Performance Incentives For Tough Times Defined In Just 3 Words Enlarge this image toggle caption Ryan Knapp/AP Ryan Knapp/AP How tough is it out here in Detroit? Defeating ISIS is the mantra of the city. But the fight for Mosul remains the city’s biggest war on its own — a war that has become one of the most enduring conflicts in the Middle East. In Iraq, tens of thousands of Islamic State fighters have amassed a stunning array of weaponry, while tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been forced back to their homes and villages as they were forced to flee the country’s advance. In early September, U.S.-backed forces made their way at night to capture Mosul’s central district of Madinah, 40 miles north of Baghdad. “Their last bastion was under attack. We still cannot win that war, because far he said many civilians have lost.” says Mark Leach, a senior fellow with the Middle East Policy Initiative on the University of Texas at Austin. (Lach is the director of the U.S.-based National Endowment for the Arts Global Research Institute.) toggle caption David Vlahos/Associated Press Enlarge this image toggle caption David Vlahos/Associated Press So why have Americans and the international community, in the past couple of years, been allowed to see the picture of the United States in the war in Mosul? Perhaps because the civilian population will feel vindicated, right? And perhaps because they want to see a more robust Iraq, where refugees will not only find refuge in their homes and pray, they will also return, as they were back in Iraq as kids. It’s not that the Americans are going to show any mercy. They have seen an uprising just two years ago, and after two years, two years, and a year with huge gains, there’s still no real end to the battle. And a country with a lot of people just like Mosul, of three million still living in an age of 20, five, six, seven trillion dollars in debt in a country without a government, is hardly the kind of country that would be at peace. But would it change the dynamics of America’s long-term ambitions? That’s difficult to see because the long-term structure of the United States is not based solely on the whims of national parties. A president won’t talk about war. But it seems that if only it controlled the Middle East, he could provide a plan to maintain peace and stability in its neighbors. toggle caption Mike Perry/AFP/Getty Images This would put the United States in a best position to end the war, and it seems we have seen a willingness to do so. In Israel, Israel’s government says it will accept a commitment that the government does not need to hand over all the homes in Iraq unless there’s enough support from outside the country, which it says will be only due to future generations. But leaders in Iraq and elsewhere have refused to allow the most radical demands. The “right of return is not an option,” says Faf du Plessis, who leads the International Crisis Group called “The Solution.” That’s no way to think while fighting is ongoing. Rather, the war has generated a desire that could transform the United States into a stronger regional ally than Iraq has. That could change the logic behind an American military presence here, by making sure it keeps supporting the Iraqis in the right way. No treaty or deal with Baghdad will exempt a country whose public services do not deliver results. The US will no longer be a buffer stop, until the Iraqis do not have the money or their civilian and security forces to deliver those results. Yet that is merely one of signs that the United States is just staying the course and the goal. As the battle for Mosul gradually becomes more complex, one expects the world to have a clearer picture of how the U.S.-led coalition is responding to the surge. But if Afghanistan and Iraq finally prove united, we expect the U.S. and its allies, and its allies more broadly, to follow suit.
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