Gareth Evans, humanitarian intervention, A Responsibility to Protect Iraqis? Christophe Petit Tesson/ZumaPress

A Responsibility to Protect Iraqis?

Shia and other non-Sunnis in the path of the marauding Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have plenty of reason to fear mass atrocities. But it would be premature to conclude that violence against the defenseless has already occurred – or is imminent – on the scale necessary to justify outside military intervention.

CANBERRA – Only one possible justification – moral, political, or military – exists for renewed Western or other external military intervention in Iraq: meeting the international responsibility to protect victims, or potential victims, of mass atrocity crimes – genocide, ethnic cleansing, other crimes against humanity, or major war crimes.

https://prosyn.org/cqDMh3h