It has been heartbreaking to watch what has been taking place in Iraq as IS (formerly ISIS) has been pushing through Iraq with a wave of terror and violence. There have been stories of Christians, Muslims and others tortured and killed for not having the exact form of Islam as IS. The pictures of this “holy war” have been horrifying. The world should be outraged and planning on what to do to stop it. But they aren’t.
Mainstream media is just starting to pick up on this story. For some time it was mainly Christians expressing our fear for our brothers and sisters in Iraq. Many Christians on social media have adopted the Arabic nun, the letter used to mark Christians (Nazarenes), as their image. But why is the rest of the world not paying attention?
It is not as if the west is uninterested in what takes place elsewhere. The west is is very interested in the Ebola outbreak in Africa, the conflict in Gaza and the tensions in the Ukraine. Why does the world not care about Iraq? Here are four reasons.
1. The recent war in Iraq left bad taste in the mouth of the west. It was one of the most unpopular wars and it can hardly be described as a success. Nobody wants to go back to Iraq after what happened last time.
2. The Iraqi army didn’t even try. The Iraqi army had the numbers and the weapons to stop IS but they dropped their weapons and ran. Now IS has their weapons. Perhaps if there was a pitched battle between the army and IS, the west might consider aid. Since the Iraqis wouldn’t fight why should we?
3. Al Qaeda and IS are in conflict. If the west lets IS get strong, they may do our dirty work for us by taking on Al Qaeda. Any Iraqis (of whatever religion) would just be collateral damage.
4. There is no figurehead for us to target. Of course IS has leadership but there is no Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden. These were people for us to hate and to have a sense of victory once they were gone.
Do I think that any of these are good reasons? Not at all. The west is happy to go to war when there are valuable assets at risk, but for some reason human lives are not considered valuable. I wish that someone would intervene and put a stop to IS. I wish people cared that innocent people are dying.
