Headlines of Doom
ISIL are not “lurching towards Basra” as Dajahi Wiley recently said, writing on investment website The Motley Fool. They’re words that sum up the tone of much recent coverage: panic. CNN for example, echoed Time to report how ISIS are “pressing on” toward Baghdad, evoking fully equipped Nazi divisions marching on Moscow.
Even with their impressive haul of captured equipment and significant financial clout, the insurgents (as they must be called--ISIL are a minority) are not unstoppable. They might be able to field (at most) the rough equivalent of an infantry division, but lack of unity will hamper coordination. And there is no infantry division on earth that could capture Baghdad on its own, even with substantial armour and air power.
But as Baiji oil refinery burns, one commentator noted how “systems were breaking down.” In parts of Sunni majority Iraq, this is tragically the case. In those areas, the conflict has entered a new and bloody phase, of indeterminate length. Battles, such as the one raging far to the north at Haditha dam, will continue. Elsewhere life will go on, albeit with more adversity, in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Najaf, Karbala, Nasiriyah, al Amarah and Basra.
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