Iraqi strategy in confronting ISIS : a study in military strategy and doctrine

Abstract EN

Indeed, political diplomacy and strategy were not present on the ground, especially in the era of Al-Maliki, who had not the political cleverness and experience in administration of the Iraqi state, he used the policy of exclusion against his political rivals whether Shiites or Sunnis which generated to occurrence of more dilemmas in the Iraqi government.

Hence, terrorist groups originally have been supported by some radical Sunni leaders, exploited the weakness of government to begin peaceful demonstrations outwardly and inwardly military to gain time (as step one) and re-arrange groups in order to face the government militarily (as step two).

Therefore, changes led to an imbalance in the Iraqi government precisely on the military side because of the rampant corruption in the military system and the lack a real strategy and military doctrine in the Iraqi army.

The end result was the fall important cities such as Mosul, Tikrit, and some areas of Anbar under the control ISIS.

The final result, genuine convictions have crystalized in the Iraqi decision-maker and the religious authority in Najaf (Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani) that the military option is the only solution to remove ISIS from all parts of Iraq.