The development comes as the US State Department has warned that a new global terrorist group like Daesh* could emerge in Iraq unless the nation implements social and political reforms.
Sputnik has discussed the chances of any new terror group akin to Daesh appearing in Iraq with Bamo Nouri, an associate fellow of the Higher Education Academy, University of London, and an expert on the Middle East and Iraq.
Sputnik: What are the chances of any new terror group akin to Daesh appearing in Iraq?
Bamo Nouri: Realistically as long as the rushed, divisive, illegally, undemocratic and unclear ambiguous Constitution of the 2005 remains in force in Iraq and it does not get addressed then there's always going to be a system that fails to serve the people. A system that is unclear both in theory and very, very terrible in practice, so the division that it’s causing, the situation with a lack of functional public services, electricity and water has not improved since 2003, since the war. This is alarming considering there has been copious corporations, copious prime ministerial term and still no improvements, and the people as long as they’re not being served, as long as they are in this current state there is always going to be a chance that somebody with a better idea in theory will be able to go and guide them towards a new system. And this is what ISIS ultimately did and have been doing since 2003. That's where it started.
Bamo Nouri: You've got a system ultimately that doesn’t serve the Iraqi people. You've got a Constitution that failed to outline what type of ministers and prime ministers should be selected and elected to positions of authority in Iraq. So that leaves people in positions that are not competent. They’re selected based on ethnicity, based on their religious sect, not based on merit, not based on their ability to serve. So when they take over these positions in the state of Iraq, post-sanctions, post-war, with all of the calamities that’ve occurred, it’s almost like having a community of have-nots now all of a sudden become a community of have-lots. It seems to me that politics in Iraq is more a case of let’s get a position so we can fill our pockets as opposed to serve, because everybody is still a victim of the malnourishment, the depredation of the sanctions and the wars. The Constitution of 2005 needs to be revised, it was made in the post-war period, at a time when America had implemented numerous shock therapy tactics that meant the Iraqis conform in this privatization of the state and it ultimately failed. This Constitution was rushed, this Constitution is divisive. Almost a year ago we had the referendum for independence from Kurdistan. We need a new Constitution that’s written by Iraqis, by experts and a constitution that brings back national identity to Iraq. That's the long-term, in terms of immediately, we need to, in fairness to Abadi, he has already combated most of the issues, we need to clamp down on corruption. Iraq is currently ranked 169 out of 180 nation-states for corruption and it scored 18 out of 100, and that was logged by Transparency International. So the corruption is rife at the moment, this needs to be tackled, we need to see transparently where the public funds are going in Iraq, because the governments and the ministers are not utilizing them for the boroughs and the areas they ultimately represent. And this is what the people of Basra are complaining about, this is why the Kurdish people in the north complained and protested, and this is a big, big problem at the moment. This is what needs to be addressed.
Bamo Nouri: The problem is that just like we saw in the Iraq war of 2003, if you ever want to understand Iraq in its present situation and understand the history of that specific war, when they bombed Iraq in 2003 it was beyond just winning the war. It was destruction in order to create a climate where there was a need for rebuilding and who was to rebuild? The occupying authority, the coalition provisional authority gave these contracts to US firms and corporations. So as long as there’s chaos and as long as there’s tyranny and as long as there is unsettlement and unsettlement that a fractioned Iraqi government can’t deal with, then there’s going to be a need for Western powers. But the problem is that anything that happens in Iraq and in the Middle East specifically, the credibility of the United States after that specific war has gone down. So I don’t even think there’s any expectation on the United States anymore, people don’t look into the skies with their hands up anymore expecting the US to come and help, however, there is one expectation that still some people have, is that all the money that was taken from Iraq and all the profits that were made, if that was to be invested and sent back in aid for the electricity services, for the water services, for the pipelines, for everything that was still damaged and left and not fixed.
The views expressed in this article are those of the speaker, and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia
