There is an air of Alice in Wonderland unreality to the behavior of the Iraqi government in the face of the ISIS onslaught. On Sunday it announced that it had retaken the key city of Tikkrit, birthplace of the late dictator Saddam Hussen. There was general rejoicing in Baghdad but it was short-lived. The TV pictures of a senior government officials handing out sweets to eager children were by no means hard and fast evidence that the Iraqi army had driven the terrorists out of the city, allegedly killing 60 of them in the process, among them “top commanders”. Indeed, the claim was later modified to say that in fact only the university campus on the outskirts of Tikkrit had been retaken. This assertion, along with the original statement that the entire city was now back in government hands, has been disputed by media controlled by ISIS. Film and images have been produced which appear to show that the terrorists are still firmly in control. The colossal error of the caretaker government of Nuri Al-Maliki is that by broadcasting news that turned out to be completely untrue, it not only undermines its own credibility both internationally and among its supporters; it also enhances the reputation of the ISIS terrorists and their allies who are seen to have put out reports that are in large part correct. Then there are the second-hand Sukhoi Su-30k fighter jets allegedly bought from Russia for $500 million. These warplanes, that arrived disassembled, are according to the Iraqi military, going to be deployed within two or three days. Pilots who have apparently flown the type in the past will merely need to “brush up” on their skills. This all seems deeply absurd. Advanced jets such as the Sukhois, are not going to battle-ready in a matter of days. Even with the assistance of Russian engineers working in Iraq, they are unlikely to be reassembled, flight-tested and their Iraqi pilots re-checked on the type within such a dramatically short time-scale. It is far more likely to take weeks before these warplanes can be deployed in air-to-surface attacks, not least because their weapons systems, whether bombs of missiles, are highly sophisticated. The air of unreality becomes the stronger when an Iraqi commander announces that as soon as the Sukhois are flying, they will be used in an attack on Fallujah. What clown broadcasts news of an air attack before it happens, enabling the enemy to moving anti-aircraft assets — of which ISIS has captured a great deal from the fleeing Iraqi army — to defend the city? So there may be an element of bluff here, designed to wrong-foot ISIS. However, from the quality of the pronouncements coming out of Baghdad, it sounds more like further empty bluster. The problem of the Maliki government is that it is long on talk and short on action. And unfortunately it is not doing the talking that is really necessary. If Iraq is to stem the advance of ISIS and its allies and restore its control of the vast swathes of territory that have been lost, it needs a government that will represent all parts of Iraqi society, not the narrow and bigoted interests of the Shia community. Maliki and his fantasy fightback cannot be part of a genuine unity government.
