HARNESSING IRAQ’S DEADLY ARRAY OF ARMED GROUPS AFTER ISIL
By Sarhang Hamasaeed. Posted by WAR ON THE ROCKS on December 15, 2017.
Earlier this week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared that a moment eagerly awaited by the Iraqi people had finally arrived: victory over the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Government forces had rooted out ISIL from its last pockets along the Syrian border, Abadi told the nation. The defeat of the terrorist group as an organized force was, he said, in large part a result of Iraqis’ “unity.”
Certainly, the fight against ISIL put virtually all elements in the fractious nation on the same side for a few years. The hope in some quarters has been that after the group’s defeat, the unity displayed in the counter-ISIL effort would transfer to Iraqi national politics and lead the armed groups that were formed to stop the extremists to disband. The unfortunate reality, however, is that the chances for such an outcome have withered as victory approached. Far from fostering national cohesion, tensions that have long threatened Iraq have resurfaced, and in some respects intensified, during the struggle with ISIL.
Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iraq’s fragile society of Arabs (Sunnis and Shia), Kurds, Christians, Yazidis, and other diverse communities has continued to fragment, a trend papered over by the unified campaign against the brutal Islamic State. In the latest chapter, this communal competition is backed up by armed groups — vastly strengthened from their earlier incarnations by anti-ISIL involvement — pursuing rival agendas with support from international sponsors.