They focus on the human cost of war as still more awful bloodletting looms – the inevitable result of the U.S. decision in 2006-07 to “surge” rather than broker real power-sharing among Shia, Sunni, and Kurds. (24 min)
At this point, a deus ex machina seems required to head off wider spread carnage.
Ray noted that in 1219 during the Crusades, Francis of Assisi sneaked into Cairo to talk with Saladin’s nephew Malik al-Kamil, then Sultan of Egypt, and emerged with the revolutionary idea that Christians can live harmoniously with Muslims.
Today’s Pope Francis, who has talked the talk about reaching out to Muslims, would do well to consider following in his namesake’s footsteps, getting on the Papal plane, and seeing if he might be instrumental in catalyzing the kind of Shia-Sunni-Kurd negotiations without which catastrophe in Iraq – and wider war – appear imminent.
(Sadly, there are all too few world leaders today with any plausible claim to moral authority.)
http://scotthorton.org/interviews/2014/06/23/062314-ray-mcgovern/
Because “attention must be paid,” special thanks to the BBC (via a faithful listener) for the below-linked sequence of 11 photos, which tell the story in a way words cannot. Do have a look.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/middle_east_shooting_in_tal_afar/html/3.stm
