OBAMA’S FAILURE ON IRAN AND ISIS: SLATER BAKHTAVAR
The terrorist group ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (or Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, for those who prefer the acronym ISIL) can be traced at least as far back as 2004, when founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi pledged his allegiance to the infamous al Qaeda group and its then-leader, Osama bin Laden. The two organizations found themselves compatible, as both were devoted to Salafist Sunni Islam, which preaches a return to traditional Islamic values and practices. Originally known as “Jamat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad”, Zarqawi changed the group’s name to “al Qaeda in Iraq” when ties with bin Laden were solidified. Zarqawi himself was killed in 2006, his successors meeting their own fate later in 2010, and today the group is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In the aftermath of the United States’ ill-advised troop withdrawal from Iraq, the group prospered, eventually divorcing itself from al Qaeda and declaring itself an Islamic caliphate, so that it is now most commonly known as ISIS. The growth of ISIS has been as impressive as it has been alarming, with well-armed militants spreading across Iraq (where even that nation’s second largest city, Mosul, has fallen to the power of ISIS and is now administered by them) and into Syria, sustaining themselves with funding from captured financial institutions, oil fields, and sympathetic radical Muslims in other Arab countries. They are brutally totalitarian in their adherence to their flavor of Islamic doctrine, having instituted flogging as punishment for the sale of alcohol or tobacco, hand amputation for stealing, and death for failure to convert to the “true” Muslim faith. What is perhaps most terrifying of all is the fact that blame for the rise of ISIS can be laid squarely at the feet of United States President Barack Obama.
In the aftermath of the American invasion of Iraq, conducted under then-President George W Bush, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled and a power vacuum was created in the nation. This is significant, because it was precisely Hussein’s brutality and repression that kept radicals like those driving ISIS in check, and allowed a secular government to function. Without this apparatus, only the presence of armed US soldiers carrying out anti-insurgency operations was able to restrain a beast that would otherwise break its leash. Sadly, that leash was broken when Barack Obama made the decision to call back American troops and abandon the nation of Iraq, leaving to its own devices a country fundamentally destabilized by American action, and ignoring the United States’ moral responsibility there. Of course, claims were made that the newly instituted democratic government under Nouri al-Maliki would now step up and hold back the insurgents, but in reality this young administration, still finding its legs as a governing force, had no hope of standing up to the well-oiled machine of ISIS. Alarming – and, frankly, embarrassing – stories of regular Iraqi military units being routed and sent fleeing by terrorist bands hit the headlines, and the stage was set for ISIS to enter primacy. And now, sadly, Iraq and Syria are only the beginning. ISIS is ambitious indeed, aiming to capture Turkey, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine. The potential nightmare which the Middle East now faces cannot be overstated.
Recently, having instigated the problem and allowing ample time for it to become much worse, Obama has announced a campaign of air strikes aimed at decaying and ultimately destroying ISIS. One wonders, of course, whether it will be too little and too late, and even if it is eventually successful, what the price will be in innocent Iraqi and Syrian blood. By abandoning America’s moral responsibility to Iraq and necessitating deadly military action, Obama has tarnished the image of the United States around the world and proven once again his own incompetence in foreign policy. Obviously the first step to preventing this calamity was to allow US troops to continue their peacekeeping role in Iraq, but Obama’s blunders actually run deeper than this. His consistent failure to support democracy in Iran has once again proven disastrous.
In 2009, responding to the highly suspicious reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Green Movement began in Iran, flourishing despite the displeasure of the Ayatollah’s regime in that country. While initially marred by isolated incidents of violence, the core of the movement has always been peaceful and dedicated to bloodless change for the dignity of the common people. Calling for the institution of fair and meaningful democracy – something Iran currently does not enjoy, with an elected “President” who holds little or no actual power in government – Iranians hoped and believed that the freedom loving United States of America would support them in their strife. Unfortunately, the American government under Barack Obama called the Green Movement an internal affair of Iran not to be otherwise commented upon, and with these few, heartless words, left countless Iranians to suffer and toil on their own.
Nevertheless, they pressed on, their action more sporadic since 2011 but never losing their focus on peace and representative government. And it is precisely this sort of institution that could have positioned the great nation of Iran to be an opposing force again the tyranny of ISIS. The people of Iran are modern and tech savvy, utilizing the Internet to help bring about change, which is altogether unsurprising considering that Iran’s population is actually comprised in the majority of youth. They are also mostly Persian by ethnicity, in contrast to the Arabs of Islamic fundamentalism. These are people of the 21st century, and a government representing them could have no tolerance for religious extremism and persecution.
This government could have been a reality. When the Green Movement began, the military theocracy in Iran was unstable, and the support of the United States for the Iranian people might have been just the push needed to make it fall. This could have accomplished without the use of disastrous military action or economic sanctions, by peacefully encouraging the continued and expanded use of technology to advance communications and the exchange of ideas. If successful in changing the Iranian government – and there is every reason to believe this would have been the result – the world today would know a free Iran ruled by its own peaceful, progressive people.
The stabilizing value of such a state – particularly a powerful one such as Iran – in so turbulent a region as the Middle East would have been vast. As a mostly Shiite nation (as opposed to the more fundamentalist Sunnis of ISIS), Iran would have been concerned with using its considerable influence to help the people of Iraq keep dangerously extreme elements from power. Even Syria may have benefited, as Iran could have helped to establish democracy there as well, again undermining the environment that gave rise to the so-called Islamic State. The people of Iran are heavily supportive of the West and its ideals of freedom and representative government. If Obama had only shown solidarity with these natural allies in an otherwise hostile region, the results for the Middle East and potentially the world would have been brilliantly encouraging.
Instead, Barack Obama has consistently demonstrated his commitment to abandoning American moral obligations in the Middle East. This was most plainly done by withdrawing troops from Iraq when it was precisely American military action that gave rise to the instabilities seen in that nation and that had the power to hold those instabilities in check. But Obama’s negligence has been even more egregious in the case of Iran. The United States of America claims to be a nation of people who love freedom and treasure democracy, and who even are willing to stand with those elsewhere in the world who strive to achieve what Americans have the luxury of taking for granted. Ask any American patriot why blood was spilled in World Wars 1 and 2, or Viet Nam, or any of the other conflicts in which the United States has taken part, and the unanimous answer will always be “freedom”. But where was this commitment to the liberty of man when real people facing real struggles needed it the most? The men and women of Iran needed Barack Obama’s support, and he turned a blind eye and a deaf ear on their plight. Now, stemming partly from that failure, we have ISIS, a powerful terrorist organization threatening to continue its cancerous spread across an already volatile region. Large parts of Iraq and Syria have already fallen, with other nations sitting squarely in the crosshairs. How many will die the next time President Obama ignores the American creed?
Slater Bakhtavar is an attorney, journalist, author and political commentator. He is author of “Iran: The Green Movement”.
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