There are few upsides to the emergence of ISIL. The group’s twisted interpretation of Islam to justify its own intolerant and violent agenda threatens to drown out moderate voices, which constitute the vast majority of Muslims. Fighting ISIL will take years and will divert money and attention that could have been put to more beneficial use.
But if there is a silver lining, it is the fact that Iraq’s disparate communities are now convinced they need to battle the threat together. In recent years, the Shia majority that was once dominated by the Sunni minority under Saddam’s reign has governed primarily for the benefit of its own people. And the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in the north continued with the course it pursued since gaining effective autonomy after the 1991 Gulf war.
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