Brett McGurk takes ‘job from hell’ as anti-Islamic State envoy for US

IT’S been called the “job from hell” and “as big a task as you could hand anybody.” Meet Brett McGurk, the man whose job it is to take on IS.

Brett McGurk is the world’s biggest hope in the fight against the Islamic State.

MEET Brett McGurk, the man taking on the “job from hell” leading the campaign against Islamic State campaign for the 65-country coalition.

It’s a difficult, diplomatic role made even harder by a lack of power to alter the military’s failing strategy in the Middle East, since the envoy operates from outside the White House.

His predecessor, John Allen, lasted just 13 months in the role, created in September of last year, clashing repeatedly with the Pentagon and struggling with internal politics in the US administration.

Some believe Barack Obama’s appointment of McGurk, who he called “one of my most trusted advisers on Iraq” may signal a change in direction in the fight against the militants.

“Nobody is going to do any better than John Allen unless the President says, ‘This counts,’” Ryan Crocker, a former US ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan, told Foreign Policy. “Otherwise, it will be the job from hell, and I don’t see why anyone would want it. Either you don’t have an envoy at all or you give him or her real clout.”

There has so far been no clear sign that 42-year-old McGurk will be given more authority over US commanders but with the situation in the Middle East changing fast, now could the perfect time the job really counts.

It’s a crucial time in the Middle East, with Russia and Iran now involved in the battle.

“It’s about as big a task as you could hand anybody,” Monash University terrorism expert Greg Barton told news.com.au. “There’s no clear pathway or sense of a timeline, there are tricky policies coming up with Syria. It’s a mammoth task.”

Allen seemed uncomfortable from the beginning, when the President announced that his task was to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the terrorists, telling German newspaper Der Spiegel: “I don’t believe that the president intended to imply the ‘annihilation’ of Daesh [IS]. That is far beyond our thinking in this regard. We want to deny Daesh the ability to have safe havens ... what we’re undertaking as a coalition is much bigger, much broader, than simply the military role.”

A former military commander said Allen faced a “no-win” situation when a Sunni tribe who had fought with him against al-Qaeda begged for US air strikes to protect them against IS. The help was refused, and the tribe suffered heavy casualties, leaving Allen “personally devastated”. A senior US official admitted “there was some friction with the Pentagon” during Allen’s tenure, but insisted that wasn’t why he had stood down.

Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler this week became the first soldier to die in action in Iraq since 2011.

While the White House insisted Allen and McGurk have been central to all major decisions made in the campaign against IS, Jim Jeffrey, a former US ambassador to Iraq, said, “The job is in the wrong place”, and that he, too, had been sidelined by the Pentagon when he served as deputy presidential envoy to Bosnia in the 1990s. “As long as I sat in the State Department, the Defence Department made it clear they didn’t want to hear me,” he added.

Professor Barton believes Allen’s role was “innately tricky” not just because of the threat of IS but because of the obstacles within the US government. But things could be different now.

“There’s more consensus on the need to take decisive action,” said Prof Barton. “Allen was operating in a policy vacuum not of his own making. People are now realistic about the situation on the ground, that they have to attempt to engage with Russia and Iran.

“Notwithstanding the protestations made overnight by Blair [the former British prime minister apologised for the Iraq War and took some responsibility for the rise of IS], I think everyone acknowledges the way we went about Iraq — cutting government and not providing structure to stop insurgency — didn’t work. Working with the government in Damascus, with Assad and two key allies, Russia and Iran, as morally vexed as it is, is the only solution.”

Honored to have served under Gen. Allen and grateful for the opportunity to carry on the torch in this vital mission to defeat #ISIL.

— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) October 23, 2015

McGurk takes over just as Russia has stepped up its involvement in Syria, bombing enemies of President Bashar al-Assad, and even inviting him to talks. The new envoy faces the challenge of working with Russia while persuading Baghdad not to host Vladimir Putin’s air bases in Iraq.

Luckily, McGurk has plenty of experience of adversity, having supported George Bush both in sending more troops into Iraq, and in the 2011 withdrawal. In 2012, Barack Obama nominated McGurk to be ambassador to Iraq, but he was forced to withdraw after the publication of what Senators called an “unprofessional” racy email exchange between him and Wall Street Journal reporter Gina Chon (now his wife).

At the time, the National Security Council said he would be called upon again to serve his country.

Trained in law, McGurk has been a key US figure in Iraq for almost a decade, most recently as Allen’s deputy, negotiating with Sunni leaders and the Iraqi government to take back Ramadi. Some believe his appointment marks a new direction as the campaign against IS falters. Obama recently scrapped a $832.18 million mission to train Syrian opposition fighters, and on Thursday Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler became the first American serviceman to die in action in Iraq since 2011.

The extremists now control swathes of northern Syria and are closing in on Baghdad.

Every nation united in the battle against IS will be hoping Obama’s faith in McGurk is repaid.

— With wires

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