Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: This article outlines the contemporary history of sectarian confl ict in Iraq and identifi es the consequences of the US surge strategy in perpetuating the region's violence and strengthening the Islamic State.B y 2006, security had declined dramatically in Iraq.The February bombing of the al-Askari mosque, a major Shia holy site, sparked a rapid increase in sectarian confl ict.Violence in Baghdad increased 43 percent over the summer; by October, civilian deaths had risen to more than three thousand per month. 1 Thus, in January 2007 the United States radically shifted the course of the Iraq War by executing Operation Fardh al-Qanoon, commonly known as "the surge."Under General David Petraeus, the surge attempted to reverse the course of the war and stabilize Iraq using counterinsurgency tactics, which included 30,000 additional soldiers " '[living] with the people' in order to secure them." 2 Operationally, the effort appeared to have been a success.By January 2009, casualties declined from 2,693 to 372 civilians and from 101 to 14 US troops; violent incidents declined from 908 to 195. 3 In recent years, however, increasing sectarian confl ict is again jeopardizing Iraq's stability.4 At this point it seems the surge has failed to achieve the strategic objectives-"daily life will improve, Iraqis will gain confi dence in their leaders, and the government will . . .make progress"-stated by President George W. Bush in January 2007.5 Why?Most scholarship on this issue falls into two camps.The fi rst group claims the operation would have succeeded if President Barack Obama had kept US forces in Iraq past 2011.The second camp argues the mission could not have succeeded because it failed to address the underlying sectarian confl ict and the political instability fueling civil war.Due to the complexity of the issue, determining the correct cause with complete certainty is challenging.The debate centers around such evidence as the contemporary history of sectarian confl ict in Iraq, sectarian tension and institutional mismanagement during the surge, immediate consequences of the surge, and implications of the strategy.After carefully accounting for such 1
Author: Charlotte F. Blatt
Institutions: Dartmouth College, Yale University
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2776731728