October 01, 2015

Iraq: A Russian Alternative To Washington's Bumbling Anti-IS Campaign

The U.S. has been pressing Iraq to accept its orders on how to fight the Islamic State. It prohibited the use of quite effective, though mostly Shia, Hashd al-Shabi militia against IS in Ramadi and other places and instead wants to (again) retrain a hopelessly useless Iraqi army and a few tribal Sunni militia. The U.S. also held back long ordered weapons for the Iraqi army and air force and its bombing campaign against IS targets in Iraq is rather lackluster. By accident Hashd al-Shabi militia attacking IS positions have been hit by U.S. air strikes several times.

The public opinion in Iraq is that the U.S. has (again) nefarious aims and is neither committed to a united and sovereign Iraq nor to eradicating the Islamic State.

But now Russia offers an alternative. An intelligence operations room was opened in Baghdad in which Iraq, Iran, Syria, Russia and Hizbullah (the 4+1) develop and exchange intelligence about the Islamic State and possible targets for coming attacks. It looks pretty bad for the U.S. to not be trusted enough to take part in it.

But that is not enough yet. After Russia started its anti-terrorist air campaign in Syria yesterday despite U.S. protests it is now setting the mark even higher. Against a onslaught of dumb U.S. propaganda it is expertly trolling the U.S. over its lack of legitimacy:

Micah Zenko

LOL Lavrov, "We are polite people, as you know. We don't come if not invited." bbc.in/1PQf8IA

Lavrov also trolled the U.S. by making an offer to Iraq and that offer was received rather friendly. From my feed timeline:

Sky News Newsdesk @SkyNewsBreak

Reuters: Russian foreign ministry says it would consider any request from #Iraq to conduct airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq Elijah J. Magnier @EjmAlrai

#Russia informed #Baghdad inofficially ts readiness 2bomb #ISIS in #Iraq. I am not sure PM Haidar Abadi would dare 2ask for Russian support. Marc Perelman @mperelman

#Iraq Pm #Abadi @FRANCE24: #Putin told me Russia fighting #ISIS in Syria and I trust him, I'm open to Russian airstrikes vs Daech in Iraq Loveday Morris @LovedayM

Abadi tells France24 there are no talks with Russia on strikes in #Iraq - yet. "If we get the offer we’ll consider it.. I would welcome it" Elijah J. Magnier @EjmAlrai

Abadi wouldn't dare now. He is halting Hashd al-Shabi following a #USA request. I can't see U.S & Russia collaborating in Iraq

I for one can see Abadi changing horses. Why rely on the U.S. when all it does, preferring the Kurds and Sunni militia while holding back effective Shia militia, seems to be against a unified Iraq and when the U.S. fight against IS is at maximum halfhearted. But even if Abadi will not kick out the U.S. and invite the Russians he can at least use the Russian offer to pressure the U.S. into a different behavior. It now has to respects the will of the Iraqi government and must wages an effective war against IS. Or it can leave.

It is always good to have an alternative when negotiating with a superior partner. Abadi now has one. And Abadi isn't the only one who is interested to change horses:

The largest pro-Kurdish group fighting in Syria has said it is ready to co-operate with Moscow, after Russian jets began launching airstrikes in the country. After Russia began a series of 20 strikes in the north of the country on Wednesday night, the leader of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) called the move “an important step”. Sipan Hemo, general commander of the YPG, told Russian news agency Sputnik that his fighters want to co-operate with Russia against the forces of Islamic State (IS).

...

In his statements to Sputnik [..] Hemo said he would support Russian strikes targeting al-Nusra Front as well as IS. “Russia should fight not only against IS, but also against al-Nusra. There is no difference between Nusra and IS – they are both al-Qaeda,” Hemo is quoted as saying.

It now seems that every U.S. "ally" on the ground, except the now finally acknowledged CIA trained friends-of-Nusra-and-IS, would prefer to work with Russia instead of working under hapless U.S. policies.

That is some well deserved egg in the face for the Obama administration and its duplicity within its anti-Syria and anti-IS campaign.

Posted by b on October 1, 2015 at 18:29 UTC | Permalink

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