US President Barack Obama is resisting hawkish pressure from Republicans to send troops to Iraq. This dangerous right-wing attitude is drawn directly from the previous George W. Bush administration’s tactics of flinging American soldiers at any problem.
Obama has been right to offer a much more considered response to the crisis unfolding as the terrorists of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (Isil) continue to gain territory against government forces.
The Americans have made some modest military commitments, like increasing US surveillance and intelligence operations, and sending 300 military advisers to Iraq, while also leaving open the possibility of increasing aircraft and drone support. But most importantly, Obama has urged a political shift from Nouri Al Maliki’s government to stop its narrow sectarianism and become more inclusive.
Remarkably, Obama has also said that Iran can play a “constructive role” in Iraq. In making this remark the American president was not indicating that US forces would somehow form links with Iranian troops, but he was making a political point by seeking Iranian support for the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government to become more inclusive in its dealings with its Sunni minority.
In this, Obama is matching what has been said by senior Iraqi Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, and many of Iraq’s friends in the region, including its important GCC neighbours on its southern border. It will be important for the American administration to listen to the experienced advice of its allies in the Gulf as its recognises the regionalisation of the crisis in Iraq.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is due to visit Iraq this week and will be making Obama’s balanced position clear to Al Maliki, who has been bitterly protesting about being betrayed by his allies.
Kerry will need to spell out that US forces cannot rescue the political situation in Iraq, which has to be done by the Iraqis themselves. The deep frustrations of Iraq’s Sunnis have combined with Isil’s internationalist terrorism despite their having nothing in common. It has taken years of government oppression to drive them together.
