If a terrorist organization gauges its success by the fear it instills in the Western world, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has hit pay dirt.
The other key to the sudden success of ISIS is its use of social media and YouTube videos to export its vicious brand of brutality. All sorts of ISIS videos have been posted showing mass executions and beheadings of Iraqi and Syrian army prisoners. These images reverberated throughout the Middle East and among Western analysts.
But it was only when ISIS beheaded American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff as well as British aid worker David Haines that this terror group achieved the status of household name – the new bogeyman of the world. The group’s reputation became so evil that al Qaeda has reportedly revoked its franchise.
In response to the fear frenzy, the U.S. began launching air strikes against ISIS last week. In his September 11 television address, President Barack Obama committed America to an open-ended war against this new terrorist threat.
It was in this same climate of global trepidation that Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and a small entourage made a whirlwind visit to Iraq. Following that foray, Baird immediately committed a small force of military personnel to act as advisers to Kurdish Peshmerga militia in the effort to contain ISIS.
After a week’s delay, the vanguard of the Canadian contingent, which will total some 70 members of the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR), has now deployed into the northern Iraqi city of Erbil. There has been no official word on what exactly the Canadian advisers will be teaching the Kurdish fighters, given that this is their home turf and they have been engaged in inter-factional combat there for the better part of the past 20 years. Apart from responding to ISIS fear mongers, what was the rush?
It was well known that Islamic extremists with links to al Qaeda have been actively involved in the three-year-old Syrian civil war. However, as long as the al-Nusra Front and other fanatical splinter groups were targeting those forces loyal to embattled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the West was prepared to turn a blind eye. Heck, early on in that conflict, Baird joined the Syrian rebels, including the Islamic extremists among them, in shouting “Assad must go.”
Things suddenly took on a whole new perspective when the newly renamed ISIS swept through Iraq in June, driving away the American-trained and -equipped Iraqi Army with ease, capturing vast tracts of central Iraq, including Mosul, the country’s second-largest city.
Not only did the Iraqi Army flee without a fight, but it also left behind the vast arsenal the U.S. had provided. Within a few hours of the fall of Mosul, ISIS fighters could be seen brandishing all sorts of U.S.-made heavy weaponry and driving through the city streets in spanking new captured military vehicles.
Further complicating the geopolitics is the fact that central Iraq is also home to a Sunni Arab minority that was the base of support for former president Saddam Hussein. During Saddam’s 30-year rule, he pointedly gave the Iraqi minorities – Sunni Arabs, Christians, Yazidis, Sabians, etc – preferential treatment at the expense of the Shiite majority. Following the U.S. invasion and execution of Saddam, the simple principle of democracy led to the election of a Shiite prime minister.
Incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was pressured by the withdrawing American political advisers to adapt a conciliatory approach to the Sunni Arabs. However, this being the Middle East, Maliki chose instead to completely marginalize the Sunnis and drastically reduce their political influence. While the vast majority of Iraq’s Sunnis are secular moderates, the draconian policies of Maliki’s government have pushed them into supporting ISIS.
The core membership of ISIS forces operating in both Iraq and Syria is estimated to be no larger than 30,000, including a large number of foreign fighters drawn from North America and Europe who are eager to martyr themselves in a holy war. However, ISIS enjoys the moral if not military support of Iraq’s Sunnis, who see ISIS as their potential saviour from the Shiite majority.
The Canadian government demonstrated its own naïveté and ignorance when it announced that our troops would act as advisers to Kurdish militia. The three northern provinces of Iraq have been independent of the central Baghdad authority since the first Persian Gulf War, when the badly defeated Saddam was forced to cede the territory. In the wake of the ISIS crisis, the Kurdish militia took advantage of the Iraqi Army’s collapse to move south and claim the vital oil fields of Kirkuk. With that economic resource firmly in their grasp – Kirkuk produces 40 per cent of Iraq’s oil – the Kurdish regional government has now declared that it will hold a referendum on full independence from Iraq.
The key to defeating ISIS in Iraq lies in the international community’s ability to ensure that minority rights for Sunnis are fully restored. If that is achieved, Sunni moderates will disassociate themselves from ISIS extremists – as they did during the U.S.-led surge in 2006 – and help defeat the terrorist threat. Canada’s decision to send advisers to assist the Kurds will in no way help defeat ISIS.
It will be very awkward for Canada to be on the ground helping the Kurds achieve long-sought statehood, because neighbouring Turkey vehemently opposes Kurdish independence. In the 1990s, Turkish security forces successfully battled Kurdish separatists in eastern Turkey. That brutal conflict claimed the lives of an estimated 30,000 people. The remnant of Kurdish separatists, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), remains in refuge in northern Iraq, which is soon to be declared Kurdistan.
The declaration of an independent Kurdistan will no doubt reignite the separatist militants in Turkey. Turkey is, of course, Canada’s NATO ally. Given the complexity of the Iraq mosaic and the extremely dangerous consequences, one has to question why Canada’s leaders felt it necessary to plunge our troops into the equation.
ISIS index
ISIS Islamic State of Iraq and Syria also known as IS (Islamic State) or ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).
1999 Founded as the forerunner of al Qaeda in Iraq.
Iraq, Syria Countries where ISIS is most active.
U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, Indonesia and Saudi Arabi Countries designating ISIS as a terrorist organization.
At least 31,500 Estimated number of ISIS fighters in the Middle East, according to the CIA.
February 2014 Al Qaeda reportedly cuts all ties with ISIS.
Goal An Islamic state in the Middle East that would include Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus and southern Turkey.
Compiled by NOW staff
Scott Taylor is a former Canadian infantry soldier, founder of Esprit De Corps Magazine, author and documentary filmmaker. He has made 21 trips to Iraq as a war correspondent. In September 2004, he was held hostage for five days by Ansar al-Islam, the al-Qaeda-linked forerunner of ISIS.
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