(New York Times) Thomas L. Friedman - Crushing the Islamic State is necessary for stabilizing Iraq and Syria, but it is impossible as long as Shiites and Sunnis there refuse to truly share power, and yet ignoring the ISIS cancer and its ability to metastasize is impossible as well. See: Belgium. "The problem in Iraq is not ISIS," said Najmaldin Karim, the governor of Kirkuk Province. "ISIS is the symptom of mismanagement and sectarianism." So even if ISIS is evicted from its stronghold in Mosul, he noted, if the infighting and mismanagement in Baghdad and sectarian tensions between Shiites and Sunnis are not diffused, "the situation in Iraq could be even worse after" ISIS is toppled. There will just be another huge scramble over who controls these territories now held by ISIS and there is simply no consensus on how power will be shared in the Sunni areas.
2016-03-30 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive