Impossible Victory: How Iraq Defeated ISIS by Haider al-Abadi

Author:Haider al-Abadi
Format: epub

DELAYS AND FRUSTRATIONS

Securing the commitment of our allies overseas to support the war effort was the first step. Next, we had to agree on what that support would look like and how quickly it would materialise. It soon became clear that not everyone was on the same page.

The Americans wanted everything to be conducted under their umbrella with them taking the lead. On 22 June 2014, shortly before I took office, Maliki’s government had sought the help of the US, signing a document that authorised all US personnel who contributed to the war effort to have diplomatic visas and therefore immunity. The Americans wanted to bring the other nations who had offered to help us under this same agreement, so that the US military would sit at the top of the command structure. I refused, unwilling 157to hand over decision-making power for the entire operation to the US. This needed to be an Iraqi-led mission, supported – but not controlled – by our allies.

The US pushed back, refusing to cooperate under any circumstances if the commanders at the top were not American. I agreed that they could command the operations they were involved in, but remained firm in my refusal to bring all of our allies on board under the US agreement. I insisted that Iraq, as a sovereign state, should deal with every nation separately and that their overall involvement should come under Iraqi, not American, authority. Eventually the US accepted this, and we signed separate agreements with each individual country that had offered to work with us.

Once the legislative details had been ironed out, the support began to trickle in. In the beginning it was painfully slow. Once the western powers had got over the initial shock of what Daesh had managed to achieve, they decided to bring together as many countries as possible to decide how to combat them. While it was obviously symbolically important to have as many different states behind us as possible, in reality only a small handful of them – predominantly the US and its closest allies – would actually be willing and able to contribute meaningful support to help us defeat the terrorists on the battlefield. There was much fanfare around assembling a global coalition, and our allies began to hold large multilateral meetings, discussing what was needed to prepare for the struggle ahead.

The meetings were painstakingly long, tedious and dripping with diplomatic protocol, as every nation played on its participation in the coalition as a means of achieving its own political agenda or making a point. In the beginning, they achieved very little. I was 158angry and frustrated. While the international community deliberated, arguing about who should contribute what and worrying about how the media would perceive their involvement, Iraqis were dying on the battlefield.

We needed to act fast – Daesh were committing atrocities and we were losing more of our people every day. Meanwhile our most important allies were sitting around in Brussels and New York wasting time, always planning to make plans.

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