Iraq unity in fight against Daesh, vital: Academic

Press TV has conducted an interview with Sami Ramadani, professor at London Metropolitan University in London, to discuss the ongoing war crimes committed by Daesh Takfiri terrorists in Iraq.

Following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: We have this incident that is pretty much going back and forth in terms of territory gained or lost but on the bigger picture we have Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi which has gone on a severe purging of officials, parliaments and security officials. Do you think that this is going to help ultimately to gain one of its goals and that is to fight these Daesh terrorists by having unity amongst the Iraqi people coming as a result of this purging and dismissal of officials and security officers?

Ramadani: I think unity amongst the Iraqi people is vital obviously whether in the short or long-term and this is something that has been missing and it is partly or mainly due to the occupation of Iraq in 2003 when the United States succeeded unfortunately in sowing division amongst the people on ethnic grounds, on religious grounds, sects and so on and this has been the main obstacle today to fighting and defeating the ISIS terrorists.

The government in Iraq unfortunately again because of the US occupation has grown out of a process which the United States itself created and one important issue which is rarely discussed is that the Iraqi army itself was founded by the United States after the occupation and a lot of its officers were vetted under the Paul Bremer regime when Paul Bremer was ruling Iraq on behalf of the United States. They formed units of the Iraqi army, new units, a lot of the officers were closely vetted by the CIA and so on, so the Iraqi army itself is undermined seriously in terms of fighting terrorism or presenting a proper, unified fighting force and this is also a reflection within the Iraqi government where [posts] are divided according to ethnicity and sect and so on, promoting further divisions.

Haider al-Abadi is responding to a lot of popular demands that there should be serious purge of corrupt officials, corruption is rife throughout the Iraqi state apparatus, Iraqi Kurdistan is basically an independent state ruled by Barzani who himself by the way has links to the way ISIS at least expanded after they occupied Mosul, there were some de facto agreements between Barzani’s forces and ISIS.

And later on also Baathist officers, former Saddamist officers also joined with ISIS, some extremist Salafis and Takfiri groups also joined with ISIS, so the picture is quite complex and the fight against terrorism really goes at the heart of the problems facing Iraq ever since its occupation by the United States.

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