Ghosts in Iraq

The takeover of the Iraqi city of Mosul and large territories of Iraq by armed jihadis, while Kurds overran Kirkuk, shows that Iraq is likely to be dismantled, and that sooner or later the borders will be redrawn. However, before the country’s break-up, the broader region of the Near East and Middle East is being threatened by generalized conflagration.

The jihadi “freedom fighters,” tough descendants of al-Qaida and of disparate ethnic origin, who also have diverse sources of funding, were held back at the last possible minute in Syria, when the West suspended its discreet tolerance. The group “the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” is threatening to achieve a broad territorial base in Iraq, the country that was devastated due to the U.S. and British allies’ invasion in 2003.

Let’s recall that the president of the U.S. then was George W. Bush, who with the help of British Prime Minister Tony Blair hit the “evil incarnate” Saddam Hussein, their former ally and responsible for the military secularization of Baathism in Iraq. Before the tyrant Saddam’s execution, there were material damages in the country: The state infrastructure was devastated; conflicts between religious and ethnic groups flared up. When U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq, it was a ghost country ready to be colonized by the most fanatic branches of Islamic fundamentalism. That is exactly what happened: in other words, exactly what had happened in Afghanistan in the 1980s when the Russians pulled out, and the Taliban, supported by the United States, came to power.

By conquering more territories in Iraq, the jihad is reiterating the Taliban regime, under much more unfavorable conditions in a highly inflammable region. War-torn Syria, Shiite Iran, the Israeli blockade, neo-Ottoman Turkey, all have reasons to worry. Turkey is calling for NATO intervention, but any military operation from the West will potentially activate pan-Islamic mobilization.

Surely, bin Laden’s ghost is chuckling!