A fighter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) holds an ISIL flag and a weapon on a street in the city of Mosul, June 23, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer
Jeff Goodson, Defense One: After Mosul Falls, How Much Rebuilding Help Should the US Give?
Restoring stable governance means creating a government that can supply basic services — and there are several ways the United State can provide assistance.
As the siege of Mosul progresses to its logical conclusion, the debate over what comes next is heating up. Some say creating workable governance in a complex socio-cultural environment should be left to local stakeholders, with the U.S. staying out of it altogether. Others, like retired Gen. David Petraeus, argue for robust U.S. engagement, as was offered in Mosul and Ninevah in 2003. The debate’s outcome will shape not only Iraq’s future, but American post-kinetic engagement in other parts of the Middle East, if not further afield.
As policy options evolve, it will be useful to remember that creating legitimate governance also means creating a government that can deliver at least basic social and economic services. What the U.S. least needs in Iraq right now is a newly created Mosul-Nineveh government that is unable to deliver basic services, adding pressure to the inevitable cultural fissures that the new government will also have to deal with.
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Update: Now is the time to plan for a post Islamic state Mosul (Mina Al-Oraibi, Reuters)
WNU Editor: The Islamic State leaves Iraqi cities destroyed once they are driven out .... if history repeats itself there is a very real possibility that there may be nothing left that is worthwhile to rebuild in Mosul once the fighting has stop.
2 comments:
Very true, not much left.
At this point in modern America, politically financially and as a moral authority, the US and it conservative base have only one thing to provide Iraq, and as you said it has been given, kinetic destruction, death and decades of upheaval.
I wish it weren't so.
Unless we intend to to support the the Sunni tribes and make sure the Shia majority do not take advantage of the and do this for the long term, there is no point in 1/2 assing it and then pulling out.
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