CFR Daily News Update: Scores Killed in Baghdad Blast

August 13, 2015 Daily News Brief

TOP OF THE AGENDA Scores Killed in Baghdad Blast At least eighty people were killed and hundreds injured when a truck bomb exploded (Guardian) at a Baghdad food market in a Shiite neighborhood on Thursday. The self-proclaimed Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, one of Iraq's most deadly (BBC) since Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi took his post a year ago. It follows last month’s announcement of an Iraqi military offensive to retake the Sunni-dominant Anbar province. On Monday the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly attack in eastern Diyala province. Meanwhile, ahead of his retirement, U.S. Army General Raymond Odierno said that the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq has reached a stalemate (AP) and that the United States should consider embedding U.S. soldiers on the frontlines with Iraqi security forces.

ANALYSIS "U.S. civilian leaders need to encourage the Pentagon to do better—but at the same time, America’s military leaders need to think more creatively about how to speed up the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq. Big units and big programs should give way to more targeted assistance and innovation in niche areas, perhaps involving a greater role for solutions crafted by the U.S. special operations forces community. Iraq’s leaders would welcome most, if not all, of these ideas. Quick, affordable battlefield innovation is in the DNA of the U.S. military," writes Michael Knight in Foreign Policy. "Blaming the U.S. for the rise of ISIS or waiting for its airstrikes to destroy the group is a fool’s errand, and misunderstands both the strengths and weaknesses of the 'Caliphate'. Unless the political, financial and ideological contingents that are behind the surge of ISIS are addressed, the debate over its 'pandemic' will be with us for a long time," writes Joyce Karam in Al-Arabiya. "ISIL not only took advantage of this Arab Sunni discontent, it also created a model of governance that repudiated those corrupt practices of the Iraqi state. ISIL has sought legitimacy among Iraqis by ending those extractive policies and by delivering services. While ISIL probably leverages its 'citizens' to give these rosy assessments of its administration, their complaints of their former Iraqi government have been echoed by Iraqis within Iraq itself," writes Ibrahim al-Marashi in Al Jazeera.http://links.cfr.mkt5175.com/servlet/MailView?ms=NDkzMTM2MzUS1&r=NTA0ODY0NjAzNjcS1&j=NzQyMDg2OTA3S0&mt=1&rt=0