory in Syria and
Iraq. With Bashar al-Assad
defending his Shiite regime in Damascus and al-Maliki barely holding on to
Baghdad, al-Baghdadi has free reign.
Desecrating the Mar Behnam monastery run by the Syriac Catholic Church
near the Christian town of Qaraqosh south-east of Mosul, al-Baghadadi shows the
same ruthless contempt for history as the Taliban when they blew up historic
Buddhist temples carved into Afghanistan’s rocky cliffs. Despite close proximity to
Kurdistan, al-Baghdadi was able to conquer Mosul because al-Maliki’s military
lacked the resources to secure Iraq’s northern provinces. Seizing the historic Mar Behnam
monastery demonstrates the dark side of al-Baghdadi’s growing empire, forcing
local residents to flee, accept fundamentalist Islamic sharia law or die. “You have not place here any more,
you have to leave immediately,” al-Baghdadi’s forces told Syriac monks. Fleeing from Mar Behnam by foot, the
monks were eventually picked up by Kurd’s Peshmerga fighters protecting Kurdish
territory.
Seizing historic Christian sites, al-Baghdadi preys on the vulnerable,
unable to defend themselves against heavily armed Islamic militants. When
al-Baghdadi’s forces entered the city of Mosul June 10, Iraq security services
put up virtually no resistance, tearing off their uniforms and fleeing the
scene. “When the battle got though
in the city of Mosul, the troops dropped their weapons and abandoned their
posts, making it an easy prey for the terrorists,” said Iraq’s speaker of the
parliament, Osam al-Nujaifi, a former resident of Mosul. Watching Iraq’s second largest city
fall to al-Baghdadi, it’s just a matter of time before Baghdad follows. U.S. and U.N. forces sat idly by
watching Iraq’s fragile gains washed away down the Tigris River. Letting Mosul fall to al-Baghdadi
opens the gates to Baghdad, with Iraqi security services so infiltrated by Sunni
insurgents unwilling to defend the country.
With most of Mosul’s Christians, Kurds and Shiites fleeing to neighboring
Kurdistan, there’s no end in sight to al-Baghdadi’s occupation of Mosul. “Everything is fallen. It’s a crisis,” said al-Nujaifi,
begging al-Maliki’s government for reinforcements. “Having these terrorist groups
control a city in the heart of Iraq threatens not only Iraq but the entire
region,” raising the stakes to the U.S. government and NATO. Watching al-Baghdadi hasten Iraq’s
split into autonomous Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish regions undermines the integrity
of a federal Iraq. Instead of giving the Kurds the backing they need for an independent state, President
Barack Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry continue to back al-Maliki’s
failed attempt to hold together Iraq.
Most of the regional players, including Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan accept the fact the Kurds have become independent.
Whatever the eventual outcome in Baghdad, including the likely breakup of
Iraq in autonomous Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish regions, letting al-Baghdadi’s
murderous thugs take of Mosul is disgraceful.
U.S. forces can still boot al-Baghdadi out of Mosul and handover
governance to the Kurds. Only the
Kurd’s Peshmerga fighters are capable with U.S. help of ridding Mosul of
al-Baghdadi’s Islamic State.
Preventing al-Baghdadi from reaching Baghdad requires U.S. and Kurdish forces to
evict him from the Sunni side of the Tigris River in Mosul. There’s plenty of support among Mosul’s Sunnis to get rid of al-Baghdadi. Watching al-Baghdadi seize and
desecrate Christian shrines like Mar Behnem monastery sickens Christians, Jews
and peace-living religions around the globe. Taking no stand in Mosul reinforces al-Baghdadis’ rampage in the region, inviting the Islamic
State to expand its influence.
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