As an American writing from Iraq who occasionally works in Mosul now I can say that the fear here is that there will simply be another war once ISIS is gone. The Shia' militias control all the villages outside of the city. The Christian villages on the east side of the city, though liberated six month ago remain empty other than Shia' militia. The Iraqi army units in Mosul City, 16th and 9th Divisions, are staffed by people not from the area (mainly Iraqi southerners) and the ethnic cleansing has been occurring both by the Shia' and by the Kurds (yes, Kurds have wiped out formerly Saddam-implemented Sunni Arab villages).
There is great fear here, and to speak to the larger Trump administration issues, the presumption is that these people have no clue what they are sewing the seeds of, and don't care. The Kurdistan government is basically a dictatorship but its hailed by the West as a bastion of democracy. The Shia' militias have more power than ever under the much maligned Malaki government. In the long game, the US always sides with the team that will allow investors to come in, with little regard for the ethnic/sectarian mess it brings with.
Why only in Nineveh Plains? Mosul itself is richly mixed, along with Tel Afar. Not to mention the large Yazidi enclave in Shengal (Sinjar).
The reality on the ground is that neither the KRG nor Baghdad would ever accept a new autonomous region. Both government have a long pre-ISIS history of discrimination and denial of services to these minorities.
As an American writing from Iraq who occasionally works in Mosul now I can say that the fear here is that there will simply be another war once ISIS is gone. The Shia' militias control all the villages outside of the city. The Christian villages on the east side of the city, though liberated six month ago remain empty other than Shia' militia. The Iraqi army units in Mosul City, 16th and 9th Divisions, are staffed by people not from the area (mainly Iraqi southerners) and the ethnic cleansing has been occurring both by the Shia' and by the Kurds (yes, Kurds have wiped out formerly Saddam-implemented Sunni Arab villages).
There is great fear here, and to speak to the larger Trump administration issues, the presumption is that these people have no clue what they are sewing the seeds of, and don't care. The Kurdistan government is basically a dictatorship but its hailed by the West as a bastion of democracy. The Shia' militias have more power than ever under the much maligned Malaki government. In the long game, the US always sides with the team that will allow investors to come in, with little regard for the ethnic/sectarian mess it brings with.
Why only in Nineveh Plains? Mosul itself is richly mixed, along with Tel Afar. Not to mention the large Yazidi enclave in Shengal (Sinjar).
The reality on the ground is that neither the KRG nor Baghdad would ever accept a new autonomous region. Both government have a long pre-ISIS history of discrimination and denial of services to these minorities.