Abby Martin speaks with Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, an Iraqi-American peace activist who gives her perspective on the announcement of the US deploying 275 troops to Iraq as the country continues to spiral into civil war.

Dahlia Wasfi: Keep Calm and Trust Iraqis with Iraq

The Iraqi resistance brought an end to the formal military occupation of their country; the resistance is NOW seeking to rid itself of the occupation-installed government and its bloody sectarianism. It is this resistance that is taking control of northern Iraqi cities. Witnesses on the ground in Iraq say that multiple groups with significant political differences have set those divisions aside to unite against the sectarian government of Nouri Al-Maliki. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is one of those groups, but they are playing a smaller role. Mosul and Tal Afar are in the hands of the General Military Council of the Iraqi Revolutionaries, liberated from Maliki’s brutal sectarian rule. Only a strong, coordinated military organization — not 1000 or even several thousand undisciplined extremists — could take and hold a city the size of Mosul (1.4 million) and continue to advance.

Understanding the horrors that we have continued to bring to Iraqis since 1991 helps us see that what is happening in Iraq is a legitimate rebellion against a brutal dictator (a theocratic one instead of a secular one). US President Barack Obama is sending more troops to Iraq to defend the sectarian government from the Iraqi people. Instead of sending more forces in, Mr. President, fly as many planes as you need to Baghdad, load up every last American and the bloody US-installed government, and leave. If you can find it, pick up your dignity on your way out.

Read the full article at CounterPunch