Iraqis Do Not Trust The U.S. In The War Against The Islamic State

Wall Street Journal: To Many Iraqis, U.S. Isn’t Really Seeking to Defeat Islamic State

American military response is criticized as too weak.

BAGHDAD—In a tent city under a highway overpass in Baghdad, refugees from Iraq’s Sunni province of Anbar were unanimous about whom to blame for their misery.

“I hold Americans responsible for destroying Anbar,” said former policeman Wassem Khaled, whose home was taken over by Islamic State, or ISIS, after the Iraqi army fled from Anbar’s provincial capital of Ramadi last month.

“We all know that America is providing ISIS with weapons and food, and that it is because of American backing that they have become so strong,” added Abbas Hashem, a 50-year-old who also escaped from Ramadi and now lives in the makeshift Baghdad camp that is only occasionally supplied with water.

Such conspiracy theories about America’s support for Islamic State are outlandish, no doubt. But they are so widespread that they now represent a political reality with real-world consequences—making it harder for the U.S. and allies to cobble together Iraqi forces that could regain the country’s Sunni heartland from Islamic State’s murderous rule one day.

WNU Editor: The Iraqis trust the U.S. military .... it is the the U.S. leaders and leadership that they do not trust. But while it is easy for the Iraqis to blame the U.S. for the rise of ISIS .... the truth is that the rise of ISIS has been primarily due to the inability of Iraqis to work together .... a fact that the following WSJ post explains .... The Iraqi Army Can’t Be Westernized (Robert Scales, WSJ).