The Fire in Iraq

The kind of bloody conflict going on right now in Iraq is of great concern to the world. Obviously, U.S. claims of establishing peace and stability there have proved to be quite hollow. The Sunni militant organization “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL) has launched a campaign against the Iraqi government and Shiites. After taking possession of big cities such as Mosul and Tikrit overnight, the contingent is now marching towards Baghdad. This sudden attack has made the Iraqi government go numb. It has pleaded for help from the United States.

The U.S attitude seems to indicate that sending its military troops to Iraq is not on its agenda at all. However, it is seriously considering the option of air strikes against ISIL. Furthermore, even Iran is ready to join hands for protecting Iraqi Shiites, especially Shiite shrines such as Karbala and Najaf. Ayatollah al-Sistani, the supreme religious leader of Iraqi Shiites, has declared a jihad against “Sunni militants.”

In this way, for the first time in the modern world, in military terms, a Shiite-Sunni conflict is being seen. Overall, Iraq is in the grip of a vicious civil war. America’s dual policies are greatly responsible for this disaster. It showed the world that it was going to establish a modern democratic system in place of the backward dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. But in practice it gave a message to the Shiites that by ending the Sunni’s regime of tyranny it is handing over the power to the Shiites.

After the execution of Saddam in Iraq it seemed that Shiites had established their domination. Shiites also took it this way and promoted it. The Sunnis of Iraq never accepted this government with their full heart, and later when the government openly began to work on the basis of sectarian animosity, even the few liberals left among them disappeared. The recent emergence of Sunni militants has been linked to al-Qaida’s leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Iraqi government alleges that organizations such as ISIL get help from Saudi Arabia and other Sunni countries.

Anyway, the crisis in Iraq will increase the Shiite-Sunni conflict in East Asia, which will have a direct effect on the world’s oil supply. The impact on oil prices can be felt all over the world, including India. Obviously, we cannot depend entirely on America for this problem. The matter can only be resolved if the international community intervenes. Efforts will also need to be made to make sure that the sectarian divide is not encouraged. If Iraq gets involved in the decades-long civil war like Lebanon, it will prove to be the last straw for the world which is trying to come out of recession.