Posted on 04/23/2018 10:42:18 PM PDT by Cronos
WHISKY is back on the tables in Mosul, one of Iraq’s biggest cities. Until last year, boozing was punishable with 80 lashes...Families queue at restaurants on the banks of the Tigris. There is not a niqab, or face-veil, in sight.
...Now Iraq, home to nearly 40m people, is righting itself.
.. About 45,000 Sunnis mustered alongside the Shia-led Hashd al-Shaabi, or “popular mobilisation units”. And millions of Sunnis fled the would-be caliphate to seek refuge in Kurdish and Shia cities.
Religious minorities feel safer, too. Over 70% of the 100,000 Christians who fled to Kurdistan have returned to their homes on the Nineveh plains, says Romeo Hakari, a Christian parliamentarian in Erbil. Sunnis from Mosul joined Chaldean Catholics to celebrate mass at their church in Bakhdida, whose icons IS used for target practice.
There has been a striking backlash against organised Islam. Mosque attendance is down. Although Sunnis are rebuilding their homes in Falluja, the minarets and domes in the city once known as “the mother of mosques” lie abandoned and ruined. “Only old men go to pray,” explains a 22-year-old worker mixing cement. Designer haircuts and tracksuit tops are the latest male fashion, because IS banned them. “Our imams radicalised us with IS and terror but refuse to admit it,” says a Sunni final-year student at Tikrit University with a bouffant hairdo.
Secularism is making inroads even in the holy city of Najaf, the seat of Iraq’s ayatollahs, which has thrived on Shia pilgrimage since the American invasion. The new public library at the golden-domed shrine of Imam Ali includes sizeable collections of Marx’s tracts and non-Muslim scriptures. Shia clerics who until recently banned Christmas trees and smashed shop windows displaying love-hearts on Valentine’s Day now let them pass.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
Since Bush invaded, Iraq has had a Christian Genocide of nearly 1 million people.
Interesting, informative article. Thanks for posting.
Actually, what this article suggests is that if we turf Assad, set up an occupation force that stays for at least 8 years and holds elections for at least two cycles, Syria will become a somewhat free and democratic country. The question is whether we’re prepared to stick it out for 8 years and lose thousands of men in Syria. Given that the answer is no, not turfing Assad is probably the lowest cost option we have. If Sunni Muslims want to turf Assad, they’re free to send in an expeditionary force to do so.
When they have titty bars,then I will be convinced.
Basically this ended up with thousands of lives lost and even then, in Iraq, there was a possible way to prevent the deaths -- coopting the Baathists and Sunnis and creating a true federal state and finally, not leaving (thanks Obama) at the worst possible time.
true.
You can’t invade a dictatorship but you can liberate it.
How many innocent Americans and Iraqis died because of this foolish and bungled attempt at regime change?
How many trillions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted in the mid-east as a result of the Invasion of Iraq?
And for what gain?
We just set the stage for war to spread throughout the region and for Iran to become the preeminent power in the region.
Hey,our boys and girls didn’t die for nothing. They fought hard. They fought for each other. Some came back. Like my son. Combat,82nd. He’s a fine man now. He was there in the beginning back in ‘03. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Blood on the hands of the BushClinton Deep State for these Christian deaths in Iraq.
This would never be happening without our brave soldiers. You would still have a madman threatening the world. If not for Obozo this would have happened 8 years ago.
Algeria went through a similar turn after a long, brutal civil war against Islamists.
Syria is a special case because of its unfortunate geography as a crossroads and prize between major powers. In addition, Syria’s population is deeply fractured along religious and ethnic lines. The place has been a trouble zone from the ancient world forward.
An interesting and worthwhile read, thanks for posting.
You sir, are a fine example of a father and your son deserves our respect, admiration and thanks.
This country needs more like the both of you. Thank you.
don’t you mean since “Obama prematurely withdrew all of our stabilization & defensive forces in IRQ that created a vacuum filled by the rise of ISIS”?
Maybe the myth of the revaluation of the Dinar will come true.
Bless you and him.
“We just set the stage for war to spread throughout the region and for Iran to become the preeminent power in the region.”
Ya’ll have been saying that since 1980.
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