We shouldn’t redraw existing borders carelessly. But when trying to hold a state together becomes more disruptive to international order than allowing it to break apart, when one group mistreats another within a state, when a government loses the ability and authority to govern, the sensible course is to let that state dissolve.

After becoming direct victims of ISIS violence in 2014, no significant Christian groups in northern Iraq chose neutrality, and most fought in Christian militias rather than integrating into larger Iraqi or Kurdish forces.

Iraqi Christians in the Nineveh Plains require assistance, which can only be achieved by a coalition of states seeking the indigenous population’s best interest. President Trump and numerous European governments have made assisting displaced and persecuted Christians a top priority. These leaders have followed words with actions, but more must be done.

Christians in the United States and Europe must continue to speak up for our Iraqi brothers and sisters in Christ. We must act now, or the oldest Christian community in the world could vanish during our time.

The American forces who died fighting ISIS fighters in Niger deserve our gratitude, their families our compassion and help, and their mission in the African theater of operations our support. 

The Kurdish independence movement gives the United States a unique opportunity to support a government as it transitions towards democracy and becomes a viable Middle Eastern partner within a region of chaos.

Speaking last Friday CSIS, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter warned that military excellence is not America’s “birthright”. It must be earned again and again.

We know that Mosul must fall for IS to collapse; we also know that the battle for Mosul will be a bloody one. Yet the greatest danger will come after Mosul falls.

The KRG’s Karim Sinjari insists few Peshmerga fighters have deserted but warns there may be more desertions if Kurdistan cannot pay them.