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Matthew Miller

Mr. Sebestyen

Honors World Regional Geography

November 2, 2016

Breaking News

Section One

After the campaign to retake Mosul, the second largest Iraqi city, there has been

escalating tensions as the campaign moves gradually outward and westward to Tal Afar, a former

Ottoman outpost and home to a corps of Islamic state leaders. Tal Afar is home to a largely

Turkish population. Iraqi Shiite militias move with the campaign westward from Mosul on a

trajectory that will cut off Islamic State fighters in Tal Afar from their allies and bases in Syria.

This threatens to drag Turkey into a chaotic spiral thrusting it into the complexities of the

battlefield in Tal Afar. While the Iraqi militias are not allies with the Turkish armies necessarily,

they did play a key role in capturing Mosul by sealing off the desert area west of the city, but

they were not allowed to enter the city. This was the product of numerous negotiations between

the Iraqi government and Americans. While the militias were allowed a part in the retaking of

Mosul, when a leader of the militias announced that Tal Afar and surrounding nations were

within their duties to liberate and said that they will be liberated by our sacred arms and rifles,

Turkey became alarmed. Turkeys deployment in Iraq is truly about religious segregation.

Turkey, a Sunni nation, has fought against the influence of Iran, a Shiite nation, and its various

Shiite militias. Iran controls the most powerful Shiite militias in the region even though on

paper they are Iraqi forces. For now, the conflict will be based around the battle over Tal Afar,
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but Shiite and Sunni tensions in the countries are reaching a boiling point and could result in

violence.
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Section Two

Just like the rest of the situations in the Middle East conflict is focused on the turmoil

between the Sunnis and the Shiites with Turkey on the side of the Sunnis and Iran on the side of

the Shiites. The competition for influence in northern Iraq between Turkey, a Sunni power, and

Iran, the regions most powerful Shiite nation, is part of the broader sectarian struggle tearing

apart the Middle East. (Arango 9) Like almost anything in the Middle East, this conflict is very

confusing with different peoples agreeing with different views, but when you boil things down to

their most basic elements, the conflict is between the two groups. Most, if not all, the Middle

Eastern conflict can be related back to religion. Look at Israel and Palestine for example, while

these countries may not be Muslim based, both struggle with a conflict that has a part in the

religion of the countries. Israel is mostly populated by Jews and is the official Jewish state that

was sought for by the Jews for ages. Palestine is an Arab dominated state in which the

Palestinians are not happy about being pushed out of their original land because the Jews feel

like they are owed the land. The Palestinians believe that the Muslims are the true owners of the

land and especially Jerusalem.

Muslims are basically the rulers of the Middle East and mostly what they say goes. As we

have gone over in notes many problems are based on disputes on aspects of the religion. ISIS for

example is an example of an extremist Islamic belief in which ISIS followers want to form the

apocalypse as illustrated in Muslim beliefs. Political Islam is the belief that Islam should be used

as a governing tool and all have slight variations. Many people, not just Muslims, believe in

personal beliefs and therefore will agree with some points an organization makes and disagree

with that same organization about other things. What this does, as illustrated in our debates, is

make the problems extremely complicated. It causes confusion on who is allied with whom and
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who is the real enemy. For example, in the article it states The role of the Shiite militias,

controversial because of their history of abuse toward the Sunni population, was part of a

delicate set of negotiations involving the Iraqi government and the American-led coalition.

(Arango 3) These Militias are apparently against the Sunni population of Turkey, but are also

allies with them against ISIS. This is what makes these issues so complicated.
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Section Three

In my opinion, I believe that the Sunni and Shiite people should cooperate if only

temporarily to combat the forces of the Islamic State. This conflict in the Middle East is

ridiculously complicated and is not needed to be so. The unification of the Muslim groups

permanently will solve almost all conflict that is currently going on in the Middle East and could

prevent future conflicts from ever taking place, bringing peace to a conflict that has lasted

hundreds of years. I believe that the US should direct resources to settling conflicts between the

Sunni and Shiite. In doing this we solve the complexity of warfare in the Middle East and

determine a singular enemy to fight rather than dozens including your allies. We need to

determine our real position in the Middle East, are we a true peace keeper who will truly allow

peace to prosper, or do we sit back and let conflict continue.

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Bibliography

Arango, Tim. "Tal Afar, West of Mosul, Becomes Center of Battle for Influence in Iraq." The
New York Times. 29 Oct. 2016. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/world/middleeast/tal-afar-iraq-isis.html?
ref=middleeast>.