The new Iraq war

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[/audioplayer]Seven weeks ago, Barack Obama proclaimed that ‘it’s time to turn the page on more than a decade of war’. The people of Iraq do not have this option. They’ve seen, in Basra, Iran-backed militias take on and defeat the British military. They’ve seen highly effective jihadis, disowned by al-Qa’eda for their brutality, take control of a major city, Fallujah, just 40 miles from Baghdad. This week they have seen their second city, Mosul, fall to that same band of psychopaths. If Syria is anything to go by, religious cleansing, beheadings and even crucifixions will soon begin.

A new Iraq war is now underway. On one side is Nouri al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq, on the other an al-Qa’eda offshoot called the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIS) which aims to create an Islamic emirate in the Iraq-Syria border. It is proving remarkably successful, having already created a de facto state — now with two cities, and a substantial amount of land. This whole area, controlled by ISIS, has become a safe haven for jihadis being driven out of Pakistan by drone strikes. Terror has found a new home.

We hear little about this in Britain because it is not a problem anyone is inclined to solve. Privately, the Foreign Office is operating on the assumption that ISIS will keep the land it now holds, for the next few years at least. In Washington, officials are saying that the fall of Mosul is not regarded as a serious turning-point. There is no appetite to become embroiled in another war, or even to give the Iraqi army the air support it would need to retake Mosul.