Petraeus, a realpolitik or still lack of understanding Iraqi Arab Sunni Power Hungry?

Retired U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus. Photo: AP

Omar Sindi, Washington | Exclusive to iKurd.net

General David Petraeus Testifying on Sept. 22nd, is it realpolitik or still lack of understanding Iraqi Arab Sunni Power Hungry?

Of course, the Retired General had been a fine general and a good soldier in his capacity during the both tasks, the service to his country and the CIA director of the United States of America. Most likely, that is probably why on September 22nd, 2015, the US Senate Armed Service Committee requested his expertly input on the status of al-Qaeda and the ISIS/ISIL in Iraq and Syria crisis; how possibly these two nihilistic terror groups could be defeated in the future.

As of February 2007, the general took the charge of the multinational coalition forces in Iraq, over 140,000 troops, with the addition of 20,000 US soldiers, to be joined-support, the controversial strategy to be called “surge”. At the time General Petraeus became in charge of commanding forces in Iraq; Iraq was on its pinnacle of civil war crisis, mainly between in Shia’s led sectarian government in Baghdad and the al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group with supporting predominately Sunni Arab tribes in Iraq.

The General approached these tribes by promising many privileges within the future Iraqi government; persuaded Iraqi Sunni Arab tribes to disassociate from al-Qaeda still the remnant of affiliated Abu Musab al –Zarqawi; at that time, the nihilist ISIS was not born yet; the General was praised for that successful approach. However in my view, there were many other contributing factors to that accolade:

a) Sunni tribal leaders well understood if they didn’t dis- associate from al-Qaeda group, they would’ve soon faced the overwhelming superiority of the United States Armed Forces, along with its coalition partners, including Shia militias.

b) All those tribal leaders were receiving a lot of US dollars including their militias with promises that this pay would continue through the Iraqi government.

At the same time the kleptocratic- sectarian Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had far different agendas on his policy, not having a sincere dialogue for heterogeneous Iraqi society, and not implementing genuine democratic reforms that would make Tribal leaders raison d’etre for this landscape crisis. However, other pundits, as well as many Congressmen in the United States Congress on this political spectrum are advocating to appease Iraqi Arab Sunni in order to stabilize the Iraqi political system, and in my view that was also a misapprehension scenario; most, if not all, Iraqi Arab Sunni leaders along with their constituents are refusing to accept minority role, even though, had Maliki been a genuine reformer in his political reforms.

During the Ottoman Empire reign in the Mesopotamia, they eerily preferred Arab Sunnah over the other regional people; perhaps this anomaly is, maybe the roots of the unprecedented manners, that is why Turkish President Erdogan rantings? As British Forces invaded Mesopotamia, during World War I it was known as “Mesopotamian Campaign”, the British army defeated the Turkish army, and the British authorities handed power to the Arab Sunnah sect, minority role with unprecedented supports, including viciously suppressing both the Kurdish people’s right and Shi’ite majority.

Therefore, this sect of Iraqi Arab Sunnah had conspicuously been in charge with an “iron fist” policy since the inception of the Iraqi State for centuries, and until 2003, they disregarded the rights and concerns of other indigenous people as known Iraqi. They are refusing to indulge in the reality of the power–sharing consensus. If one was to ask an Arab Sunnah person, they most likely would tell you: “oh we are larger than any other groups in Iraq”; Arabization policy into Kurdistan via Ba’athist regime was internationally documented, for example, if one asks an Iraqi Arab Sunni if the Kirkuk city name was changed to Tamim, they would deny it. Still most Iraqi Arab Sunni if given the chance would deny that allegation; they do not want accept that the dreaded Ba’athist regime was panacea to most, if not all problems and malaise in Iraq.

The dilemma of this crisis, which makes it uncompromising; which dragged Sunni militant groups to the nihilistic ISIS/ISIL, so called Islamic State with its brutalities, spawned through the whole region and beyond- at the same time Iraq and Syria have become a center stage for rivalry influence via proxies for neighboring countries, and as well as super- power sphere of influences; now President Vladimir Putin is flexing his military muscle to support and revive the dying dictator Bashar Assad and his regime; and he is infringing (intelligent sharing with the Shia led government in Baghdad) into American client Iraq because of President Obama‘s indecisive foreign policy for years. The current Baghdad leadership are applauding the Russian initiative in Syria and encouraging it in Iraq as well.

No matter how many more additional advice that the United States Congress is going to seek-US Senate Armed Services Committee, or any other branch of US government concerning the status of Iraq, in order to eradicate this nihilistic terror organization ISIS/ISIL.

Whether that would be the Former General David Petraeus, or any other experts, pundits about Iraq; the real solution, “not real politik”, must come from all Iraqi segment society, the problem authoritarianism and governing structure of the state (at the same time, this segment of power hungry Sunnah Iraqi Arab, the remnant of the failed pan-Arabism ideology left over from Michel Aflaq, Salah al –Din al –Bitar, Satia al-Husri, and many others; they will cooperate and assist with anyone that gives them even a false iota of hope inception, that they will be a captain of a ship in Baghdad again; just like in 2006 they cooperated with –Zarqawi -aL-Qaeda clique, and now they are fully assisting this nihilistic ISIS/ISIL), if they want a vibrant and coherent society, but how could this be possible? While many top Iraqi leaders’ monthly official salaries are far larger than President of United States salary for a whole year, for example, for years, while Iraqi leadership have been unable to deliver 24 hour electrical grid for the whole Iraqi people, especially during brutal summer heat. Those who refuse peaceful power change; they undoubtedly asking for a forceful change. The irony is it appears that the top Iraqi leadership didn’t foresee this endogenous or exogenous pressure from the power hungry!

Omar Sindi, a senior writer, analyst and columnist for iKurd.net, Washington, United States.