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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJuan Cole: 7 Myths About the Radical Sunni Advance in Iraq
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/24275-7-myths-about-the-radical-sunni-advance-in-iraq1. The Sunni radicals of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are popular. They are not. Opinion polling shows that most Iraqi Sunnis are secular-minded. The ISIS is brutal and fundamentalist. Where the Sunnis have rallied to it, it is because of severe discontents with their situation after the fall of the Baath Party in 2003 with the American invasion. The appearance of video showing ISIS massacring police (most of them Sunnis) in Tikrit will severely detract from such popularity as they enjoyed.
5. The US should intervene with air power against ISIS. The Sunni radicals are not a conventional army. There are no lines for the US to bomb, few convoys or other obvious targets. To the extent that their advance is a series of urban revolts against the government of PM Nouri al-Maliki, the US would end up bombing ordinary city folk. The Sunnis already have resentments about the Bush administration backing for the Shiite parties after 2003, which produced purges of Sunnis from their jobs and massive unemployment in Sunni areas. For the US to be bombing Sunni towns all these years later on behalf of Mr. al-Maliki would be to invite terrorism against the US. ISIS is a bad actor, but it so far hasnt behaved like an international terrorist group; it has been oriented to achieving strategic and tactical victories in Syria against the Baath government and the Shiite Alawis, and in Iraq against the Shiite Dawa Party government. But it could easily morph into an anti-American international terrorist network. The US should avoid actions that would push it in that direction. So far the Baath regime in Syria is winning against the Sunni radicals. The Shiite majority in Iraq cant easily be overwhelmed by them. Local actors can handle this crisis.
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Juan Cole: 7 Myths About the Radical Sunni Advance in Iraq (Original Post)
eridani
Jun 2014
OP
eridani
(51,907 posts)1. Informational kick n/t
bemildred
(90,061 posts)2. Yes, this is a revolution, and air power will only fan the flames. nt
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)3. Juan Cole is my go-to place for information about the ME
K&R