Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter rubbed salt into the wound when he said Iraqi forces lacked determination in their fight against ISIS.
“What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight” in Ramadi which was controlled by the terrorist organisation of ISIS, he said.
The Iraq Popular Mobilisation Forces responded by pinning the blame on the US. “The forces which have been described by Carter as lacking will to fight were trained by Americans for eight years and the US plundered the will of Iraqi armed forces,” a spokesman said.
Despite American criticism and response from various quarters, the problem in Iraq today reveals the depth of the crisis and its seriousness under a disunited army and a weak government.
The ongoing sectarian conflicts, presence of foreign armed militias on a rampage and mobilisation of forces along sectarian lines on Iran’s behalf have aggravated the crisis.
Extremist terrorist groups are growing roots and the US-led air strikes are unable to stop their advance.
John McCain, who heads the Armed Services Committee in the Senate, said in an interview with CNN that 75 percent of the warplanes were coming back to their bases without dropping bombs because of lack of people on the ground to help them identify targets, making the operation useless.
In Iraq today, there are three states with three governments. The first one is in Baghdad, which has limited political power and a corrupt system dominated and guided by the sectarian religious authority. The second is a Kurdish-led government in Erbil, and the third the ISIS government in Mosul. All signs point to the fact that the Iraqi crisis will go on and its implications will be huge and will cross borders. Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said that a military solution in Iraq is not enough, and some expect the conflict between Sunnis and Shias in the region to develop into a ‘war for thirty years’.The Peninsula
