WASHINGTON, August 12 (RIA Novosti) - US airstrikes in Iraq are a mistake that will further aggravate Islamism, Ivan Eland, national security analyst for the Independent Institute, told RIA Novosti.
"I think airstrikes are a mistake," Eland said, adding it was the United States whose invasion in Iraq led to the rise of al-Qaeda, a milder precursor to the more virulent Islamic State (IS).
"Bombing now will just further aggravate radical Islamism and may lead to an even more radical and brutal group than ISIS emerging," he asserted.
Last Thursday, US President Barack Obama authorized US airstrikes targeting positions of jihadists. He also approved humanitarian aid to the Yazidi Kurds, one of the minority groups in Iraq repressed by insurgents from the Sunni Islamic State group. Several airstrikes have been carried out over the past few days.
The only advantage is that bombing could save and has saved some of the Yazidi who have taken refuge on Mount Sinjar, the expert noted.
"However, this purely humanitarian mission could have been a much more limited strike operation with airdrops," Eland stressed.
"The humanitarian operation is likely just a pretext for a more extensive bombing of IS to slow it down and degrade it, even though the United States is worrying about Russia using such a humanitarian pretext to invade eastern Ukraine," he concluded.
The United States says it continues to deliver humanitarian aid to Yazidi men, women and children who are said to be without food or water. According to the White House, some “have begun to escape their perch on that mountain.”
The United States has launched airstrikes against the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL. The Sunni Muslim group controls swathes of Iraq and Syria and recent attacks on Kurdish-run northern Iraq have forced tens of thousands of Christians to flee their homes.
