Major parts of the western media are serving their audience „facts“ which are non or at best half-truths when it comes to the current crisis in Iraq involving ISIS and the Iraqi armed forces.
Here some corrections:
1. ISIS is no real representative of the Iraqi and/or Sunni community. As a matter of fact they have not only massacred many thousands of Shia civilians (but also police and soldiers) in Iraq, they have also killed in total thousands of Sunni arab fighters in Syria and hundreds of Sunnis in Iraq including members of the „Sahwa“, tribal chiefs, politicians and ordinary civilians.
2. For some of the reasons given above ISIS is not waging a „holy war“ against the Shias whom they consider „infidels“ but against the Iraqi state.
3. The Iraqi government and armed forces are definitely Shia dominated and there has been systematic and wide scale discrimination against Sunnis, but it is totally untrue that Sunnis are prohibited from being part of the government or army and police. This is nonsense. The Iraqi system is despite all of it´s corruption and power abuse still definitely less sectarian than the Bahraini government where the Shia majority is totally absent in the security forces.
4. The volunteers who want to fight against ISIS are not entirely Shias and when Shia cleric Sistani urged Iraqis to resist ISIS he did not single out the Shia by explicitly calling on them.
5. Much is said about Maliki and his devastating political mistakes, mainly his marginalization but the violence of the more radical militant elements of Iraqs Sunni community is not merely a reaction to Malikis policies. Deadly large scale attacks on Shia mosques, pilgrims, funeral processions, markets, Cafes…started as early as 2003 short after Saddams loss of power. There were high casualty suicide and car bombings against Shia civilians as well as their religious notables by the hands of Zarqawi and his followers even long before the official start of the 2006/7 civil war.
A good book about those events is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Occupation-War-Resistance-Iraq/dp/184467164X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402684132&sr=8-1&keywords=cockburn+occupation
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About point 4:
Sistani has since 2003 refused to meddle in any politics. Despite ongoing and almost one sided violence against Shiite civilians he has never condemened Sunnis. His speeches are completely inclusive they address the people of Iraq no matter if Shiite or Sunni.
About point 5:
The violence in Iraq is no reaction to Malikis policies. It is not directed against the state but actually against mostly crowded market places in Shiite districts. These bombs kill mostly women who are visiting the markets. Their only guilt is that they are Shiites. Also the people of Iraq must understand that in a democracy you may not like the ruling party or president, but then you have to engage politically or wait until the next elections.
The common attitude that a Shiite cannot govern a country with Sunnis is just due to a fascist view.
Just to understand more about the situation I recommend also these posts:
1 – This brilliant article written by Pulitzer Price winner Seymour Hersh written as early as 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/seymour-hersh-2007
It describes the current situation in he middle east perfectly
2 – Read this guardian article about the violence in Iraq, its backers and how the violence uses Malikis policies as excuse
http://tinyurl.com/beginning-end-iraq