The gruesome acts of beheading by the Islamic State of Syria and Levant (Isil) continue and with the third execution of a British aid worker, David Haines, last week, the writing on the wall is clear from miles away — Isil will have to be deracinated. But that’s not the only message. The manner in which this objective is achieved is critically important and therefore, the linearity of approach as is being promoted by the US, and its alliance of western partners, is miles short of the landing strip. What the US, and its western partners, need to realise is that a lasting solution to the Isil problem must necessarily be a political one and not a flexing of military muscle. If learning from experience is anything to go by, the US must realise the catastrophal outcomes of its various interventionist adventures in countries it rushed to protect militarily. The truth is, today’s Iraq no longer offers the US any scope to grandstand.
If Obama really wants to help Iraq, the most effective option is to engage with the Iraqi government politically and examine the root causes of what nurtured Isil into the monstrosity it is today. President Barack Obama needs to move beyond the typical Pavlovian responses of the US and address the seminal issue confronting Iraq — the disaffection of the Sunnis, so callously perpetuated by Iraq’s ex-prime minister Nouri Al Maliki for a decade. Winning back this lost ground will provide the solutions that Iraq so desperately needs. The US needs to engage Iraq in a full commitment to an inclusive government and this could very well promote an active and steady Sunni disengagement with Isil, thus cutting away Isil’s stranglehold on Iraq. In aggrandising the outrage over the beheading of two US nationals and one British national by Isil, Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron are arguably on acceptable moral ground but solving the Isil problem requires going beyond the theatre of war. It calls for mature, reasoned and seasoned politics and surely, as leaders of two of the most powerful nations in the world, they are both up to the task.
