Iraqi government capable of defeating ISIL: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Nabil Mikhail, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, about the latest reports indicating that tens of thousands of Iraqis have fled the city of Ramadi in the western Iraqi province of Anbar since the ISIL terrorist group seized some of its parts over the weekend.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: First of all, there is the situation of internally displaced people in Iraq, even now as we have just reported more than 40,000 people have fled from Anbar province because of the ISIL terrorists. Is Iraq capable of handling this situation of internally displaced people?  

Mikhail: Yes, the government of Iraq can handle the displacement of refugees but the question is why there is a problem of displacing people, of depopulating areas in Iraq? This is the big question.

There is definitely a wrong American plan to defeat ISIL. You have to conclude this. It seems to me that America is treating ISIL and its extremism the way America treats the drug trafficking in Mexico. They know they operate in provinces, they rely on either rivalry among the gangs and that can happen and it cannot happen. Second, they rely also on the police which is understaffed, unarmed and disorganized and thirdly they leave it for circumstances, if one province is sealed away from drug trafficking, the activity will appear or thrive in another one.

So it is just a regional strategy that sees wrong American military planning. I drew an analogy between ISIL and Mexican drug trafficking and you can elaborate on this.

So now the question is what kind of decisions the government of Iraq will make to recapture the province of al-Anbar? I believe there could be good decisions and I still feel that the prime minister of Iraq [Haider] al-Abadi is at a good chance to redeem himself, to reclaim victory and also to solve permanently or to a large extent the ISIL problem. He is in the same position like Sadat when he fought Israel in 73, he is in the same position like Indira Gandhi when she fought the Pakistanis over Bangladesh in 1971 ...

So there is a local leader who is totally underappreciated but he can emerge as victorious. But again, these are very critical moments in the history of Iraq. The prime minister has to get the best advice, the right advice, try to help him, do not thrash him into a premature military planning executed in a wrong way and it could be disastrous. So Iraq can stop the refugee crisis ...

Press TV: Professor Mikhail, let me just jump in there. Can the situation of ISIL be forever solved when it comes to Iraq for as long as this group continues to operate in Syria?

Mikhail: This is a good question but here is the irony and I hope more Americans can understand it, is that because of the strength of Assad, ISIL cannot penetrate the Syrian heartlands. Yes, they can occupy two thirds of Syria but this is desert it is thinly populated but they cannot approach Damascus, they cannot approach the big cities because the government of Damascus, Assad, can unleash his power and just physically eliminate them. 

So here is the irony, is that the strength of Syria, militarily speaking, makes room for ISIL to operate in Iraq. So basically you went first to the Kurdish areas, you sought help from Turkey which was not forthcoming and you started basically moving in Iraq like moving pieces on a chessboard. One time this province, the next day is this province and then you have the mushrooming and the ballooning of all these conspiracy theories.

So this is also an element of the conflict unless America addresses these snowballing conspiracy theories people will not trust America. You can defeat ISIL if you contain it. I mean you missed an opportunity, you kicked them out of the Kurdish areas, you kicked them out of Tikrit and then you let them occupy space and operate. This is a wrong strategy. This is why I am saying back and stop any bickering of our decisions in Iraq, of the government of Iraq that are not necessarily. Iraq now stands at a crossroads. They should have a strong will, a strategic vision and only the Iraqi government can defeat ISIL.

AHK/GHN

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