August 12 – A Modern Well-Equipped Terrorist Army on the Move; The Religious Credentials of the New Caliph; Historical Amnesia and Political Spin Over Iraq

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the continuing humanitarian disaster in northern Iraq as besieged religious minorities remain under threat from the Islamic State fighters while back in the capitol, the government in Baghdad remains paralyzed in a leadership struggle. Bilal Saab, an expert on Middle East security and politics who is a Senior Fellow for Middle East Security at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, joins us to discuss the nature and intentions of the Islamic State who have formed a modern well-equipped terrorist army that is highly mobile and so far has not suffered any major defeats.

Part 2

Then we examine the religious credentials of the new self-proclaimed Caliph and head of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi with William McCants, a fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy and director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution. We look into al-Baghdadi’s background and assess what plans beyond taking territory I.S. has as it paints the government buildings it has captured black, seeming to offer a dark vision for the future for those who fall captive under its banner of convert or die.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Peter Van Buren a State Department veteran who lead two State Department Provincial Reconstruction Teams which he wrote about in “We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People”. We discuss the historical amnesia and political spin underway to pin the Iraq disaster on President Obama who seems determined to extricate the U.S. from the Bush/Cheney mess in Mesopotamia, in spite of the deepening implosion of the former country that remains a victim of drive-by liberation by the United States.