The Lesson Taught by Mosul
The Lesson Taught by Mosul
By Todd Strandberg
On June 10th of 2014, a band of 300 Islamic State fighters walked into Mosul, Iraq. They took control with hardly any resistance. Kurdish intelligence had warned that the city would be attacked. But infighting among top officers, Iraqi political leaders, and panic by the Iraqi military—caused a city of over one million people to be handed over to the enemy.
Many residents initially welcomed the ISIS invasion. They were fed up with the sectarianism of the Shia dominated Iraqi government. Because most residents of Mosul are of the same Sunni sect as ISIS, they falsely believed they would receive better treatment from them.
Not since the time that the Russians welcomed the Nazi army as liberators from Stalin’s reign, has there been a greater misjudgment of an invading force. In the nearly three years of occupation by ISIS, the living conditions in Mosul have gone from bad to worse.
The Iraqi soldiers that laid down their arms and surrendered were the first to realize their mistake. They were marched out into the desert by the hundreds and mowed down with automatic gunfire. The civilian population has had plenty of time to reconsider their error—as their lives became subject to an endless list of horrors. One ISIS member claims to have raped over 200 women.
There is almost nothing left of the 70,000 Assyrian Christians that lived in Mosul. The fortunate ones fled from the cities. The few that remain are forced to pay a tax for remaining Christian. They live under the constant threat of violence. Dozens of Christian churches and monasteries have been vandalized or burned down.
Other great losses are the artifacts from 5,000 years of ancient Mesopotamian ancestry. These ISIS criminals have the mindset that anything that is not directly related to their religion must be destroyed. Soon after their takeover of the city, ISIS released a five-minute video of its members smashing their way through the Mosul Museum, toppling statues and taking sledgehammers to centuries-old artifacts.
It has taken a great deal of time for the Iraqi government to turn the tide against ISIS forces. With help from Russia, America, and Iran, these evil thugs are slowly being driven back. The Battle of Mosul—a military offensive to retake the city begun in October 2016, is the largest deployment of Iraqi forces since the last Gulf War.
It is going to take a long siege to retake Mosul. The ISIS insurgents have a fanatical devotion to their cause. They have dug in with underground bunkers, booby traps, anti-tank missiles and car bombs. They are also using the civil population as human shields.
The city of Mosul has already suffered heavy damage. By the time the city is liberated, it will be unrecognizable to those who return home.
If the citizens of Mosul had been able to see into the future, I doubt the city would have fallen into the hands of ISIS. Knowing what horrors would come, they would have fought tooth and nail to the death. Those 300 ISIS fighters would have been wiped out in short order.
The devil wins many battles because people fail to count the cost of complacency. Adolf Hitler admitted that he would have had to retreat with his tail between his legs if the allies had reacted to his move to militarize the Rhineland. When he made his move in 1936, the Germany military only had 500,000 men. By the time Hitler invaded Poland, the German military had 4.5 million. The cost of stopping him went from a show of force to a bloodbath that left 60 million people dead.
I think where complacency has hurt us the most in America is how people on the right have allowed the forces of darkness to take over our schools, the news media, Hollywood, and much of the business world. We win some battles, but we are losing the war.
Elizabeth Johnston, aka the “Activist Mommy,” has regained access to her account after Facebook apologized for banning her for posting Bible quotes about homosexuality. If you work at Facebook, you still need to keep your Christian views to yourself.
There is an overwhelming spirit of complacency that has made this current generation ripe for the Tribulation. Many organizations that claim to represent Christian values are unwilling to resist evil and stand up for what they believe in—so there is nothing to prevent this world from coming under God’s wrath.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
–Todd