OPINION:
President Obama heralded the U.S. military mission to rescue the Yazidis trapped on an Iraqi mountain as a ringing success, but to those still struggling to escape the horrors of the Islamic State, also know as ISIS, it is an ongoing battle.
Many survived the bloodbath, but are still threatened. Recent estimates state that 4,500 Yazidis remain in the hands of the Islamic State, including 3,000 women and children. They are still crying out for help and praying they not become a forgotten people.
Some of these people are my friends. I have heard their cries. I have listened to their prayers. We must not let them go unanswered.
As a Yazidi, I’m lucky to live in the United States, where I can freely practice my religion without fear, but the lives of friends and family I left behind in Iraq are at risk.
I struggle to believe the humanitarian crisis is over when I receive a phone call and hear my dear friend screaming and sobbing on the other end of the line — telling me how two of her friends committed suicide, four others were killed, and 10 others were taken for sexual pleasure.
Other women call and plead for someone to shell the jail so they can die in peace and end their suffering. Meanwhile, their children are stripped from their arms and indoctrinated, to serve as future martyrs for the ISIS movement.
The reality of life in Iraq under the Islamic State is a story of continued tyranny, death and persecution. Just one day after the administration decided it had done enough for Yazidis back in Iraq, ISIS struck again. Their fighters marched into Kocho, a village on the nearby Sinjar Plain, where they killed around 100 men and captured hundreds of women and children.
Let me be clear: Yazidis are well aware that American air power was essential to the rescuing of our people on Mt. Sinjar, saving tens of thousands of lives, and we are sincerely grateful. But with the Islamic State gaining ground in Iraq, there is always going to be another mountaintop.
The next mountaintop is ISIS jails. As a native Iraqi and Yazidi activist now living in the United States, I remain in contact with women clinging to life in these jails. It’s believed that 8,000 women and children are currently incarcerated by the Islamic State under harrowing conditions. Yazidi women in the jails are abused, raped, mutilated, sold for next to nothing or forced to marry members of the organization.
The Yazidis are just one of the groups persecuted at the hands of the militants. Whether it’s Yazidis, Christians, Kurds, Shiites or uncooperative Sunnis, the Islamic State will stop at nothing to vanquish its enemies. The fighters bring a humanitarian crisis with them wherever they go.
Given the opportunity, they most certainly would not back down from genocide to wipe out those who won’t join them. The message of the movement is stark: “Convert or die.”
However, this foreboding future need not be the end of the story — with assertive U.S. action, the humanitarian crisis in Iraq can be averted.
We’ve already seen what U.S. assistance can do in places like the Mosul Dam. Air support is undoubtedly a valuable asset. Air support alone, though, will not save innocent Yazidis, Christians and others stuck in the path of war. Air support is not going to answer the dying calls of those suffering in ISIS jails.
We are not asking for the 82nd or 101st Airborne to sweep through, but we implore the U.S. military to continue its airstrikes while empowering the forces of the Iraqi government and Kurdish Peshmerga. Yet, while arming the Iraqi Army and Peshmarga will benefit short-term national stability, recent history tells us that before long, those weapons will be used to oppress Iraqi minorities. Minorities such as the Yazidis need close international over watch and protection. The U.S. will need to help protect these groups by training them as part of Iraqi security forces.
The Yazidis have experienced firsthand the brutal consequences of letting the Islamic State’s radicals have their way in Iraq. We only pray that by showing the results of inaction — rape, torture, mass murder, broken families, broken nations — the Obama administration will be moved to take the necessary actions to prevent further suffering.
Do not forget the Yazidis, and the other distressed minority groups currently being targeted by the Islamic State after the headlines fade. Do not leave us behind.
Hadi Pir is an Iraqi Yazidi who emigrated to the United States after serving as an interpreter for U.S. military forces in Iraq. This article is adapted from a letter he sent to President Obama urging action to halt the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.
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