The Iraqi Challenge

"Civilians have been caught in the middle in Anbar, and the government appears to be doing nothing to protect them."
Sarah Leah Whitson, Mideast director, Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch has pointed out that Iraqi government forces 'appear' to have used mortar fire indiscriminately in civilian areas in recent days. Those civilians that have been impacted are sacrifices to the cause of attempting to dislodge the Islamists who have ensconced themselves in Anbar. Residential areas targeted with mortar shells and gunfire, insists Human Rights Watch, though no signs were evident of an al-Qaeda presence in those targeted areas.

And doesn't that appear as though the government forces have modelled their response to reflect that of the Syrian regime's forces in Aleppo and elsewhere? An obviously flawed model, but that little fact doesn't appear to have occurred to either government, or if it did, it might have appeared as a useful measure to impress upon the citizens who share the sectarian bias of the invaders that it is up to them to convince the jihadis that the citizens would appreciate their departure.

In point of fact, this is precisely what the Government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki has judiciously recommended to the populace. That they rise up and insist by gentle persuasion, or failing that, threatening violence, that their unwelcome guests leave before the civilians are made living targets by a caring government force. One can only conclude at this juncture that the civilian overtures failed and the government forces then took the initiative.

But if no Islamist al-Qaeda types were present, what was the purpose of inflicting destruction and death on the Anbarians? Which brings us to the claims made by Iraq's Sunni population of the Shia government's lack of regard for their well-being, marginalizing and oppressing them. Yet another shared institutionalized national characteristic of the Syrian situation.

Which goes far to explaining why a suicide bomber blew himself up at a military recruiting centre in Baghdad, killing about 21 people on Thursday. The Al-Qaeda-linked jihadis overrunning parts of Fallujah and Ramadi  in Sunni-majority Anbar province took control of police stations and military posts, freeing prisoners for the opportunity to take part in the general anarchic conditions. Inspiring the government to carry through with airstrikes to rout the Sunni militias for control of the cities.

Sunni Tribal leaders in Fallujah would appreciate an avoidance of a full military showdown. They support neither the government nor the invading Al-Qaeda militias. But they do respond to both. And finally the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran have common interests; each invested in trying to arrange somehow that the Islamists not gain a foothold. Each has offered to the government of Iraq advanced technological weapons.

The government blockade of Ramadi and Fallujah is further alienating the opinion of the Sunni Iraqis resident there. They haven't taken kindly to their limited access to food, water and fuel, nor the fact that "unlawful methods of fighting by all sides" has resulted in civilian casualties and major property damage. Nor that approaches to Fallujah are blocked by Iraqi troops, detaining single men while permitting families with children egress with "extreme difficulty".

The religion of peace in the region appears more representative of an ideology enabling excesses of brutality.