Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security
In Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday, 14 children and 14 people were murdered and over thirty wounded by a raging lunatic driving a truck full of explosives into an elementary school.
Who would kill themselves for some fraudulent holy war and massacre children of another faith?
…nothing? No group has taken responsibility yet. Was it a mistake? Did they miss the sign next to the school that said “police station?” No, another truck with explosives struck that target.
Is the group waiting to see the impact before they proudly stand up? Perhaps the terrorists have less interest in claiming responsibility or their even more extreme elements within the Shi-Sunni sectarian strife. Not likely. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (previously Al Qaeda in Iraq/The Islamic State of Iraq and Syrian counterparts like al Nasra Front) are most likely responsible. They have been instigating a sectarian genocidal jihad against the Shia both in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. The distraction for the West is to continue to think of these two “Islamic states” as too distant or separate from the larger international jihadist agenda or from the influence of senior al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The civilian political leadership of Iraq must take charge, said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General Nickolay Mladenov. “It is their responsibility to ensure that pilgrims can practice their religious duties, that school children can attend their classes, that journalists can exercise their professional duties, and that ordinary citizens can live a normal life, in an environment free of fear and violence.”
Such condemnations are more than welcome but are ineffective and weak. The school massacre is dround-out by the plethora of murders that the world became accustom to hearing with regards to Iraq. This is about to change. With the success of sophisticated attacks like assassinations and prison breaks, in the midst of larger atrocities, al Qaeda is positioned to get far worse.
According to the UN Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), 1,000 Iraqis were killed just last month terrorist and militant violence alone. In 2012, there were 4,471 killed; over 400 more than the previous year. So far this year, news agencies report that over 6,000 Iraqis have been killed in a growing sectarian war at levels not seen since the US Occupation. There is still little reason to see any improvement.