Is Iraq On The Verge Of Revolution?

Members of Iraqi security forces are seen in front of the Iranian consulate, as demonstrators gather during ongoing anti-government protests in Kerbala, November 3. REUTERS/Stringer

News.com.au: The ominous sign for Iraq as it spirals towards revolution

It’s suffered two invasions and a mission to save it from the Islamic State. Now this nation caught between the world’s fiercest enemies is on the brink of spiralling out of control.

At least three people have been reportedly shot dead at protests outside the Iranian consulate in Iraq this weekend, as the country is engulfed in widespread unrest over corruption, unemployment and public services.

Despite the $US220 billion reconstruction effort following the US-led 2003 invasion, Iraq remains suffering from immense unemployment, failing public services and widespread corruption.

Over the weekend protesters threw burning objects over the walls around the Iranian consulate in protest over perceived interference in internal affairs.

It comes amid widespread unrest where tens of thousands have taken to the streets to call for regime change and the end of corrupt parties. And that’s before you take religious divides into account.

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WNU Editor: Iraq has high unemployment, a failing public service, corruption, and deep sectarian differences. It is amazing that the country is still together.

Is ISIS Coming Back To Iraq?

A view of a part of western Mosul during the battle to remove Isi from the city taken on 29 May 2017 REUTERS

Arwa Damon, Ghazi Balkiz, Muwafaq Mohammed and Brice Laine, CNN: Iraq defeated ISIS more than a year ago. The group's revival is already underway

There is a different feel to the atmosphere in Baghdad these days, as if the chokehold that has gripped the Iraqi capital for the better part of the last decade and a half has started to ease.

On the main road cutting through the Karada district, the sidewalks are crowded with vendors hawking designer knock-offs and sticky sweets. Restaurants lining the boulevard grill masgouf, a butterflied carp considered to be Iraq's national dish, over open flames. People sit at outdoor cafés, sipping tea and smoking shisha.

Two and a half years ago, ISIS plowed a truck packed with explosives into a busy shopping area down the road during Ramadan, killing hundreds of people.

Now, young men sporting skinny jeans, funky jackets and what we're told is the new "spikey" hairstyle hang around in groups. It's a look that once would have gotten them killed, back in the years of Iraq's sectarian bloodletting when Baghdad was a patchwork of brutal militias.

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WNU Editor: Iraq is a textbook example on what happens when centuries of sectarianism, religious conflict, and ethnic conflict are not resolved in a nation where all of these groups must live and work together.

Iran Is The Big Loser From This Weekend's Iraqi Parliamentary Elections

Simon Tisdall: Iraq's shock election result may be turning point for Iran

Result is blow to US, but Iran will also lose out after Iraq’s protest against rule by proxy.

The unexpectedly poor showing of Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, in parliamentary elections has dealt a blow to US influence in the country. It was a poor return for American backing for the Baghdad government’s drive to extirpate Islamic State and regain lost territory.

But the bigger loser may be Iran, whose allies in Iraq’s Shia militias known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces were pushed into second place by Moqtada al-Sadr, the veteran nationalist. Put simply, Sadr believes Iraqis should run Iraqi affairs – not Washington, not Tehran and not their proxies.

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WNU Editor: Moqtada al-Sadr's coalition has not won enough votes to be a majority .... they will have to look for a coalition partner. The defeat of Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi is a disappointment for the U.S. .... his party came in third .... but he will probably become the power broker on who forms the next government. As for Iran .... their allies came in second .... which was not expected, they had expectations of being in the majority.

Are We Seeing The Beginning Of An Iraqi Civil War?

Mark Williams, Bloomberg: Balance of Power: After Islamic State, Are Iraqi Guns Being Turned on Each Other?

Three weeks after Iraq’s Kurds voted overwhelmingly for independence, Baghdad moved to regain control of the oil that helped propel Kurdish dreams of statehood.

Iraqi forces took over oil fields and a military base near the city of Kirkuk that lie outside the Kurds’ semi-autonomous region but have been controlled by them since 2014. The fighting sent oil prices higher.

Prime Minister Haider Abadi has vowed to seek a negotiated way forward with the Kurds — but also to prevent a fracturing of the country. While it’s unclear how he’ll square the two, mounting international concern over Kirkuk could force an opening for emergency talks. Sustained conflict might drag in Turkey and Iran.

Kurdish fighters entered Kirkuk as Iraq’s army retreated before Islamic State offensives. Now, the collapse of the extremist group’s rule — as in Syria — is changing the calculus.

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WNU Editor: So the Kurds who saved Kirkuk when ISIS forced the Iraqi Army to flee have now been "kicked-out" by the same Iraqi Army who fled when the Islamic State went on the rampage. I still think that the Iraqi Army is too weak to confront Kurdish military forces if the Iraqi military decides to enter Kurdish regions. But this ends any hope of reconciliation between Iraq's Kurds who voted for independence 3 weeks ago, and the Baghdad government who have decided that instead of negotiations the use of force will be their preferred form of action.

Is A Major Shift In Public Opinon Currently Underway In Iraq?

Munqith al-Dagher and Karl Kaltenthaler, Washington Post: A striking positive shift in Sunni opinion in Iraq is underway. Here’s what it means

Iraqi security forces have made great progress toward defeating the Islamic State in Iraq. Whether this military success will translate into enduring stability will depend in large part upon the attitudes of Iraqi Sunnis toward the postwar state. Since 2003, Iraqi Sunnis have viewed the political system as unfair and marginalizing their role in the nation’s politics. A recent public opinion survey we carried out reveals a startling and potentially significant shift in Sunni attitudes toward the Iraqi state.

A nationwide poll of Iraqis carried out by the Almustakilla for Research group in April 2017 found that for the first time since our surveys began in 2003, Sunni Arab public opinion in Iraq is very positive about the political situation in the country, while the Shiite Arab view of politics has grown more negative.

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WNU Editor: I think it is premature to make claims that public opinion is shifting in Iraq. I have been following Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and I have lost count over the years on reading these type of stories.

What Does The Victory Over ISIS Really Mean For The Future Of Iraq

Haider Al Abadi, Iraq's prime minister, attends an event to announce victory over ISIL in Mosul. Reuters

Alan Philips, The National: The battle in Mosul is over, but Haider Al Abadi now faces a superhuman task

What does the victory over ISIL really mean for the future of Iraq, wonders Alan Philps.

The crushing of ISIL in the Iraqi city of Mosul after nine months of intense fighting is a turning point, but history shows that it is dangerous to use the word victory. There have been many victories claimed by the United States in the Middle East that have turned out to be not the beginning of peace but the signal for the start of a new stage in the conflict.

At the end of the first Gulf War in 1991, when Iraqi troops were driven out of Kuwait, George H W Bush declared: “The war is over… It is a victory for the rule of law and for what is right”. In fact, the conflict over who rules Iraq merely moved through different phases, with regular outbursts of fighting ever since.

When the Iraqi prime minister, Haider Al Abadi, announced “total victory” in Mosul on Monday, it was an understandable response to the end of street-by-street combat against an enemy that was willing to shoot fleeing civilians in the back and send women and children to blow themselves up on the front line with Iraqi security forces.

But the question of what victory means hangs over the ruins of the city.

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WNU Editor: Unlike past Iraqi leaders .... Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi has done something that no one in Iraq can claim today .... he has won a series of major military battles and is on the brink of winning the war against ISIS. He also now has an army that is battle-hardened and have shown that they can prevail in a brutal urban fight against an enemy that is entrenched, heavily armed, and willing to die for their cause. For Iraq .... this is quite an accomplishment .... even though the cost of it has been incredibly high. Destroyed cities. Thousands dead. Even more wounded. And a million people displaced. But among the destruction and suffering it was quite a sight to see when Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi was with the soldiers in Mosul earlier this week .... you can tell that they were overwhelmed to see him there with them .... and they were completely loyal to him in a manner that I have never seen Iraqi soldiers display to their leader. The loyalty of Saddam Hussein's army was based on fear. Iraqi leaders since the 2003 U.S. invasion had an army that was loyal to them because of corruption. But this time around it is different .... this was/is a loyalty that has been forged by war.

In the coming year the priority will be to rout the last of ISIS in the country, and from there lay the groundwork for a federated state that will accommodate the different sectarian groups that make up the country. Is Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi the right man to do this job .... I do not know. But there is no one else in Iraq who can do it .... none that I at least know of .... and for that we should pray for his success.

The New Power Brokers In Iraq Are The Shiite Clerics In The South Of The Country

Iranian pilgrims pray as they gather outside the Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines in Kerbala, southwest of Baghdad, September 11, 2016. Alaa Al-Marjani / Reuters

Jack Watling, The Atlantic: The Shia Power Brokers of the New Iraq

As the embattled country wages war on ISIS in the north, its future may be decided by clerics in the south.

KARBALA, Iraq—The inner sanctum of the Imam Hussein Shrine shines day and night, illuminated by jeweled chandeliers. Their light is reflected in the mirrored domes of the roof, and gleams across the gold-framed marble walls. At the center of the shrine, a stream of pilgrims presses against the gilded grating that surrounds the sarcophagus of Hussein, grandson of the prophet Muhammad. In 680 AD, Imam Hussein was killed in the Battle of Karbala fighting the forces of the Umayyad caliph, his death cementing Sunni political dominance across the Islamic world. The battle was the point of no return in the schism between Sunni and Shia Islam, becoming the basis for the Shiites’ distinct rituals and identity, at the center of which is Hussein’s sacrifice.

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WNU Editor: The Iraqi government has failed the Iraqi people .... and in this vacuum comes the clerics. Will these clerics do a better job .... at the moment .... that is something that many Shiite Iraqis are now hoping for.

What Happens After Mosul Is Liberated?

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent: If you want to know what will happen to Mosul after Isis is pushed out, look back to the fall of Saddam Hussein

The anti-Isis forces involved in seizing Mosul may be temporary allies, but they are also longstanding rivals.

I visited Mosul on the day it fell to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and a small detachment of US Special Forces on 11 April 2003. As we drove into the city, we passed lines of pick-up trucks piled high with loot returning to the Kurdish-controlled enclave in northern Iraq. US soldiers at a checkpoint, over which waved the Stars and Stripes, were shooting at a man in the distance who kept bobbing up from behind a wall and waving the Iraqi flag.

If there had ever been any sympathy between liberators and liberated in Mosul, it was disappearing fast. Inside the city, every government building, including the university, was being systematically looted by Kurds and Arabs alike. I saw one man who had stolen an enormous and very ugly red and gold sofa from the governor’s office dragging it slowly down the street. He would push one end of the sofa a few feet forward and then go to the other end and repeat the same process. The mosques were soon calling on the Sunni Arab majority to build barricades to defend their neighbourhoods from marauders.

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Update: 'Unsavory Mix': Liberating of Mosul Will Not Bring Iraq's Troubles to an End (Sputnik)

WNU Editor: Bottom line .... it appears that nothing will change after the Islamic State have been driven out of Mosul. But if this happens .... there is a very good chance that it may get worse .... Iraqi Kurds will push for independence after Mosul is freed — PM (RT).

Signs Indicate That Even If The Islamic State Is Driven Out Of Iraq's Sunni Regions, Old Tribal And Sectarian Conflicts Will Return

Iraqi security forces escort civilians who fled their homes due to the clashes between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State militants in the town of Hit in Anbar province, April 4, 2016. (photo by REUTERS)

Mustafa Saadoun, Al-Monitor: Will conflict continue as Iraq's Sunni areas are liberated from IS?

BAGHDAD — On June 28, the Anbar provincial council voted to dismiss Gov. Suhaib al-Rawi, who is a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party. While the dismissal came as a result of a political conflict within the province, Rawi said he "rejects the decision of his dismissal" as he threatened to "resort to both the law and the judiciary to challenge the Anbar council's vote."

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Islamic Party, headed by former Speaker Ayad al-Samarrai, is trying to restore its presence and regain control over Sunni areas by trying to control the Anbar reconstruction dossier.

For his part, the head of the Sunni Endowment, Diwan Abdul Latif Al-Hamim, who joined the dispute over Sunni areas, is trying to stop the expansion of the Iraqi Islamic Party as he continues to expand his influence there. Al-Masalla website published a report in May showing that each of the aforementioned parties are exploiting their influence on Sunni tribal forces to expand their dominance in Anbar province. Hamim had used the humanitarian crisis plaguing the Sunni province in his favor. However, he is facing major obstacles that have led to a conflict with the Iraqi Islamic Party, as revealed by the leader of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, Saleh al-Mutlaq.

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WNU Editor: These sectarian and tribal conflicts have been ongoing for decades (if not centuries) .... and I certainly do not see it ending when the Islamic State has been finally driven out.

Is The Islamic State About To Go 'Underground' In Iraq?

Fighters from the Iraqi Shi'ite Badr Organization walk past a poster depicting images of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on the outskirts of Fallujah. Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters

Natasha Bertrand, Business Insider: Iraqi forces have made 'rapid, unexpected' gains against ISIS, but the victories may signal an ominous new reality

The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) entered the ISIS stronghold of Fallujah on Friday, recapturing the city's main government building and hospital with minimal resistance from the jihadists.

Tim Arango, The New York Times' Baghdad bureau chief, described the government forces' gains as "rapid and unexpected," noting that ISIS had abandoned checkpoints and was not preventing civilians from leaving the city. The group had, until now, been using civilians as human shields.

"The rapid, and unexpected, gains suggested a shift in tactics by the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, or perhaps a sign of their weakness, as they abandoned their dug-in positions and regrouped in western neighborhoods," Arango reported.

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WNU Editor: Even if the Islamic State is defeated on the battlefield in Iraq, its fanatical followers, its base within the Sunni areas of Iraq, outside supporters .... this conflict is not going to end anytime soon.

Should Iraq Be Carved Up?

Luay al-Khatteeb. National Interest: The Folly of Lobbying to Carve Up Iraq

The smooth Kurdish PR campaign.

“It was the Kurds,” wrote Thomas Friedman in 2014, “who used the window of freedom we opened for them to overcome internal divisions, start to reform their once Sopranos-like politics and create a vibrant economy that is now throwing up skyscrapers and colleges.”

This has become the popular story of Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Regional Government that has circulated increasingly in Washington and London. According to this narrative, Iraq’s Kurds have been long oppressed, but instead of collapsing into internal conflict as many liberated societies in the region do, they have pressed ahead with democracy.

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WNU Editor: The Yugoslav model for Iraq has being bandied about for the past few years .... will it happen for Iraq .... or for Syria .... I doubt it. But the discussion is continuing.

Where Did All Of Iraq's Oil Money Go?

Luay al-Khatteeb, National Interest: Corruption in Iraq: Where Did All the Money Go?

Officials have pilfered funds that could have been spent fighting ISIS.

Once again, the subject of illicit financial flows from kleptocratic regimes is in the international spotlight, this time in the form of the “Panama Papers.”

What is surprising is the level of shock at something that should have been obvious. For a long time, many financial institutions turned a blind eye to nefarious PEPs (politically exposed persons) and not just in Switzerland, as we see now with big names such as HSBC, once again deflecting allegations.

The industrialized world can’t afford any more surprises like this, otherwise aid and loans will continue to enter weak states, only to be rapidly snuck out.

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WNU Editor: In the past few years .... especially when oil was over $100/barrel .... Iraq earned $700 billion in oil revenue. But now .... with nothing to show for it .... we now have a situation where Baghdad is running to the IMF begging for money .... IMF agrees $5.4bn Iraq bailout to tackle Isis and budget deficit (Financial Times). More here .... IMF agrees $5.4 billion standby loan for Iraq (Reuters). So where did the money go? The official line is that it went into infrastructure, social programs, government salaries, the military, and everything else. Truth be told .... whether it is Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, Venezuela .... money has a habit of going somewhere else.

Is Iran The Big Winner As Iraq Continues To Unravel?

Followers of Iraq’s Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are seen in the parliament building as they storm Baghdad’s Green Zone after lawmakers failed to convene for a vote on overhauling the government, in Iraq on April 30, 2016. Photo by Ahmed Saad/Reuters

Jamie Dettmer, Voice of America: More Political Turmoil Likely in Iraq as Iran Waits in the Wings

Firebrand Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the figure at the center of Iraq's current political tempest, may be agitating and directing his supporters in the name of reform, but he and his followers, who ransacked the national parliament at the weekend, risk worsening Iraq’s sectarian divisions.

The ultimate beneficiary of Iraq’s unfolding political crisis and weakened government will likely be Iran, say analysts, who warn that Tehran, even though it may not be engineering the Sadrist protests, is seeking to leverage its influence on its neighbor.

And the Sadrists plan to hold more anti-corruption protests in the Iraqi capital Friday as they push for the scrapping of a now-hated quota system that guarantees the country’s political factions a share of government jobs and patronage. They present the next immediate challenge for embattled Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, whose own determined reform efforts have stalled.

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WNU Editor: No one is (or will be) a winner if Iraq continues to unravel .... and definitely not Iran if they should intercede even more in this mess.

Can Moqtada al-Sadr Take Down Iraq’s Government?

Khalid Al Mousily/Reuters

Michael Weiss and Abdulla Hawez, Daily Beast: How Moqtada al-Sadr Could Take Down Iraq’s Government

Supporters of the powerful Shia cleric stormed Baghdad’s parliament, leaving legislators quivering in the basement and Iraq on the edge of political chaos.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ — Hussain Jassim refused to leave the Green Zone, once considered the impenetrable citadel at the heart of Baghdad, until his leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered him to do so. “We have entered parliament and we have broken it’s prestige in front of people because they are thieves, they deserve for that to happen to them,” Jassim told The Daily Beast.

He was one of thousands of angry protestors who on Saturday raided the Iraqi legislature, chasing MPs out of their own seats in government, and often assaulting or denouncing those not aligned with al-Sadr trying to run away from the melee. “We saw them fleeing from us,” Jassim said.

Some legislators stayed behind, trapped in the basement of the parliament for fear of not wanting to confront the angry crowd outside. There were even false reports that a few had repaired to the sprawling U.S. embassy complex, seeking refuge from their own countrymen.

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WNU Editor: Can Moqtada al-Sadr take down Iraq’s government .... well .... they did this past weekend. But one has to wonder after reading this story on who is pulling his strings .... a day after telling his followers to leave Baghdad's Green Zone, Moktada al-Sadr flies to Iran .... Iraqi Shiite Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Makes Unannounced Visit to Iran (WSJ).

Why Peace Will Not Be Possible In Iraq After The Islamic State Has Been Defeated

Displaced Sunni people fleeing the violence in Ramadi, cross a bridge on the outskirts of Baghdad, May 24, 2015.

Anand Gopal, The Atlantic: The Hell After ISIS

Even as the militant group loses ground in Iraq, many Sunnis say they have no hope for peace. One family’s story shows why.

Falah sabar heard a knock at the door. It was just before midnight in western Baghdad last April and Falah was already in bed, so he sent his son Wissam to answer. Standing in the doorway was a tall young man in jeans who neither shook Wissam’s hand nor offered a greeting. “We don’t want you here,” he said. “Your family should be gone by noon tomorrow.” For weeks, Wissam, who was 23, had been expecting something like this, as he’d noticed a dark mood taking hold of the neighborhood. He went to get his father, but when they returned, the stranger was gone.

Falah is tall and broad-shouldered, with salt-and-pepper hair. At 48, he was the patriarch of a brood of sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren. He sat down with Wissam to talk things through. They had been in Baghdad for just three months, but that was long enough for the abiding principle of refugee life to imprint itself on Falah’s psyche: Avoid trouble. When Wissam had managed to find a job at a construction firm, Falah had told him to be courteous, not to mix with strangers, and not to ask too many questions. If providence had granted them a new life in this unfamiliar city, it could snatch that life away just as easily.

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WNU Editor: An on the ground report on how deeply divided Iraq is along sectarian lines. This is a depressing read.

The Rise Of Radical Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr Is The Nightmare Scenario Facing Iraq

Riyadh Mohammed, Fiscal Times: The Nightmare Scenario Facing Iraq – and the US

Just as the Iraqi government announced the beginning of the operations to liberate Mosul, the country’s second largest city, Iraq’s internal political turmoil threatens to reverse what has been achieved against ISIS.

The Iraqi army launched an offensive 12 days ago to capture a group of villages south of Mosul. The battle of Mosul is being led by the Iraqi army’s 15th and 16th divisions; both are newly formed and contain a majority of Shiite soldiers. While Sunni tribes, Kurdish forces and U.S. airstrikes are supporting the effort, the outcome will be determined by the effectiveness of the Iraqi armed forces. Results so far have been mixed, with reports of stiff resistance from ISIS.

Equally troubling is the growing political crisis in Baghdad.

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WNU Editor: Iraq is facing many "nightmare-scenarios" .... Muqtada a-Sadr included. But this is one of those rare situations where it appears that both the U.S. and Iran are in agreement .... that the rise of a radical Shiite cleric to power in Iraq and/or the return to power of former PM Malaki would be a complete disaster for everyone .... U.S., Iran keep Iraqi PM in place as he challenges ruling elite (Reuters).

What Will It Cost To Rebuild Iraq?

Destroyed buildings are seen in the city of Ramadi, Iraq, Jan. 16, 2016. (photo by REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani)

Omar al-Jaffal, Al-Monitor: What it will cost to rebuild Iraq

BAGHDAD — “Ramadi has turned into ruins,” said Ouda, a soldier who has been fighting in the Iraqi army’s Seventh Division since mid-2015. Ouda took part in the liberation of Anbar province from the Islamic State (IS), which took hold of the city of Ramadi in May 2015.

Al-Monitor met Ouda (a pseudonym), who is a resident of Baghdad, in one of the cafes of the capital during his day off.

He recalled, “We fought with my comrades violent battles to expel radical IS militants in several axes of the city of Ramadi and the province of Hit. The battles wreaked havoc in Ramadi.”

Ouda described the situation in Ramadi to Al-Monitor on condition his real name not be used, because as a soldier he is not allowed to speak with the media.

“Ramadi’s houses and streets are all filled with mines. The entire city will crumble as a result of the vast quantity of mines left by IS,” he said.

Ouda, who is in his mid-30s, said that IS has booby-trapped everything. “Mines exploded all over the place as we moved inside the city. This is IS’ style. It destroys everything.”

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WNU Editor: Iraq is not ready for a program of massive reconstruction while the war rages in the east and north. And once the war is finished .... reconstruction and foreign aid will then be faced with the Iraqi problem of corruption and sectarian divisions. Reconstruction should only come about after the war is over, and there is some agreement among the many groups in Iraq to work together. Unfortunately .... I do not see progress happening on this front for a very long time.

As The Islamic State Is Being Forced Out Of Iraq, Anarchy Is Taking Over

Displaced Sunni people, who fled the violence in the city of Ramadi, arrive at the outskirts of Baghdad, April 17, 2015. Iraqi security forces fought Islamic State militants at the gates of the western city of Ramadi on Friday, and local authorities warned it was in danger of falling unless reinforcements arrived soon. REUTERS/Stringer

Christine van Den Toorn, Foreign Policy: High Noon in Iraq’s Wild West

The Islamic State is finally being forced out of the country, but anarchy is taking over.

The liberation of towns from the Islamic State has had the surprising effect on my Iraqi friends of making them more despondent than they were before. When they are asked when things will turn around, they shrug and say Allah karim, akin to the English expression “when pigs fly.” Just after Sinjar was “liberated,” my former student from there sent me pictures of his family’s Friday lunch spread before and after they devoured it, labeling them Sinjar “before liberation” and “after liberation.”

Iraq is now face-to-face with the classic “day after” dilemma. Many of its towns are demolished and there is no money to rebuild. There is no agreement on which groups should secure and govern the areas and who gets to go back. The most visceral and volatile barrier is the newfound distrust among the local populations of liberated areas, who see one another as collaborators, bystanders or victims of the Islamic State. Left unattended, these “day after” dynamics will — and have already — lead to internecine conflict and political gridlock that will undermine battlefield victories, similar to what happened in 2010 when military successes of the Sahwa, or Sunni Awakening militias, against Al Qaeda in Iraq were squandered due to a lack of lasting national and local political deals.

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WNU Editor: Absent any political - sectarian reconciliation ... peace is impossible. Sighhh .... the sad reality of much of the Middle East.

Will Iraq Still Be A Unified Nation After The Islamic State Has Been Defeated?

Sunni refugees from Ramadi arriving at Baghdad. Reuters

New York Times: Sunni Resentment Muddles Prospect of Reunifying Iraq After ISIS

AMIRIYAT FALLUJA, Iraq — When Iraqi ground forces and American aircraft began assaulting the city of Ramadi more than a month ago, Ghusoon Muhammed and her family fled to the government’s front line, as did many other Sunni Arab families who had been trapped for months. Soldiers sent her and the children one way, and her husband another, to be interrogated in a detention facility.

She has not seen him or heard from him since. She and her children, who will most likely not be able to go home to Ramadi for months given the destruction, have been left to wait in a ramshackle tent camp here in Anbar Province. She is desperate, and adamant: “The innocent people in jail need to be released!” she said.

Standing nearby on Sunday was another woman, Karima Nouri. Her son, an auto mechanic, was also taken away by the authorities, and she has had no word about him for weeks. Ms. Nouri said the government considered civilians who remained in Ramadi to be sympathizers of the Islamic State. “But we had no ability to leave,” she said. “We are very poor.”

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WNU Editor: A sobering assessment on Iraq's future.

Who Really Is In Control Of Iraq Today?

Abadi attends a parliamentary session soon after becoming prime minister in September last year. Just over a year on, Abadi's promises of reform remain mostly unfulfilled. His critics say he is unlikely to deliver. His backers say he needs more time. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad

Ned Parker, Reuters: Iraq's Power Struggle

Power failure in Iraq as militias outgun state.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi came to office a year ago promising to rebuild his country. But the Iraqi state has grown weaker as power has leaked to Shi’ite militia leaders

ERBIL, IRAQ – In April, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi sat at a conference table in his Baghdad office with almost two dozen men in combat fatigues. The men were not officers in the Iraqi Army, but representatives of the Shi’ite paramilitary groups that have led the fight against Islamic State.

Hadi al-Amiri, one of the most senior militia leaders, delivered a long and forceful monologue on his fighters’ recent victories. Abadi, in a blazer and tie, listened, occasionally jotting down notes, a video of the meeting shows. A few minutes later, Abadi himself praised the fighters.

The event was a sign of the delicate power balance in Iraq.

WNU Editor: He who has the guns has the power .... and it is becoming more and more clear that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has little if both.