US Secretary of State John Kerry stated that he seeks to expand the struggle against Islamic State. It has been appraised that more forces will be deployed on a larger scale to attack IS targets and personnel, including possibly using American forces on the ground in the Middle East.
In his remarks made in the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry sought to extend the mandate against IS. According to a report in USA Today, President Obama however does not want to put troops on the ground now or even significantly expand the operation, but only to ask US Congress for approval for such an action so that such an operation will be possible if necessary.
Members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, especially the Republicans, were furious with Kerry due to the government’s conduct in the midst of the campaign against IS. “The reason we are here is due to the president’s complete failure on this issue,” Senator Bob Corker stated.
However, the Republicans are not the only ones upset with American conduct. Also the Iraqi Sunnis are deeply ambivalent about cooperating with the Iraqi government and the US against Islamic State. According to MEMRI, Iraq’s Sunni Mufti Rafi Taha Al Rif’ai stated on the Egyptian Sada Al Balad TV, “When the IS organization became more powerful and dangerous; the government began to demand that the people of Al Anbar fight terrorism. What terrorism are we supposed to fight? The terrorism of IS; why should we fight IS? So that the Iranian IRGC can take over Iraq–the same IRGC that is currently running operations in Iraq?”
“Let’s see what is going on in the areas the government claims to have liberated from IS,” Mufti Rif’ai declared. “Take Jurf Al Sakr, for example. They refer to it as the Jurf Al Sakr victory, because they say that they drove IS out. What did the government do to the local population? The first thing that it did was to separate the men from the women and children. Nobody knows what happened to the men, and the women and children were left without a roof over their heads. Orchards were bulldozed, and homes and mosques were burned down. This has repeated itself in each and every city.”
Since the US has decided to rely upon local forces backed by Iran who commit atrocities such as this against Iraqi Sunnis instead of bringing their own forces into Iraq, many Sunnis are afraid to join the struggle against IS since they fear that it will reinforce Iranian hegemony in the region.
“And I am supposed to fight IS and drive them out, so that the Shia militias can come and rape our women,” Mufti Rif’ai proclaimed. “If the government wants all Iraqis to stand as one, it should act justly. Justice is the basis of governance. Our Islam is the religion of compassion and our nation is the nation of compassion. Whoever talks about the slaughtering by IS should also talk about the slaughtering and burning by the Shia militias. Why should we look only at one side? We have no connection whatsoever with Islamic State, but we are not stupid enough to start internal Sunni fighting only so the Shia militias can come and slaughter us. Whoever wants to get Iraq back on its feet must remember that Iraq is the spearhead of Islam and the skull of the Arabs. We should not be like an Indian cobra basket, whenever the Americans blow a flute at us, we start dancing to their tune like a cobra.”
By Rachel Avraham/www.jerusalemonline.com
