There is a real danger that lack of military aggression by the Iraqi armed forces and inadequate support from their allies in the international coalition will permit Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) to hang on the large tracts of Iraq that it has captured, including Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.
This dangerous terrorist group is actively working to destabilise the entire Middle East and its nation states, and it sees infinite possibilities for its brand of destructive anarchy in the ongoing civil wars and regional violence that is engulfing far too many Arab states.
This is why the struggle in Iraq is so important. The defeat of Daesh is more than just another battle. It is an existential struggle to reject narrow and vicious sectarianism and to rebuild the concept of nation states, which by definition have to include people from different backgrounds and offer stable government and the transparent rule of law.
The Iraqi army was reformed and trained by skilled American teams before the US pulled out of Iraq. The then Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki proceeded to remove many of its competent officers and replace them with staff from the Iranian-backed Shiite militias who were backing his sectarian view of government. In addition, when it left Iraq as a fighting force, the US also removed its backup for the Iraqi forces. These twin blows to the Iraq army weakened it to the dangerous levels that allowed Daesh to have such an easy victory last year.
The answer is to look ahead and to reverse what can be changed. Iraq’s international allies need to be much more active even if that does not include sending fighting troops. The Iraqi armed forces need an ample supply of weapons and ammunition, air support from international coalition war planes, and high level intelligence analysis, as well as training and logistics.
This will help build Iraqi confidence that they can win, and then they will start to roll back Daesh and expunge it from Iraq’s political scene.
