On second thought...
Let's be allies!
(Often, "designation of enemies" is as random as a chef naming tomorrow's soup de jour.)
***
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/world/middleeast/tim-arangoa-iraq-reddit-questions.html?_r=0
Tim Arango, The New York Times’s Baghdad bureau chief since 2010, answered questions on the popular “Ask Me Anything” section of the social site Reddit. Mr. Arango’s recent coverage has focused on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, as the Sunni militant group has seized territory across the region. He reported last week on the only known survivor of anISIS massacre that took place in June.
Following are excerprts from the Reddit discussion, condensed and edited.
Q. What will it actually take to restore Iraq to a suitable state again? — FLaty
That is going to be a long project. It’s going to take peace in Syria, and within Iraq the first step is for Sunnis to push out ISIS from their communities. But more importantly, Iraq, if it is ever to achieve peace and prosperity, will need a serious reconciliation effort. There may be no more traumatized society in the world than Iraq, and it goes back decades. Iraqis will need to learn to forgive one another for the past if they are ever to move on.
Interactive Graphic: A Rogue State Along Two Rivers
Q. Do you think America’s influence in Iraq was negative? — Frajer
Yes, there is no other way to see it. Everything that is occurring in Iraq today is related to the American legacy there. The forerunner of ISIS was created to oppose the American occupation, and many of its leaders were in American detention facilities in Iraq. On the other side of the ledger, as it pertains to Iraqi politics, you see the American legacy. The U.S. basically chose Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, whose sectarian politics alienated many Sunnis, creating the fertile ground for ISIS to sweep into these areas. And many of those Maliki policies that have pushed aside the Sunnis were started by the Americans. Excluding Sunnis from political life? That has its origins in the American de-Baathification policy. Mr. Maliki’s security policy of conducting mass arrests of Sunni men in the name of fighting terrorism? The U.S. did that too. So at every turn in the Iraq story now, you see the American legacy at play.
Q. How has the current crisis affected American influence in Iraq? Is there a greater willingness now by the major Shiite parties to work with the U.S., compared to the time of the U.S. withdrawal? — matt_bp
The influence of the United States declined dramatically after the American troops left in 2011. The Iraqis were largely happy to see them go — even as they worried about what might happen without U.S. troops in the country — and the Obama administration turned its attention away from Iraq. Now, U.S. influence is stronger, because the Shia leaders see ISIS as an existential threat and they want U.S. military support. But there has always been a huge undercurrent of mistrust among the Shia toward the Americans, even though the invasion upended the old social order and put the Shia in power. This stems from the 1991 Shiite uprising after the first Gulf War, when the Americans encouraged the Iraqi Shia to rise up against Saddam Hussein and then stood by as they were slaughtered. The Shia still talk about this, and still blame the Americans.
Q. How do you rate the Obama administration’s actions in Iraq?— eragon38
It’s not my job to rate the Obama administration’s actions in Iraq. But I will tell you that after 2011, the administration basically ignored the country. And when officials spoke about what was happening there, they were often ignorant of the reality. They did not want to see what was really happening because it conflicted with their narrative that they left Iraq in reasonably good shape. In 2012, as violence was escalating, I wrote a story, citing U.N. statistics, that showed how civilian deaths from attacks were rising. Tony Blinken, who was then Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s national security guy, pushed back, even wrote a letter to the editor saying that violence was near historic lows. That was not true. Even after Falluja fell to ISIS at the end of last year, the administration would push back on stories about Mr. Maliki’s sectarian tendencies, saying they didn’t see it that way. So there was a concerted effort by the administration to not acknowledge the obvious until it became so apparent — with the fall of Mosul — that Iraq was collapsing.
Q. Could you describe the daily dynamic of The Times’s Baghdad bureau? How many other reporters are working alongside you? You spend more time in the office or out in the field? — badbatteries
For most of the last two years — until Mosul fell in June — I was the last guy covering Iraq for us, and I would go there intermittently. Now there are others coming in, and it is great to have the company. We go out quite a bit, whenever we need to, or sometimes just to go antique shopping. We usually have someone watching the daily news and others are working on enterprise stories. We try to make time for some Ping-Pong and chess everyday, too.
Q. As a reporter, do you think your safety in Iraq or how you cover the country has changed since 2010? — journo15
It has changed a great deal. When I first arrived in 2010 the entire country was open to me. I could — and did — go to Falluja for lunch on a whim. Now most of the country is off-limits. We can be in Baghdad, the south and the Kurdish region in the north. Just about everything else is a no-go.
Q. Did you or Adam B. Ellick, the videographer, talk to Ali about the risks involved in showing his face in the ISIS massacre video? How and why did he make the decision? — rebellicfish
Surviving an ISIS Massacre
ISIS massacred hundreds of Iraqi military recruits in June. Ali Hussein Kadhim survived. This is his improbable story. [Includes graphic images.]
By Mike Shum, Greg Campbell, Adam B. Ellick and Mona El-Naggar on September 3, 2014. Bryan Denton for The New York Times
Ali wanted to tell his story because he wanted the world to hear what happened to him, and more importantly what happened to his fellow soldiers. By the time we spoke to him, he had already appeared on a local television channel, so his decision had been made.
ISIS’ Goals for Iraq and Syria
Background on ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
By Christian Roman on June 30, 2014. Reuters
Q. Can you tell us more about how you found the lone survivor of the ISIS massacre? — tklapheke
We have a network of stringers around the country that we keep in touch with on a daily basis, and this came from one of our guys in southern Iraq.
Q. What is ISIS’s relation to the rebellion in Syria? — niqdisaster
The forerunner of ISIS was Al Qaeda in Iraq, but it was severely diminished after the American troop surge of 2007 and the Awakening, which was an American-led program in which insurgents were paid off to switch sides. After the Americans left Iraq, the group continued to target Iraqi Shia with almost daily attacks. And then, it saw an opportunity in the chaos of the civil war in Syria. That is what allowed the group to flourish and sweep back into Iraq in such a dramatic way this summer.
Q. Is it plausible that ISIS fighters had crossed the Syrian border to take Mosul in large convoys without being detected by Western intelligence in the region? — Imagineallthepeeps
In the days before Mosul fell, there was plenty of intelligence that suggested an imminent ISIS assault on the city. It was passed on by the Americans and the Kurds to the Iraqi government, but was largely ignored until it was too late.
Q. Is the U.S. in danger of “losing” the Kurds? — bzjaffe
The U.S. remains a strong partner with the Kurds. It was partly the threat by ISIS to the Kurdish capital of Erbil that got the American airstrikes started. And the Americans have been funneling weapons to the Kurds, and it looks like the strategy going forward will be to provide more training to the Kurds. So the U.S.-Kurdish relationship seems intact to me.
Q. Could this ISIS business actually turn out to be a good thing for the U.S. in that it allows/requires us to work/cooperate with elements in the Middle East that tend to be hostile to our presence? — LicensedFaptician
I don’t know if it’s a good thing, but it is certainly bringing together countries that have long had antagonistic relationships to confront the common threat of ISIS. The U.S. and Iran are the best examples. While they say they are not coordinating, the U.S. has been bombing from above while Iranian-backed Shiite militias, which a few years ago were killing American soldiers, have been doing the fighting on the ground, for the same cause.
Q. Can you give us a feel for what the general reaction is to ISIS among average Sunni and Shia Iraqi people? — limbodog
The Shia are horrified. Most Sunnis, too, although initially in places like Mosul, Sunnis were happy to see the Iraqi Army leave. But over time, ISIS is likely to alienate local communities with its harsh rule.
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