For a year and more, Iraqi leaders and the U.S.-led coalition that joined them to fight the Islamic State ignored warnings that unless cleavages among Iraq's ethnic groups over territory and political authority were addressed, a victory over the terrorists would be followed by yet more civil conflict. Now, that fight may be beginning. A forceful move by Iraqi troops and allied Shiite militias into the city of Kirkuk on Sunday, accompanied by scattered fighting with retreating Kurdish forces, threatens to touch off a wider sectarian war.
Other unaddressed troubles are festering. The Shiite-led government has done little to rebuild majority-Sunni cities destroyed in the war, including Fallujah and Mosul, and nothing to delegate more power to their leaders. The result is that Iraqi Sunnis, many of whom supported or tolerated the Islamic State for sectarian reasons, may be open to backing other Sunni militants, including al-Qaida.
The United States, which once worked hard to broker sectarian deals in Iraq, walked away from such hard work several years ago. Both the Obama and Trump administrations have claimed that the only U.S. interest in Iraq is destroying the Islamic State. The consequences of that blinkered view can now be clearly seen in Kirkuk.
Editorial on 10/18/2017