Humanitarian Emergency in Iraq
ISIS militants, shown here, are proving to be a major problem in Iraq.
As the situation in Iraq has escalated, the UN announced yesterday that the situation is a “Level 3 Emergency”, which will trigger additional goods, funds and assets to respond to the needs of the displaced. Earlier today, clashes between Iraqi troops and ISIS west of Baghdad resulted in the death of at least four children. The UN Security Council also said that it was backing a newly-nominated premier-designate in hopes that they can swiftly form an “inclusive government” to neutralize the insurgent threat, the worst crisis in Iraq since US troops withdrew back in 2011.
Since they swept into Iraq in early June, ISIS has driven hundreds of thousands away from their homes, and have been clashing with Kurds in the north. They have targeted the region’s religious and ethnic minorities, such as the Christians and Yezidis, who have fled their advance to take refuge in the remote desert Sinjar mountain range. The American and Iraqi military have dropped food and water supplies, and in recent days Kurds have battled to open a corridor to the mountain, which has allowed some 45,000 to escape. However, roughly 4,500 people remain on top of the mountain, nearly half of whom are herders who lived in the area before the invasion and don’t plan on evacuating.
The UN said that they would be providing additional support to Iraqi refugees, including 400,000 who have fled since June into Kurdish territory. A total of 1.5 million people have been displaced by fighting since ISIS captured Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, and swept through other parts of the country. Fighting erupted earlier today in the ISIS-held city of Fallujah, just 40 miles to the west of Baghdad. At least four children have already been killed in the battle, as well as one woman and 10 militants. In recent days, the US has been carrying out airstrikes against ISIS fighters, helping to fend back their advance on Kurdish regions. Iraq’s central government in Baghdad, meanwhile, has been plagued by political turmoil after the President nominated a Shiite politician to form the next government. The Prime Minister, Nori al-Maliki, said that he refuses to relinquish power until a federal court rules on what he called a “constitutional violation” by the President.
US Not Providing Enough Support?
A Kurdish “peshmerga” fighter in Iraq.
According to Karwan Zebari, a top Kurdish representative to the US, the Obama administration isn’t doing enough to supply weapons to Kurdish resistance forces in their fight against ISIS, hinting that other nations may be sending the Kurds more support than the Americans. To this point, he said, the Kurds have only received “light” arms, which aren’t nearly effective enough against the Islamic State militants. To go on the offensive against the militants, he claims, the Kurds need effective equipment.
Qubad Talabani, the Kurdistan Regional Government Deputy Prime Minister, says the the caliber of weapons that ISIS militants have is far superior to the Kurds’, noting that the militants are currently fighting with US-supplied weapons seized from Iraqi troops. At the moment, the Kurds are the ones doing the most in the fight against ISIS, but they seem to be buckling under the group’s onslaught. The US is currently only providing ammunition for small arms and mortars, stopping short of arming the Kurds directly. Zebari warned the Pentagon against working with the Iraqi government in Baghdad to facilitate the transfer of arms, since they tend to slow things down.
Just last week, the Pentagon said that the focus of the attack is to coordinate a multinational effort to provide munitions, while Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced plans being formed for a seven-nation effort to arm the Kurds. However, while the US is going through Baghdad, other nations have already announced plans to directly arm Kurdish fighters and bypass Baghdad in the process. Germany recently announced that they’re currently preparing to provide advanced weaponry, including anti-tank missiles, directly to the Kurds. On Monday, David Cameron of the UK told Parliament that the UK has already supplied arms directly to the Kurds. On the same day that Hagel announced the seven-nation effort, Iran’s foreign minister met with Kurdish President Masoud Barzani to announce that Iran was the first country to supply weapons to the Kurds.
The Obama administration is currently weighing its strategy for addressing ISIS, as well as the possibility of expanding that campaign from Iraq into Syria. On Tuesday, another video emerged of an American journalist being executed at the hand of ISIS militants. Last week, another video surfaced that purported to show an ISIS militant beheading a Kurdish fighter. As of yet, Obama hasn’t said whether or not the US would expand support for the Kurds, saying that he wanted to make sure everybody was clear on what the US was planning to do.
About Nelson Lewis
An exposure to politics at a young age had a profound effect on media maven Nelson Lewis, who worked as a volunteer for numerous Republican politicians in and around his native Savannah. Nelson worked as a reporter and eventually anchor at two Savannah television stations growing up, WJCL ABC-22 and WTGS FOX-28, also recording voice teasers for airing on Fridays on WJCL-FM KIX 96 and previewing his upcoming stories, which aired on the Sunday evening news.
One of Nelson’s favorite experiences at WJCL was reporting live from the St. Patrick’s Day Parade (America’s second largest) from 1998-2000. Continuing in the spirit of his grandfather’s pioneering and trailblazing footsteps (he was the first to bring all-color television and stereo to the Savannah market), Nelson became the first person in Savannah market to bring a kid’s perspective to local news as its first youth reporter. In fact, one of the competing stations, WSAV NBC-3 hired their own youth reporter, Sean Champion, 18 months after Nelson began his reports and WJCL/TGS’s ratings dramatically increased.
Work In Political Media
While a sophomore and junior at Lynn University, Nelson Lewis hosted “Politijam”, a lively political debate show that became well known across the university campus and served as the media editor of the univeristy’s weekly EPulse newspaper. While at Lynn, Nelson was selected to represent the entire undergraduate student population as a member of Lynn University’s Academic Task Force, charged with the duty of streamlining the core curriculum of the universities.
While attending Lynn’s College of International Communication, Nelson developed a friendship with Irving R. Levine, a well-known and nationally recognized correspondent for NBC News who became the network’s first full time economics correspondent, and was the creator of the precursor to CNBC. After a 45-year career in journalism, Levine went on to become Dean of Lynn’s communication program. After finishing college, Nelson Lewis followed Levine’s suggestion and moved to Washington, DC where his first job was as a press intern for a Republican congressman, which then led to a job booking at the Fox News Channel from 2006-2010. Here, he was able to put his love of politics and interest in the Republican Party to good use.
Upon the suggestion of Mr. Levine, Nelson Lewis enrolled in the Masters of Professional Studies in Journalism (International Politics) program at Georgetown University in 2009, where a special emphasis was placed on the dissolution of America’s Fairness Doctrine and on the major player in its demise, Bruce Fein.
Nelson was honored to be invited to speak at a roast honoring Levine’s 2009 death at the National Press Club, where he spoke alongside Levine family members and contemporaries such as former Meet the Press Moderator Marvin Kalb. He subsequently wrote a letter to the editor published in The Hill newspaper eulogizing Levine as a “top-notch raconteur” who many others have tried to emulate.
From his work at Fox News, Nelson Lewis was able to take a firsthand role in the DC journalism scene, and was blessed with the opportunity of meeting entertainment, political, and academic luminaries on a daily basis, including numerous sitting and former representatives, senators, governors and cabinet secretaries. These unique experiences gave Nelson a front row seat to many historic events and gave him a firsthand experience of how the Washington system works, from how laws are created to how news is made.
Through Nelson Lewis’ work creating Her Golf Network, coupled with his extensive booking experiences in segment producing gained at America’s highest rated cable news channel and through his time performing key internships at places such as WPBT’s Nightly Business Report in Miami, where he honed his scriptwriting skills, and at WTOC in Savannah, where he provided copyediting and on-site production assistance at the 2004 Sea Island G-8 summit, have provided him with a solid foundation and understanding of the news business. His time as a reporter/anchor growing up prior to his undergraduate studies helped him get an early start at doing what he loves most, reporting.
