Global Health G Subcommittee on Africa

The Isis Genocide Declaration Global Health G Subcommittee on Africa

In January 2014, ISIS terrorists captured the city of Fallujah in central Iraq a decade after it had been won at the cost of so much American, Iraqi, and British blood. ISIS moved north, taking more territory, and conducting its genocidal campaign again Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities. By early August, Yazidi men, women, and children were trapped on Mount Sinjar facing annihilation when the U. S. initiated airstrikes to save them. On March 17, 2016, Secretary Kerry declared that ISIS is "responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yazidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims." For years, the administration has been unwilling to effectively address the slaughters in Syria and Iraq. If it still thinks it has no obligation to act, it will likely continue its policy of acting too little too late. The Obama administration continues to conflate its strategy to combat ISIS with a strategy to protect religious minorities from genocide, war crimes, and mass atrocities. They are not the same. Combatting and defeating ISIS and Islamist extremism, of course, is essential. However, there are many other elements of an effective comprehensive civilian protection strategy, putting effective monitoring and response systems in place, and we have yet to hear them from the administration.