The escalating violence across Iraq, including beheadings, is horrific and heartbreaking.
What are some underlying realities?
Iraq and its current borders emerged from the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. As with their carving up of the African continent a generation earlier, unwitting colonial powers ignored cultural and sectarian differences, most notably in the Middle East the centuries-old Sunni-Shia conflict.
The insurgents of the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) are fanatics from the deeply mistreated yet mostly responsible and non-violent regional Sunni minority. Sunnis accuse Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of mass murder, blatant discrimination to favour Shias, and acting more like a criminal gang than a government during eight years in power. No matter how maliciously Maliki governed, he maintained the support of U.S. President Barack Obama.
In recent days, ISIS has used similarly barbaric tactics to rout Maliki’s forces. However, the bulk of the resistance is coming from tribal leaders and moderate Sunnis and Shias who can no longer tolerate the Maliki regime, dominated by Iran’s mullahs.
Struan Stevenson, president of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Iraq, former prime minister of Algeria Sid Ahmed Ghozali, former vice-president of the European Parliament Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca, and other credible persons presented inconvenient truths at a press conference recently in Brussels:
Maliki and Iran’s paramilitary Qods Force operating in Iraq are the causes of much violence across Iraq. With the final withdrawal of U.S. forces in 2011, Tehran filled the vacuum. The press conference group described the support of Western governments for Maliki as “shameful,” saying they share responsibility for various massacres, and called for an end to U.S. and Russian arms being supplied to Maliki.
Iraqi events affect the entire region: If Iraq’s government was not dominated by Iran, Assad in Syria would be ousted by now. The survival of the Tehran regime also depends on Assad and Maliki support, so Tehran’s terrorists are now killing non-Shias in both their countries.
Representatives of a range of Iraqi political parties say that the recent elections were neither free nor fair. Maliki, using intimidation, threats and bribes, is desperately still seeking to become prime minister for a third term.
Residents of six Sunni-majority provinces in Iraq have staged peaceful sit-ins since late 2012, protesting widespread repression and executions. They were attacked by the Iraqi military. These attacks constitute war crimes; the international community should condemn them.
