The Caliphate Emerges

View 837 Friday, August 08, 2014

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

I continue to work on the last chapters of Mamelukes. The world goes on. Israel and Hamas have achieved a day of truce, but of course it isn’t peace and won’t be. Having seen what Hamas managed to accomplish in secret – amazing complex of tunnels and launch sites – leaves me wondering what they could have achieved had they put that effort into building schools and hospitals and factories; could Gaza have become another Hong Kong? But there was no attempt to do that.

Of course that’s the fault of the Israelis, as everything is and always will be from the Hamas viewpoint.

Yesterday was my birthday. There are times when I get discouraged.

“Where was America?” asked Majid, a 28-year resident of Qaraqosh who fled his home this week with thousands of other Christians. He wouldn’t give his last name for fear of being targeted by the Islamists. He said as Peshmerga forces withdrew, the militants entered and took control of Qaraqosh, Iraq’s largest Christian city and home to some of the world’s oldest Christian communities. Some Christians have been told to convert to Islam or leave.

“They took the cross off our church and replaced it with a black flag of the Islamic State,” said Majid, who is seeking refuge in Erbil. Thousands of Christians have fled into the Kurdish territory and are sleeping on the floors of churches and community centers.

Fears Rise in Northern Iraq Despite U.S. Support

Perhaps the President will call off a fundraiser or two and pay some attention to the situation in the Middle East? The time to have been sending in support for the Kurds has passed; now they are under direct attack from the Caliphate. It will take more than Navy and Marine air strikes to assure the survival of Kurdistan.

This crisis has been building ever since Bremer the Unsuccessful disbanded the Baathist Iraqi Army, and anyone who has not seen it coming ought to be dismissed as being incapable of service to the United States. Fortunately a number of officers have known this day would come, and we can hope they have been able to make some preparations; but it will be a near thing.

It is not too late for a combination of US Special Forces and CIS, with plenty of logistic support, to work with the Kurds to roll back the Caliphate; but whether we have the will to do so is another matter.  If Iraqi Kurdistan falls, the Middle East situation become more serious than it has been for a long  time. American meddling has brought about this result; we have a moral obligation to restabliize and then get out.  I have little confidence that the President understands this.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.