Skip to footer

The real battle in Aleppo and Mosul

Iraq’s war on Islamic State in Mosul has one big difference from Syria’s war on Aleppo. It tries to protect civilians while Syria either attacks them or basic facilities. Iraq is on the side of history for humanitarian law. 

|
Reuters
Iraqi displaced people who fled Islamic State militants in Mosul arrive in Kirkuk to be transported to camps on Dec. 7.
  • By the Monitor's Editorial Board

The world’s main body for protecting civilians in war zones, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), is closely watching two tense and pivotal battles in the Middle East. One is Iraq’s assault on Islamic State forces in Mosul. The other is Syria’s attack on pro-democracy rebels in Aleppo. Each is telling, in opposite ways, about global progress toward nations honoring humanitarian law in conflicts.

The ICRC gives high marks to Iraq’s tactics in avoiding civilian casualties as its Army slowly retakes the country’s second largest city. If Iraq's official concern for the innocent in Mosul continues, it might set a strong precedent in the region for living up to the ideals of the Geneva Conventions.

Syria, on the other hand, along with Russian warplanes, is randomly striking schools, hospitals, and anyone who even moves on the streets of eastern Aleppo. On Wednesday, the rising civilian carnage led Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, and the United States to demand an immediate cease-fire. They also asked the United Nations to investigate possible war crimes against civilians.

The Russian-Syrian forces may be on the wrong side of history, based on a new ICRC survey of 17,000 people in 16 countries. The survey found that 8 out of 10 people say combatants should avoid killing civilians as much as possible. That holds for attacks on health facilities. The vast majority of people, in other words, believe in international laws of war. 

Ten of those countries surveyed are currently in conflict, such as Iraq and South Sudan. In those places, 78 percent said it was wrong to attack enemy combatants hiding in urban areas. In Western countries, only 50 percent of people say such attacks in civilian areas are wrong. Those closest to war violence, in other words, are more prone to empathize with innocent civilians and advocate their protection.

For more than a century, the principles of the Geneva Conventions have become steadily accepted by much of humanity. In Aleppo and Mosul, the world can hope that this progress continues.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to The real battle in Aleppo and Mosul
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2016/1207/The-real-battle-in-Aleppo-and-Mosul
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe