The Governor of Iraq’s Anbar province, Ahmed Khalaf Al Dulaimi, is committed to rolling back ISIS and his message does provide some measure of encouragement at a very discouraging time.
Anbar has been fighting terrorism for a long time. This fight has taken it on a journey of searching and contemplation. People of Anbar have come to realise that, for them to defeat terrorists, they must first overcome the conflicts and fears within themselves and open their hearts and minds to others…
…Iraqis have the right to live in peace. The young people have the right to enjoy all the wonderful things that life has to offer. And they have a responsibility to give them hope that will empower them to live life to the fullest, to reach out to their counterparts in other nations and to turn away from death and extremism.
We Iraqis have lost so many of our brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and friends, of all ages, while fighting this battle. We are proud and we are fighting because we want to live in freedom, because we want to rid the world of this cancer that has hijacked our religion, because we are concerned that a generation will be brainwashed to glorify death, suicide bombings, beheadings. History will not forgive the people of Iraq if they allow this cancer to spread. It must be stopped. And the Iraqis cannot stop it alone.
Last week, Obama declared that this group, the Isil, “has no place in the 21st century”. Mr President, we agree with you.
So, that’s good. That gives us something to work with. But our country’s national security apparatus still has no answers for what to do about ISIS’s presence in Syria. The intelligence assessment apparently recommends against working with the so-called moderate Free Syria Army, except in certain limited and highly-vetted circumstances.
The president has been wise to keep us out of that civil war and not to take sides in a sectarian fight. But the situation there has grown dangerous. I think everyone basically realizes that now. It makes sense to stop for a moment and really think about how to destroy ISIS and leave something worthwhile in its place, and that requires some degree of regional consensus. It probably involves sensitive talks and tough negotiations. There’s urgency here, but not so much urgency that we need to act immediately without a carefully thought out plan.
For starters, anyone who was thinking that ISIS could be used to topple the regimes in either Damascus or Baghdad needs to give up on that dream. All governments in the region have to work collectively to tamp down sectarian ambitions and ill-will. Iran and the Shia factions have to do what is necessary to ease the Sunnis’ minds. Things got out of hand and everyone needs to simmer down.
Let’s all relax for a bit and think these things through.
