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.
Read more ....
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.
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