On June 29 the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the establishment of a caliphate, an islamic state with religious authority over the world's muslims. Having seized sizable territories of Iraq in recent weeks, ISIS has drawn worldwide attention. Notorious for its brutality and violence the group may pose a threat to the countries far beyond those in the region. The international community though still hasn't come up with an effective solution to solving the crisis in the country. Discussing the situation in Iraq with Voice of Russia's Agree or Disagree are Colin Heaton, a former professor of History at American Military University and Andrew Lubin, a defense analyst and author.
Is there something that we can do?
Andrey Lubin: I don’t think there is anything the West can do to stop the ISIS. This is an Arab problem. It is a Sunni-Shia issue. And short of the West putting troops on the ground, which they are not going to do, there really nothing that can be done, except for let these groups fight it out and then decide whether to support or not support the winner.
Colin Heaton: People don’t understand that Iraq, Iran – these countries are not nationalist in their thought process, they are tribal. Now that they have a vacuum after President Obama pulled the troops out of Iraq and after the Maliki Government has failed completely in anything resuming legitimacy in their eyes, let alone competence in our eyes, they just filled the void. And now, what you have is a violent tidal wave of Muslim versus Muslim. And in my personal opinion, let them all kill each other off and then just sift through the ashes.
What can be done by the Government of Iraq to bring the situation back to normal?
Andrey Lubin: Nothing can happen. The Iraqi Parliament said yesterday after two hours they are not going to meet till the end of August. This Shia Government doesn’t care to solve the problem.
Okay, basically, it is the end of Maliki then?
Andrey Lubin: It is the end of Iraq as a separate country, because the Shias do not care enough to keep it going.
Colin Heaton: This ISIS organization is not just a random group of thugs running around with AK-47. They do reports, they religious and military activities, they train and indoctrinate the young, they have a policy of conquest through absorption. And they also have the essence of 10 000 fighters.
They are not recruiting people with a paycheck. They are recruiting people through the domination, the Sharia Islamic law. And they are collectively recruiting, I would say, the sociopathic, psychopathic, mentally ill as the frontline forerunners of this group and the rest of them are falling in line out of fear.
This is an indigenous problem that can’t be solved by external forces, unless you go into a third world war. Primarily, most people are looking at the situation as a lost cause. 9 out of 10 Americans don’t even think sending a drone is going to stop the problem. And the last thing I want to see is the American troops, NATO or UN force go back into Iraq or anywhere in the region, because it is just going to be another bloodbath.
I think what we should do is support the peripheral nations of Jordan, if Syria settles down, we get a good grip on who is running that country, and support Israel with regards to its defensive capabilities, and Lebanon.
Andrey Lubin: The most important country I think will be Kurdistan. Having a viable Kurdistan is going to be the West footprint in the ME. The Kurds will fight to defend their homeland, the other people won’t.
But still, how will it bring unity to Iraq?
Andrey Lubin: There is no unity in Iraq until it breaks up into three countries. It is as simple as that. they don’t want to live together and you can’t force them.
