It has come as no surprise to some us the chaos to which Iraq has descended. Former President George W. Bush and his sidekick Dick Cheney contrived to invade Iraq on a trumped up mission to find weapons of mass destruction and the world is now experiencing the consequences of a dishonest decision.
More idiotic is the criticism which Republicans are directing at President Barack Obama over Iraq when it was former President Bush who signed the Status of Forces Agreement in 2008. One does not have to be a foreign policy expert to have known the problems of Iraq go back hundreds of years given the factionalism which exist in the region. Volumes have been written about the deep distrust which has divided ethnic groups in the region. Why does the USA and others believe it has any credibility in the region to function in the role as peace broker? The so called US Iraq invasion has served to add to the distrust between the groups. The USA bombed a country which the dwellers believe to be sacred for chrissakes!
The emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Leval (ISIL) or ISIS is a symptom of what will happen in Iraq for the foreseeable future. This will NOT be a quick fix. The boast of the USA that it trained a 30,000 Iraqi army and outfitted it with the latest weaponry has comeback to bite them in the rear. ISIL with a few thousand men have been able to overcome the ‘well trained’ Iraqi security force capturing military equipment in the process.
Ironically the Kurds, the ethnic group trampled for decades maybe the x factor along with Iran to lead the military and political solution. If the USA and or others are able to fight back against ISIL, it will be a short time before another group driven by the seeds of distrust fermented over hundred of years to dot the Iraqi landscape. The USA puppet Nouri al-Maliki appears to be losing his grip on the country yet there is no obvious replacement. The age old problem of the Sunni waging disagreement with the Shia at the first opportunity is a high agenda item, AGAIN.
The unrest in Iraq has grave implications for the world economy and Barbados given its position as a high oil producer. Already the world price of oil is trending north. The current policy of the Barbados government to pass on the real price of oil to Barbadians consumers – if continued – will significantly impact the already high cost of living. The local economy has not been doing well despite all effort to breath life into it by the government. It is the worse performing economy in the Caribbean, a position Barbadians have been unaccustomed in the post Independent period. The problem in Iraq if not snuffed out quickly, that is, the push back of ISIL, the headwind that will result has the potential to cripple the global economy. The implication for Barbados is not good.
What can we do to ready ourselves? One policy we can continue which has served us well in the past is to solicit cheap foreign loans to shore up the international reserves.
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