If anything is quite amazing “Iraq” existed for so long post WWII. The West desperately tried to keep it together lest it would it cause chaos in the rest of the region. Obviously a genocidal dictator did help its chance of lasting the time long run.
Still at the rate things are going the long-suffering Kurds will finally be getting the national state they have craved since the fall of the Ottoman. I have never quite been satisfied by any answer I have been given why the Kurds were shunned back then and for a hundred years after. It seemed the Kurds were unable to charm the Arabists in the various country’s foreign office as well as some of the other ethnic groupings.
As you might expect dear readers I believe the U.S. should resist the temptation to send anyone to help Iraq and let them get on with things. A bare U.S. advisor number will have little or no effect on the Iraqi government as they have now become a client state of Iran. The ISL have merely dragged them back in the 1,000 – yearplus conflict between Shia and Sunni.
That sectarian fight is not one for the U.S. to meddle in, as we neither understand it nor have any place it in.
Though it might sound cynical and cold.. it is time for the U.S. (and the West for that matter) to sit back and the let them have it. Maybe aid the Kurds so they can keep their territorial integrity but other than than that lets sit this one out.
Assume Middle East oil is mostly a thing of the past and be relieved the Sunni-Shia eternal battle is not costing any more Americans their lives.
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Andrew Ian Dodge is an author and former libertarian candidate for office. He lives in Harpswell.
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