Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup
The U.S. Incursion of Iraq and Creation of ISIS.
In what a slow and steady way the USA bungled and tumbled in Iraq! Eleven years after the U.S. invasion, Iraq remains steeped in violence, with militant extremists gaining ground, civil war hanging in the balance and no clear resolution to the chaos
With staggering pace the invasion proceeded to crumble the Iraqi Army, drove president Saddam Hussein to hide, and and then get caught and put in captivity and rule the streets of Iraq, only to be confronted with the task of securing and governing a complex nation of 30 million people utterly unfathomable to Americans. Not surprisingly the series of bungles started to roll, with almost similar alacrity seen in the invasion. The Iraqi National army was disbanded. Hussein's Ba'ath Party was divested of all professional positions.
Within hours of disbanding the army insurgency erupted. The de-Ba'thification alienated the skilled Sunnis leaving them disenfranchised, angry and as potential recruits for the nascent insurgency. In a few months the insurgency was in full force. White House got cold feet driving it to decide to leave Iraq too soon. Authority was handed over to Iraqi Governing Council and American troops withdrew to fortified bases in haste.
This was the situation Sunnis wanted - try and subjugate the Shia majority. Shias patiently bore the brunt of the string of attacks till Iraqi Al Queda, eager to provoke a sectarian war, pushed the Shias over the edge by destroying one of their holiest shrine,(Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra). Fierce reprisal and bloodshed followed cocking a snook at American presence. President Bush responded by hoisting Nouri al-Maliki who it was believed could rally the Shias but also not be perceived ,as too sectarian by the Sunnis and Kurds, as the new Iraqi leader, and on the ground, by what was termed the "surge", - dispatching an additional 30,000 U.S. troops who moved off the large, fortified bases and into the neighborhoods. The result was that the U.S. forces sustained their heaviest losses during this period as both Sunnis ans Shias turned their ire on the coalition forces. This continued till a truce was arranged with Shias, while the Sunnis were bought out by cash not to attack U.S.troops but only Al Queda. Somehow the Iraqi violence was reduced to a low grade insurgency.
And enter President Obama with his electoral promise of pull out from Iraq and subsequent pull out dateline of Dec.2011. By December 2011, almost all U.S. forces had left Iraq, leaving Maliki to govern on his own. Left to himself, Maliki lost no time to turn against the Sunnis and by a series of actions gave a clear message that there would be no role for Sunnis in Maliki’s Shia regime.
Disenfranchised Sunnis found an outlet in a militant group that had recently coalesced in the fight against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. ISIS, which had a reputation for ruthlessness, gained a rapid foothold in Iraq, capturing the towns of Fallujah and Ramadi in January, and Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, in June.
The world was surprised by how quickly the Iraqi army fell to a small force of fighters. Shia militias have stepped in to fill the void, and sectarian killings are on the rise again. The world, not only Iraq, was aghast at the audacious declaration of an Islamic caliphate by ISIS including territories under its control in Iraq and Syria and demanding all Muslims pledge obedience to its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS is feared as the most noxious outfit of all Muslim terrorist organizations, bloodcurdlingly brutal and savage.“They make bin Laden’s 2011 Al Qaeda look like Boy Scouts.” The throat-cutting ISIS is the fiend that came out of U.S. incursion of Iraq with its professed intention of subjugating the entire Muslim world, which the U.S is now trying to blast out by aerial bombing.
The U.S. Incursion of Iraq and Creation of ISIS.
A sign of what was to come: fighters parade a commandeered Iraqi military truck through Mosul.
In what a slow and steady way the USA bungled and tumbled in Iraq! Eleven years after the U.S. invasion, Iraq remains steeped in violence, with militant extremists gaining ground, civil war hanging in the balance and no clear resolution to the chaos
With staggering pace the invasion proceeded to crumble the Iraqi Army, drove president Saddam Hussein to hide, and and then get caught and put in captivity and rule the streets of Iraq, only to be confronted with the task of securing and governing a complex nation of 30 million people utterly unfathomable to Americans. Not surprisingly the series of bungles started to roll, with almost similar alacrity seen in the invasion. The Iraqi National army was disbanded. Hussein's Ba'ath Party was divested of all professional positions.
Within hours of disbanding the army insurgency erupted. The de-Ba'thification alienated the skilled Sunnis leaving them disenfranchised, angry and as potential recruits for the nascent insurgency. In a few months the insurgency was in full force. White House got cold feet driving it to decide to leave Iraq too soon. Authority was handed over to Iraqi Governing Council and American troops withdrew to fortified bases in haste.
This was the situation Sunnis wanted - try and subjugate the Shia majority. Shias patiently bore the brunt of the string of attacks till Iraqi Al Queda, eager to provoke a sectarian war, pushed the Shias over the edge by destroying one of their holiest shrine,(Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra). Fierce reprisal and bloodshed followed cocking a snook at American presence. President Bush responded by hoisting Nouri al-Maliki who it was believed could rally the Shias but also not be perceived ,as too sectarian by the Sunnis and Kurds, as the new Iraqi leader, and on the ground, by what was termed the "surge", - dispatching an additional 30,000 U.S. troops who moved off the large, fortified bases and into the neighborhoods. The result was that the U.S. forces sustained their heaviest losses during this period as both Sunnis ans Shias turned their ire on the coalition forces. This continued till a truce was arranged with Shias, while the Sunnis were bought out by cash not to attack U.S.troops but only Al Queda. Somehow the Iraqi violence was reduced to a low grade insurgency.
And enter President Obama with his electoral promise of pull out from Iraq and subsequent pull out dateline of Dec.2011. By December 2011, almost all U.S. forces had left Iraq, leaving Maliki to govern on his own. Left to himself, Maliki lost no time to turn against the Sunnis and by a series of actions gave a clear message that there would be no role for Sunnis in Maliki’s Shia regime.
Disenfranchised Sunnis found an outlet in a militant group that had recently coalesced in the fight against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. ISIS, which had a reputation for ruthlessness, gained a rapid foothold in Iraq, capturing the towns of Fallujah and Ramadi in January, and Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, in June.
The world was surprised by how quickly the Iraqi army fell to a small force of fighters. Shia militias have stepped in to fill the void, and sectarian killings are on the rise again. The world, not only Iraq, was aghast at the audacious declaration of an Islamic caliphate by ISIS including territories under its control in Iraq and Syria and demanding all Muslims pledge obedience to its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS is feared as the most noxious outfit of all Muslim terrorist organizations, bloodcurdlingly brutal and savage.“They make bin Laden’s 2011 Al Qaeda look like Boy Scouts.” The throat-cutting ISIS is the fiend that came out of U.S. incursion of Iraq with its professed intention of subjugating the entire Muslim world, which the U.S is now trying to blast out by aerial bombing.
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