ISIL and the Iraqi crisis

7 Talking Points You Need For Discussing the Iraq Crisis:

7 talking points you need for discussing the Iraq crisis

Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant

Wahhabi movement

With Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, firmly under the control of a jihadi group so extreme that it was denounced by Al Qaeda; with government forces battling for Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein; and with the religious leader of Iraq’s Shiites issuing a call to arms at Friday’s prayers, we have reached the moment that skeptics of the 2003 United States invasion warned about all along: the implosion of the country, and, possibly, the entire region. “The state of Iraq is in imminent collapse,” Faisal Istrabadi, formerly a senior Iraqi diplomat, said on Thursday.

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People in Norway’s capital, Oslo, have taken to the streets to protest against the terrorists operating in Iraq. The protest was held outside the Norwegian parliament, where demonstrators condemned terrorist organizations such as the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and expressed support for the Iraqi army and people.

The demonstrators also condemned Takfiri and ISIL supporters in Norway, saying the world needs to know these terrorists do not represent Islam. In addition, the protesters called on the Norwegian government to help increase international pressure on the ISIL.

Despite harsh criticism from both sides of the political aisle, the U.S. populace, and former members of his own administration, President Bush once again defended his 2003 decision to invade Iraq, saying that, in the end, it was the fun thing to do.

Bush asserts that the fight for freedom in Iraq is a blast.

“On Sept. 11, 2001, we as a nation faced a difficult decision, an important decision, a decision between what was fun and what was wrong,” Bush said during a speech before Pentagon officials Wednesday. “We could have backed down and allowed the terrorists to win. But instead, we stood up to the challenge before us, and we said, ‘Bring it on—bring the good times on!’”

“Mark my words,” Bush continued. “When the dust settles and the smoke clears, history will look back on the Iraq War as a total blast.”

Bush Says He Still Believes Iraq War Was The Fun Thing To Do

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (alternatively translated as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), abbreviated as ISIL or ISIS, is an unrecognized state and active Jihadist militant group in Iraq and Syria influenced by the Wahhabi movement, a radical religious movement or offshoot branch of Islam variously described as “orthodox”, “ultraconservative”, “austere”, “fundamentalist”, “puritanical” (or “puritan”), an Islamic “reform movement” to restore “pure monotheistic worship”, or an “extremist pseudo-Sunni movement”.

F. William Engdahl and other historians have shown how the British Empire ruthlessly conquered the Arab Middle East, an effort spurred on when it realized oil would eclipse coal as the dominant energy source in the 20th century. As World War I raged in Europe, the British worked with France, Italy and Russia to wrestle the region away from the Ottoman Turks, who had enjoyed uncontested control for centuries.

The borders imposed after the war created the artificial states of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Kuwait. The British had fomented and directed a revolt against the Ottomans during the war. One of the leaders selected by the British was Ibn Saud, the leader of a tribal Wahhabi sect in central Arabia who bought the support of the Bedouins with British money.

In 1925, with British blessing and money, Saud overthrew the ruling monarch Prince Hijaz and by 1932 the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was established. Following the Second World War and a massive influx of money from Western oil corporations, the House of Saud began to proselytize and export Wahhabism, an austere and puritanical version of Sunni Islam founded by Ibn Abd al-Wahhab. By 2013 governments around the world, including the European Parliament, considered Wahhabism the primary source of Islamic terrorism.

The British and the global elite understood Islam could be effectively exploited to control Muslims. “All political leadership of the time depended on Islam for legitimacy and all political leaders were pro-British. Islam was a tool to legitimize the rule, tyranny and corruption of Arab leaders. To the West, Islam was acceptable; it could be and was used,” writes Said K. Aburish, the author of A Brutal Friendship: The West and the Arab Elite.

ISIL was established in the early years of the Iraq War and pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2004. The group was composed of and supported by a variety of insurgent groups, including its predecessor organisation, the Mujahideen Shura Council, al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jaysh al-Fatiheen, Jund al-Sahaba, Katbiyan Ansar Al-Tawhid wal Sunnah, Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura etc, and other clans whose population profess Sunni Islam.

In its unrecognized self-proclaimed status as an independent state, ISIL claims the territory of Iraq and Syria, with implied future claims intended over more of the Levant – for example, Lebanon. Its aim was to establish a caliphate in the Sunni majority regions of Iraq, later expanding this to include Syria. In February 2014, after an eight-month power struggle, al-Qaeda cut all ties with ISIL.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been working overtime arming rebel groups in Syria.  But events of the last month suggest these American allies have been throwing their lots in with radical, hardline Islamists. French television channel France 24 reported: “The group receives funding via private donations from the Gulf states.” In an interview with France 24, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of openly funding the ISIS.

For the fossilized monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar the objective is to spread a pernicious version of Sunni Islam and thus defeat their longtime Shia Islam rivals, while in the West the financial and global elite are playing a long-running game of conquer and divide, a technique long used by the British Empire.

ISIL have captured and currently use American weapons, vehicles and uniforms in their operations. ISIL members have been seen wearing the standard US Army Combat Uniform along with the Interceptor body armor.

For night raids, the AN/PVS-7 night vision goggles worn with the PASGT helmets are used. Some of the weapons include M16 rifles, M60 machine guns, M240 machine guns and RPGs. Some of the vehicles include Humvees, MRAPs, M113 APCs and several T-55 tanks.

During the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive, ISIL raided an Iraqi Army base and captured numerous Type 59-1 artillery guns, DShK guns mounted on trucks and several ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns.

When the ISIL captured Mosul Airport in June 2014, a number of UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and cargo planes that were stationed there were seized. However, according to Peter Beaumont of the Guardian, it seems unlikely that they would be able to deploy them because they do not have trained pilots in their ranks.

At the height of the Iraq War, it claimed a significant presence in the Iraqi provinces of Al Anbar, Ninawa, Kirkuk, most of Salah ad Din, parts of Babil, Diyala and Baghdad. It claimed Baqubah as its capital. In the ongoing Syrian Civil War, the group has a large presence in the Syrian governorates of Ar-Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo.

In addition to attacks on government and military targets, the group has claimed responsibility for attacks that have killed thousands of Iraqi civilians. Despite significant setbacks for the group during the latter stages of the Coalition’s presence in Iraq, by late 2012 the group was thought to have renewed its strength and more than doubled the number of its members to about 2,500.

Starting in April 2013, the group made rapid military gains in controlling large parts of Northern Syria, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights described them as “the strongest group”.

In early June 2014, following its large-scale offensives in Iraq, ISIL is reported to have seized control of most of Mosul, the second most populous city in Iraq, its surrounding Nineveh province, and the city of Fallujah. ISIL has also taken control of Tikrit, the administrative center of the Salah ad Din Governorate, with the ultimate goal of capturing Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

This comes as Iraqi armed forces have been engaged in fierce clashes with the ISIL militants, slowing the militants’ advances in the country. ISIL on June 10 took control of Nineveh provincial capital, Mosul. Rights groups say around half a million people have been displaced in and around Mosul.