Iraq has been poorly served by successive governments in Baghdad and it is utterly disappointing that it is still hoping for better and more inclusive governance so that all its people are able to rally to the support of Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi. He and the united people of Iraq need to face down the sectarian challenges that confront Iraq as it slowly ceases to be a functioning country. And there is a danger that the reality of the single state becoming several self-managing territories — that cooperate or not as their leaders deem fit — may become a more permanent arrangement.
Al Abadi has largely failed to deliver the exciting message of inclusive reform that he had promised when he came to power and large groups of Iraqi people have simply withdrawn their support for the regime. He has allowed the Iranian-dominated militias to dictate too much of the government’s military strategy and although he has managed to achieve a working alliance with the Kurdish Regional Government, it remains effectively independent in all but name.
Most of the recent news out of Iraq has focused on the struggle against Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) where the international coalition has been providing important backup and support as the government has made slow advances that seem to have stalled in recent months. Daesh has lost substantial parts of the territory it once controlled in western and central Iraq as the result of an offensive by Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, backed by the United States-led coalition strikes. Some months ago, the government won some important successes by recapturing the towns of Ramadi in the south and Sinjar in the north, which apparently positioned it to encircle Mosul, which remains in Daesh hands after almost two years. Retaking Mosul would be a major success for the government and would position it to launch a final attack to regain the whole of Iraqi territory from Daesh.
Maybe in reaction to this slow attrition, Daesh has changed tactics and let off two bomb blasts this week, which killed more than 70 people in the predominantly Shiite neighbourhood of Baghdad’s Sadr City, which followed several coordinated attacks on government troops and police posts in Abu Ghraib and Fallujah. The Iraqi government must not get rattled by such murderous violence and should stick to its long-term targets of regaining its territory and offering better and inclusive governance.
