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America’s Iraq prescription

Hours after Secretary of State John Kerry met all the stakeholders of the war-torn country in his bid to defuse the crisis, Pentagon pumped in 100 or so military advisers into Iraq to help the beleaguered administration fight the insurgents. But the most startling and leadership statement came from Kerry as he categorically called on all the regional states to expel the intruding ISIS militants, and to safeguard Iraq’s territorial integrity.

This is an exceptional statement, and it is open to reservations from some of the regional countries that do not see from the same prism. Though none of the Middle Eastern countries has backed the ISIS militants, the fact is that all are concerned over the rising tide of sectarianism, from Iraq to Syria.

At the same time, Kerry’s statement made it obvious that the Obama administration is on the same page with Iran, and is trying to act as a pacifier in resolving the crisis without enabling Tehran to get an upper hand in the absence of Washington, as was the case in Syria.

The US in other words had refused to lend an ear to dissenting arguments and theories that call for division of Iraq on ethnic and communal lines, and the Kurd statehood question as articulated by Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani has been dumped in cold storage at least for the time being. US President Barack Obama’s firm stance that it wants the sitting Iraqi prime minister to go but would not choose the next leader had put him on the same page with the religious hierarchy of Iraq. Grand Ayatollah Syed Ali Al Sistani, as well as Tehran, had also aired similar sentiments, and called for a more inclusive and broad-based government in order to redress the grievances of minority communities.

Now the strategy is two-pronged in essence: to fight the ISIS militants and dissuade political elements that call for Iraq’s devolution from going over the brink. Yet the crisis is far from addressed. The catch is whether the US will commit air power to Iraq and stem the extremists’ march to Baghdad or not? Posting military advisers to buck up a demoralised state army that collapsed like a house of cards in Mosul and Tikrit is no solution. The US has to act big if it wants the tide of militancy to be checked in Iraq and prevent other Arab states in the region from being impacted. The reason: It is for sure that the ISIS is not going to stop at Baghdad, per se.