ISIS Is Getting America Stuck in Iraq Again

Kevin Reagan

Security, Middle East

"There's no exit strategy for this."

Around one month ago, I chronicled the exasperating reality of the U.S. military’s relegation to operational hand-holding in Iraq. Sure enough, as more time passes, the magnitude of the challenges therein is becoming clearer. Recent events like the (mostly peaceful and brief) occupation of the Iraqi parliament by followers of prominent Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr are illustrative of the political disarray gripping Baghdad. This disorganization has been an utter albatross in the campaign to clear the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) from the north and west of the country, particularly their stronghold of Mosul.

Unfortunately, the U.S. military is now being reluctantly dragged into sectarian squabbles as various regional leaders (i.e., those with tangible power in the area, unlike the government in Baghdad) jockey for control of specific territories. The United States thus finds itself trapped in the middle of messy combat politics without much leverage. The Obama administration’s justifiable reluctance to commit many thousands of troops to the mission of driving ISIS firmly back underground while stabilizing the country (effectively doing the Iraqi security forces’ job for them) means that this problem will persist for some time to come. This makes the current mission creep there that much more concerning, as there is little more than serious headaches and enormous financial burdens ahead.