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MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi forces helped by U.S. airpower have clawed back much of this broken city from the Islamic State. But as you approach East Mosul, the military checkpoints on the rutted road are manned by members of Iranian-backed Shiite militias that now control the entrance to this Sunni Arab city. Rather than fly the red, white, and black Iraqi banner, the militiamen display a religious flag adorned with the face of the holiest Shiite icon, the prophets grandson Imam Hussain.

Washington should regard the black flags as a warning signal. Even before the Islamic State is fully defeated, Shiite Iran is laying the groundwork to expand its deep penetration of Iraq. Tehran wants to control the Baghdad government through its Shiite political and militia proxies, marginalizing Sunnis, including in Mosul.

But judging by history, repression in Sunni areas of Iraq will provide fertile ground for the next jihadi movement to take root.

So the Shiite flags at Mosuls gateway signal that a military defeat of the Islamic State is insufficient. There must also be a political plan (although none is yet evident in Baghdad or Washington) to assure Sunnis of a role in a post-Islamic State Iraq.

That plan is needed sooner rather than later. So far, the Shiite militias are not entering the city proper, Mosul residents tell me. Right now they are not pushing people out, says an elementary school teacher who lives in East Mosul. He says, however, that sectarian Shiite political parties linked to the militias are already opening offices in the city.

In other contested parts of Iraq, hardline Shiite militias are ethnically cleansing Sunnis from towns and villages to create a Sunni-free corridor from Iran across Iraq to the Syrian border. These militias receive extensive Iranian support and Iraqi government funds.

Maslawis (as Mosul natives are called) view the Iraqi military far more positively than they do the militias, even though Iraqi forces are composed heavily of Shiites (who make up a majority of the population). Thats because Iraqi forces are loyal to the state, not to Shiite political parties or Tehran.

I heard nothing but praise for the behavior of the Iraqi military units that entered the city, especially the U.S.-trained Counter Terrorism Service, or CTS. The only force people like is the CTS and (its) Golden Division, the prominent Sunni Sheikh Abdullah al-Yawar told me. It did not force people to leave their homes.

Although the militias are technically under military control, no one knows their future after the Islamic State is defeated. Sunnis fear they will act as armed wings of competing Shiite parties or an Iraqi version of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard corps, which took over Irans army from within.

And Sunnis rightly fear Irans long-term intentions. They know Tehran still remembers Saddam Husseins 1980 invasion of Iran, when Sunnis ran Iraq, and the decade-long war that followed. Iran wants to see Iraqs Sunnis weak and divided, one Sunni politician told me, so the 1980s can never happen again.

Iraqs Shiite prime minister, Haidar al-Abadi, who will visit Washington this week, says all the right things about reconciliation with Sunnis. We are proud of our diversity, he said this month at a forum sponsored by the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. Victory will be done when we are united.

Yet Sunnis in Mosul have yet to see any of the $500 million set aside by the Iraqi finance ministry for reconstruction. Nor is it clear when hundreds of thousands of Mosul residents who fled the fighting will be permitted to return home.

Moreover, Maslawis worry about who is going to protect them from terrorism, or displacement, after the Islamic State is defeated. The 8,000 Sunni tribesmen trained by U.S. forces as a hold force to secure Mosul after the Islamic State have been deployed but have yet to make an impact.

Once U.S. air power is no longer needed to target the Islamic State, Maslawis believe Iran will press the Baghdad government to kick U.S. forces out of the country. Having once been hostile to the American presence, Sunnis now want those forces to stay.

The Iranians are buying off weak Sunni politicians, helping to keep a divided community even more so. Money is also flowing to small minority groups like the Shiite Shabaks, who are manning the checkpoints at the entry to Mosul. Shabaks are a tiny Iraqi ethno-religious sect that, Im told, had never taken up arms before.

All this raises the question of what options Washington has in Iraq to offset Iran and prevent the Islamic State 2.0. Heres what savvy Iraqi Arabs and Kurds told me they hope a Trump administration will do:

First, stay engaged with Iraq and retain a military presence to help Iraqi forces prevent an Islamic State resurgence.

Second, bolster Abadi against Iranian efforts to back a hardline Shiite opponent. For starters, encourage Americas Gulf Arab allies to help finance Sunni reconstruction.

Third, press Baghdad to adopt a federal system, which the countrys constitution provides for, so Sunnis can establish their own provinces within the country. Iran and Shiite parties will oppose this formula, but its the only way to convince Iraqs Sunnis that they have a future.

All this requires serious, long-term U.S. engagement, which may not appeal to a Trump administration. But, as the Shiite flags outside Mosul make clear, shorter-term thinking will be costly.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Published March 22, 2017, midnight in: Iran, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Shittes, Sunnis

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Trudy Rubin: Iran deepens presence in Iraq - The Spokesman-Review

Its considered one of the worlds oldest Christian populationsnow its poised to become the most recent driven to extinction. So says Canon Andrew White, a prominent churchman known as the vicar of Baghdad, about Iraqi Christians.

Reverend White led St. Georges Church in Baghdad, the only Anglican church in Iraq, until the Archbishop of Canterbury ordered him to leave in November 2014 as the Islamic State threat grew. He thus became part of an exodus during which the countrys Christian population has dwindled from approximately 1.4 million three decades ago, to about one million after Saddam Husseins ouster, to a mere 250,000 today.

Noting where this trajectory leads, White told Fox News this week, The time has come where it is over, no Christians will be left. Some stay Christians should stay to maintain the historical presence, but it has become very difficult. The future for the community is very limited.

The reverend continued, The Christians coming out of Iraq and ISIS areas in the Middle East all say the same thing, there is no way they are ever going back. They have had enough.

Why is no mystery. As Catholic Online reported in 2014, The Islamic State has warned Christians, possibly for the last time, saying there is nothing to give them but the sword. Across Northern Iraq, Christians are huddled in refugee camps, trapped in the desert, or trapped in their homes, waiting for death.

Yet even this doesnt capture the barbarity, as the Islamic State will stop at nothing to purge the lands it holds of those it considers infidels. There was a 2015 report of its jihadis beating a young boy and cutting off his fingers to compel him, his father and two others to renounce Christianity; all four were later crucified.

Then there are the women publicly raped and beheaded for refusing to leave the faith, children and adults burned alive, people drowned in cages, and a shocking 2016 report of Islamic State sadists roasting victims in a bakery oven and feeding 250 children into an industrial dough kneader.

No one is more aware of the Islamic States true nature than Rev. White. Following Jesus example of breaking bread with sinners, he once invitedISIS to dinner only to be told, Yes, well come, but well chop off your head. After relating the story last year, he quipped, Rather kind of them to warn me.

Though once kidnapped in Baghdad, now uprooted, and suffering from multiple sclerosis, the UK-born White has maintained not only his sense of humor but also his will to fight. He tends to his displaced flock in Jordan and aids those fleeing IS persecution via two organizations he founded, the Canon Andrew White Reconciliation Ministries in Amman, Jordan and Jerusalem Merit in Israel. He also has adopted six children and has given away all his money, according to the Telegraph.

Of course, white isnt alone in sounding the alarm about the threat to Mideast Christianity. In 2015, Italian Bishops Conference head Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco noted that the cull of Christians continues in the Middle East and Africa where it seems somebody has decided to uproot them to cleanse the territory, reported ANSA news.

Patriarch of theSyriac Catholic Church of Antioch, Ignatius Joseph III Younan, was a bit more specific in laying the blame. He warned last year that the totalitarianism based on Islamic creed is the worst among all systems of government and that the very survival of Christians in the cradle of Christianity is quite in danger.

Yet this may just be the last chapter in whats a very old story. Unbeknownst to many, Christianity was the dominant religion in the Mideast and North Africa (which at the time had more Christians than Europe) by the 400s A.D. After Islams birth in 622, however, Muslim armies quickly conquered the old Christian lands.

In fact, these Muslim forces moved into Europe in 711 and by 732 were within 125 miles of Paris, where they were finally halted at the Battle of Poitier. Later in history, they would threaten Europe from the East, which inspired the misunderstood, defensive wars known as the Crusades.

Despite the history and, more significantly, the current events, critics note that the West has largely ignored Mideast Christians plight. Ignatius Joseph III Younan accused Western leaders of being nave and complicit in the Christians destruction. Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III lamented, I do not understand why the world does not raise its voice against such acts of brutality. And Jean-Clment Jeanbart, the Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo,stated that the European media have not ceased to suppress the daily news of those who are suffering in Syria.

Archbishop Jeanbart observed that the problem is political correctness. This involves the usual prejudices, well exemplified by Barack Obamas policies. While at the United Nations last year he likened a refusal to accept Muslims migrants to the turning away [of] Jews fleeing Nazi Germany and said it would be a stain on our conscience, he himself has turned away persecuted Christians.

In fact, Christians are (were?) 10 percent of Syrias population, yet only one half of one percent of Obamas Syrian migrants were Christianthis translated into just 56 out of 10,801 refugees.

So it appears that, today, stained consciences just may be in style.

Selwyn Duke (@SelwynDuke)has written for The Hill, The American Conservative, WorldNetDaily and American Thinker. He has also contributed to college textbooks published by Gale Cengage Learning, has appeared on television and is a frequent guest on radio.

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Christianity Doomed in Iraq, Says 'Vicar of Baghdad' - Observer

Christianity is all but dead in war-torn Iraq, according to the so-called British Vicar of Baghdad.

Canon Andrew White, who was vicar of the only Anglican church in the country before being pulled out in 2014, said the time has come where Christianity is over in Iraq.

Mr White, from Kent, was speaking in a Fox News interview as the Iraqi military continues its offensive to drive Isis out of its major Iraqi stronghold Mosul, and after Donald Trump attempted to enforce a travel ban against six Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and north Africa.

The time has come where it is over, no Christians will be left, Mr White said.

Some say Christians should stay to maintain the historical presence, but it has become very difficult. The future for the community is very limited.

The Christians coming out of Iraq and Isis areas in the Middle East all say the same thing, there is no way they are ever going back. They have had enough.

Women and children treated for chemical weapon exposure in Mosul

There were approximately 1.5 million Christians (six per cent of population) in Iraq in 2003, but, according to charity Open Doors, there are only 250,000 left.

Father Emanuel Youkhana, of the Syrian Church of the East, has also said he does not see a future for Christians in Mosul.

There were approximately 35,000 Christians in Mosul a decade ago but there are thought to only be about 20 now.

Mr White, who is president and founder of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East but was suspended in June for inaccurate statements, continues to travel to Baghdad despite the security threat.

He still tries to mediate disputes between Shia and Sunni leaders and also undergoes stem cell treatment for multiple sclerosis in the city. A leading cleric has warneddefeat for Isis in Mosul could speak a sectarian "genocide".

And he defended Mr Trump's measures to restrict travel from the Middle East to the US, praising the new President for wanting to help "persecuted Christians" in the region. Many have this feeling that America is against them, and they need to show that America is not against Islam, America is against terrorism, he said.

It is important to find ways to engage with them, to look into their philosophies.

I tried to invite some of the Isis jihadists to dinner once. They told me they would come, but that they would chop my head off afterwards. I didnt think it would be a nice way to end a dinner party.

Excerpt from:
Christianity is 'over' in Iraq and will not return, says former vicar of Baghdad - The Independent

Retired Marine Lt. Col. Matthew W. Morgan of Traverse City is challenging Rep. Jack Bergman for his seat in Congress. Morgan served a total 18 months in Iraq, where this photo was taken.(Photo: Courtesy of Matthew W. Morgan)

Michigan Democrats have tapped a Iraq veteran with a long career in the Marines to challenge freshman Republican Rep. Jack Bergman also retired Marine officer for his seat representing northern Michigan in 2018.

Retired Marine Lt. Col. Matthew W. Morgan, a Democrat, said Wednesday he filed the paperwork to run against Bergman. It will be his first bid for public office, inspired in part by the growing number of Iraq veterans in Congress.

Bergman defeated Democrat Lon Johnson last fall to succeed Rep. Dan Benishek of Crystal Falls, who retired. Bergman, 70, is a retired Marine lieutenant colonel, who worked as a commercial airline pilot for Northwest Airlines for many years while serving in the Reserves.

Morgan, 45, an Iraq veteran, retired from the Marine Corps in 2013 after 24 years, starting as an infantry officer but spending his last four years in the service as the director of public affairs for the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command out of Norfolk, Virginia.

Prior to that, Morgan spent time as a strategic communications officer in the office of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at the Pentagon during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He spent a total 18 months on the ground in Iraq, in addition to time he spent supporting counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa, he said.

After the (fall) election, I was left searching, and in early January when Congress took to the floor and started running this anti-EPA agenda, I got really concerned, Morgan said in an interview.

Then discussions turned to repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. I got into several conversations with some local folks who had been searching for a viable candidate. When I was offered the opportunity to consider it, it struck me as an opportunity to get back into public service.

In addition to health care, issues that concern Morgan include protecting funding for cleaning up the Great Lakes and comprehensive immigration reform, noting the population of migrant workers that farmers in the district rely on.

Morgan, a 1993 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is now an independent writer and film consultant, working on movies including American Sniper and Arrival.

After his retirement from the Marines, he and his wife, Angie, decided to return to her native Michigan to raise their young sons, he said. He has lived in Traverse City for four years.

Morgan said while he and Bergman are both retired Marine officers, they are from different generations, with Bergmans service including the Cold War era.

I firmly believe that getting more particularly post-9/11 veterans into Congress is going to help bring some degree of civility and business/workman-like attitude to Congress, Morgan said.

Asked about his new challenger, Bergman spokeswoman Farahn Morgan said his priority is working with constituents and colleagues to get things done for the 1st District.

That's a promise he made during his campaign, and it's a promise he's keeping as he serves the First District in the House of Representatives, she said by email.

As a member of Congress and a general in the Marine Corps, his commitment has always been to people and to public service. That's where he's focusing his energy.

mburke@detroitnews.com

(202) 662-8736

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Iraq veteran plans to challenge freshman Rep. Bergman - The Detroit News

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On the 14th anniversary of the launch of an American-led invasion that reshaped the Middle East, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi metPresident Trump in the White House.

His visit was drowned out in the American news cycle by feverish coverage of hearings on Capitol Hill regarding Russian meddling in last year's election. Sensing the moment,Abadi gestured tothe national conversation, joking while sitting alongside Trump that he had nothing to do with wiretapping the then-candidate's phones. (Earlier in the day, FBI director James B. Comey had confirmed that his agency had found no evidence to support Trump's allegations about wiretapping.)

But the White House's relationship with the Iraqi government is hardly a laughing matter. As U.S.-backed forces and Iraqi government troops steadily take back the crucial northern city of Mosul from the Islamic State, attention is shifting to what happens once the battle is won. There are vexing challenges ahead: The weak Shiite-led government in Baghdad has yet to prove it has the ability to govern provinces where Sunnis comprise the majority; a movement for a referendum on an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq is gaining traction; a host of other regional powers, including Turkey and Iran, are also exerting influence on the ground in competing ways.

We are proving that Daesh can be eliminated, Abadi asserted Monday, referring to the jihadists of the Islamic State. He was speaking at the U.S. Institute of Peace,anagency of the government that the Trump administration plans to eliminate in its new proposed budget. Abadi offered a message of hope for his nation, arguing that things were looking up and that the country's fledgling democracy was successfully moving forward.

Still, critics, including human rights organizations, are concerned aboutthe effects of an entrenched and deepening sectarianism. Abadi's Shiite-dominated government remains distrusted in areas reclaimed from the Islamic State. KeyIranian-backed Shiite militias mobilized by Abadi's government to fight in the anti-Islamic State campaign have been accused of carrying out their own massacres of Sunnis deemed tohave collaborated with the extremist group.

A report to be aired by PBS Frontline on Tuesday details the mass disappearances of Sunni boys and men in a village outside of Baghdad once occupied by the Islamic State. Locals claim that the men were abducted by the Shiite fighters who had liberated the town from the jihadists. On a wider scale, as my colleagues have reported, the ineptitude of local officials and endemic graft among the police and judiciary in certain parts of Iraq have created room for Islamic State cells to return to provincial cities where they were only recently ousted.

We have inherited many problems, some of which are intrinsic in our society, Abadi admitted during his talk at the USIP.

It's uncertain how the Trump administration will reckon with any of theseproblems. Ever since the election campaign, Trump's messaging on Iraq has been confusing. On one hand, he consistently decried the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 (although it emerged thathe was for the war before he was against it) and signaled that he wanted a radical break from his party's history of engineering regime change and embarking on nation-building projects in the Middle East.

Butat the same time, Trumphas pushed for a more muscular approach to fighting the Islamic State and exhibited an alarming disregard for Iraqi sovereignty with his perplexing calls to take the nation's oil.

And then he decided to includeIraq onthe list of seven Muslim-majority countries in thetravelban to the United States. (A second executive order removed Iraq from the list and faces renewed legal challenges in the courts.)

President Trump has talked a lot about defeating the Islamic State but done virtually nothing to address Iraq itself, except to lump it in with other suspect states in a temporary travel ban, a move he ultimately reversed amid protests from his own commanders, who objected to treating an ally with the back of the hand, wrote Politico's Susan Glasser.

While the Obama administration deserves blame for sidestepping Iraqs political challenges, Mr.Trump has quickly exacerbated the trouble, noted a February editorial in The Washington Post.

The White House's proposed cuts to the State Department andits general apathy towardmultilateral diplomacy don't inspire observers with much confidence.

Trumps efforts to 'deconstruct'the non-Pentagon parts of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus as well as cuts to support for international institutions threatens to strip the United States of the tools required in Iraq and elsewhere, just when we need them most, wrote Jeff Prescott and Daniel Benaim, two former Obama administration officials, in Foreign Policy. Unless we plan another occupation of Iraq (or genuinely and absurdly seek to 'take the oil') it is a reality that as the fighting stops our military will step aside and the State Department, USAID, the IMF, and the U.N. will have to take over.

And the situation on the ground is incredibly complex. Beyond rising Kurdish nationalist aspirationsand the difficulty ofreintegrating Sunni parts of Iraq, Glasser pointed out that Iraq'sleaderalso has to deal with Baghdad's turbulent politics.

Abadi, who faces reelection next year, has much to worry about from within his own Shiite political party as well as from the former prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, widely seen as still waiting in the wings for Abadi to stumble, Glasser wrote.

Trump has criticized his predecessors for gifting Iraq to Iran. But theTrump administration's antagonism toward Iran couldalienate Abadi and other prominent Iraqi Shiites in Baghdad.

Using Iraq as a battleground as part of a broader strategy to counter Iran would also ignore the foundation of Americas presence there as the invited guest of the Iraqi government,Prescott and Benaimwrote. "As much as Iraq needs us, we also need Iraq, particularly as we pursue persistent threats against the homeland including as a hub for the continued fight against the Islamic State in Syria."

In Washington, Abadi sought to show that his government is capable of being a solid partner to the United States. But the underlying tensions were not far from the surface.

We have to work with others. We have to build bridges, Abadi remarked at the close of his USIP talk. He ended with another joke at Trump's expense: Otherwise, what do you do? You build walls?

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Trump inherits the Iraq War. But what will he do? - Washington Post