The international community wants to give money to pre-existing entities, like UN agencies, that have a limited capacity to do the kind of thing I'm recommending. They don't want to get involved in internal Iraqi politics, because they call that state building and then they say that this is colonialism, that we don't belong there.
The irony is that western governments didn't have a problem signing up with the U.S. coalition to effect regime change in Iraq and invade and occupy the country. That created the instability that led to ISIS. Now that we need to rebuild it, suddenly it's colonialism to be involved.
What I'm suggesting is that a coalition go to Baghdad, propose a working relationship—not impose themselves on the country—and say to them, “Look, you have a problem with this genocide. The whole world is looking at Iraq. Iraq now has its first Nobel Peace Prize winner who is from the Yazidi population. You need to do something about this, so let us help you.” They would say that's great, that they can't really deal with Sinjar, that they don't have the capacity and that corruption is a big problem. This commission could then go to Sinjar, work with local Yazidis and create a real election, a fair election—it's never happened—to create a leadership system there. That would make it possible to start bringing in reconstruction groups.
Mike Pence now has said they're going to give a lot of money for Iraqi minorities. The problem I have with it is that you don't have a system in place on the ground that can use that money responsibly. Most Yazidis are still unable to get back to Sinjar, and there are all the problems that we've been talking about. Everything is “cart before the horse” right now. We need security administration there. It needs to be local people.
It's not about creating a new Kurdistan region for the Assyrians in Nineveh or for the Yazidis. All you have to do is create a governorate in Sinjar. It will have the same governor, just like Mosul has a governor and just like Kirkuk has a governor. Every directorate has a governor. Create that and let local people fill those offices instead of a political party with an army.