The Third Coalition

For the third time in 25 years, the United States is heading an international coalition for military action in Iraqi territory, this time to combat the Islamic State terrorist militia that is occupying an expansive territory saddled between Iraq and Syria.

The first coalition was convened by Bush Sr., under the umbrella of the United Nations, to recover weapons in Kuwait, which had been invaded by Saddam Hussein. It was about oil: the Iraqi dictator wanted to stay with the Kuwait oilfields. International law and the construction of a post-Cold War world order were at stake. It sounds sarcastic over two decades later, but that is how it was.

The second coalition, convened by Bush Jr. in 2003 and without the coverage of the United Nations, was voluntary. But volunteers pushed into a preventive war to overthrow Saddam and, his propagandists insinuated, occupy their territory to make the oil deal of the century. Some did it with subcontracted security companies, which carried some of the weight of the occupation. It divided the Europeans and the whole world; it destroyed the Iraqi state and awarded to Iran hegemony of the region. The raised flag — more sarcasm — was the democratization of the Middle East and it utilized a stream of lies, from the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to Saddam Hussein being the inspiration behind the 9/11 attacks.

The third coalition, convened by President Obama, was well-received like the first but relies less on legal coverage than the second, and is in any case a defensive war. The Islamic State militants, in addition to beheading their Western prisoners and broadcasting the images all over social networks, exterminate Shiites, Christians and Yazidis who do not convert to Sunni Islam. They enslave women, they torture and execute their prisoners and impose the strictest form of Islam on the populations that submit. Because of this the flag of such a coalition is the most just that they can raise: the defense of life and the dignity of the people. However…

As soon as we see who it is made up of, their motives for joining or the actions they have undertaken (mere air raids of doubtful efficacy) the doubts emerge. There are the same countries that helped with the construction of the Islamic State in Syria, like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. There is Turkey, interested above all else in preventing Kurdish independence. Iran and Syria, formally absent, are the most occupied with defeating Sunni Islam. For the Europeans, each time more absorbed with thoughts of their safety, the fear is of the future, when the recruited terrorists return to Europe. But the greatest headache is for Obama, who wanted to finish his presidency with all the boys at home and is now seen as being pressured once again to set foot on Iraqi land, for the third time in a quarter of a century, with no guarantees that this time will go a little better than the last times, and with the feeling that once inside the country, it will be for a long time.