The mainstream media appears to be
celebrating ISIS’ recent defeat in Mosul, albeit with some reservations. The
media is largely using the word “liberation,” which indicates the people of
Mosul have been freed from a monstrous force by a friendly, benevolent one.
In
reality, the “liberation” of Mosul paints a dark, horrifying picture of
America’s foreign policy when one realizes how ISIS took hold of Mosul in the
first place. As Anti-Media in summarized in September of last year, the
U.S. allowed ISIS to gain control of Mosul quite deliberately:
“In
June 2014, ISIS crossed the Syrian border into Iraq, effortlessly taking the
strategic oil-rich cities of Mosul and Baiji and almost making it as far as Baghdad. Amid the terror group’s
frightening victory, they uploaded images and footage of drive-by-shootings, large-scale death
marches, and mass graves (following the mass executions of Iraqi
soldiers).
“ISIS
militants claimed massive quantities of American military equipment, including entire truckloads of humvees, helicopters, tanks,
and artillery as their own. This was no secret to Washington, or even the
world, as the militants photographed and recorded themselves and publicly
flaunted their activity on social media.”
Was
there a good reason the American military sat on its hands despite knowing full
well that this was going on? As Anti-Media explained
further:
“What
did the U.S. do in response? Nothing. In spite of all the American bases in Iraq and the government’s ability to perform all manner of
illicit activity — including assassinating Muammar Gaddafi in Libya using a
drone that was flown out of Sicily by a pilot who operated the vehicle from a
naval base in Nevada‚ the U.S. couldn’t do anything to stop ISIS rapid advancements.
Was there a problem preventing the U.S. military from conducting air strikes?
Clearly not, as the U.S. had been launching drone strikes in Pakistan at around the same time ISIS advanced.”
The
U.S. allowed ISIS to gain this significant portion of territory before moving
into Iraq with an air war that was designed to pave the
way for a segued operation into Syrian territory. The U.S. couldn’t justify an
intervention into Syria without going into Iraq first, and this was quite clearly the underlying
intention of this operation the whole time, as evidenced by the
U.S.’ obsession with the
Syrian conflict throughout both the Obama and Trump administrations.
Since
the U.S. moved back into Iraq in 2014, the U.S. has dropped 84,000
bombs in Iraq and Syria up until the end of May 2017. As Counterpunch explains, this is
nearly three times the number of bombs and missiles dropped on Iraq during
George W. Bush’s “Shock and Awe” campaign in 2003.
Monitoring
group Airwars’ currently estimates that the minimum number of civilians killed
by the U.S.-led coalition’s campaign in Iraq and Syria has reached roughly 4,354
since the operation began in 2014. The number is likely higher, but we will
never know the exact total because up until a month ago, the U.S. only had two personnel investigating
casualties in Iraq and Syria full time.
Under
President Trump, the number of bombs being dropped increased rapidly after
Trump gave complete control to
the military generals on the ground to call in airstrikes with little
oversight. One such air raid in Mosul saw close to
300 civilians die, and the fact that the strike had been called in by Iraqi
forces on the ground demonstrates the immense amount of scope that Trump has
delegated to call in airstrikes with little regard to international law and the
principle of proportionality.
The
battle for Mosul also drew in
Iran-backed Shia militias, who have been known to terrorize Iraq’s
Sunni population (including torturing civilians).
No one doubts that ISIS is a brutal and abhorrent group, but the people who are
supposedly “liberating” the local population — whether it’s the U.S. military,
the Iraqi armed forces, or the various militia on the ground — appear to be no
better.
Now
that these Iran-backed militias have firmly planted themselves in Iraq, the
U.S. is left with an ultimate dilemma of how to kick them out and counter Iran’s
expanding influence. In all seriousness, the battle for Mosul is only paving
the way for further occupation and laying the groundwork for America to pursue
its regional ambitions in its never-ending quest to confront Iran.
According to the
U.N., more than 742,000 Iraqis have fled the battle in Mosul, with
approximately 10,000 new civilians fleeing every day. For a country that hates refugees, the U.S. certainly plays
a significant role in creating an endless supply of them.
And
for those civilians still trapped in the city, their lives will never be the
same. As Airwars explains:
“According
to city officials, as much as 80 per cent of West
Mosul has been completely destroyed. Civilians still emerging from
the battlefield are often bloodied and starving – traumatised by Iraqi and
Coalition bombardments; and by atrocities commited [sic] by ISIS.
“According
to reporters accompanying Iraqi forces, the stench of death is everywhere in
the Old City – with civil defence officials reporting that as many as 4,000 bodies still remain
unrecovered in the rubble. It is
likely to be many months before the full death toll is known.”
That
is quite the liberation. Even if Mosul really has been “liberated” by the
U.S.-backed coalition, no one seems to be talking about the fact that ISIS was
only able to conquer strategic areas like Mosul under the safety of the Obama
administration’s policies. Leaked audio of
former Secretary of State John Kerry when he was a senator confirmed the U.S.
was watching ISIS grow, and in turn, the hoped this would bring Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad to the negotiating table (you can listen to the full
audio here).
You
can’t target a group as an enemy in one location and view it as a useful proxy
army in another. Indeed, ISIS was always a useful proxy force for the
anti-Assad coalition, as Kerry admitted.
Essentially,
the U.S. allowed ISIS to gain control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria so they
could justify interventions in these war-ravaged nations.
As
far as the people of Iraq are concerned, there is only one winner here: the
military-industrial complex, which secured massive years-long contracts to
make, supply, and drop over 84,000 bombs on a territory that never should have
been in the hands of ISIS in the first place.
