Iraq Should Not Be US Responsibility At This Stage

Yesterday, the Obama administration declared that it could not be in charge of Iraq's security anymore.

For once, I agree with Obama that Iraq should not be America’s problem, at least at this juncture.

To be clear though, I care about Iraq, I see ISIS as a global threat, and I believe in troops on the ground in certain situations. Also, even though I believe we should never have gotten into Iraq, I do believe that we got out way too prematurely. But we got out, and since we have left, the geopolitical context has substantially changed.

By that, I mean Iran’s assertiveness and Syria’s civil war.

In Iraq and Syria, Iran and its proxies, are determined to fight ISIS. It’s not that Iran’s mullahs disagree with ISIS view of the world; it’s that old Shia-Sunni rivalry that is at play. That rivalry is so acute, that I am actually convinced that Iran wants to see ISIS decimated more than the US or any Western country. So why not let them do the dirty work for us? We should, and here are further reasons that we, in fact, must do so:

1. Sucking Iran In- by not bringing its firepower to Iraq, the US is inviting Iran to get involved even more seriously to defeat ISIS. That’s a lot of fronts on which Iran will have to be seriously engaged- Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. Consequently, Iran’s hands become tied and less free to project their terror agenda elsewhere.

2. Casualties Are Not Us- it may sound horrible to say this, but I am all for having fanatics on one side fighting fanatics on the other side. Let’s have each side inflicting many casualties to the other.

3. Iran Nuclear Deal- getting out of Iraq reduces one important US dependency on Iran, which should hopefully lessen Iran’s leverage on America in the current dangerous nuclear deal negotiations.

4. Israel’s Security- Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy declared this week “Hezbollah, day by day, is contributing to the security of the state of Israel”. It may sound counter-intuitive, but it’s actually quite logical. Hezbollah, a proxy or Iran, armed and trained by Iran Revolutionary Guards, has been summoned by Iran to help fight ISIS in Syria. If Iran has to double their effort in Iraq, due to America’s position, then Iran will make more demands out of Hezbollah, first in Syria and probably in Iraq too. This means less Hezbollah’s provocations in the north of Israel. This also means Hezbollah’s well-trained fighters both dying and inflicting casualties on ISIS in a way that neither Israel nor America can. Indeed, if Hezbollah or Iran creates collateral damage or destroys a place of worship, nobody in the Muslim world would condemn. You can, however, imagine the outcry if it were the US or Israel doing so.