How Shiites Won the Battle Against Islamic State

Mohammed M.A. Ahmed

How Shiites Won the Battle
Against Islamic State

Kurds and Sunnis in Iraq

PETER LANG

New York • Bern • Berlin

Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ahmed, Mohammed M.A., author.

Title: How Shiites won the battle against Islamic State: Kurds and Sunnis in Iraq / Mohammed M.A. Ahmed.

Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018021520 | ISBN 978-1-4331-5434-8 (hardback: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4331-5794-3 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-5795-0 (epub)

ISBN 978-1-4331-5796-7 (mobi)

Subjects: LCSH: IS (Organization) | Shiites—Political activity—Iraq.

Sunnites—Iraq. | Kurds—Iraq.

Iraq—Politics and government—2003–.

Classification: LCC DS70.8.S55 A38 2018 | DDC 956.7044/3—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018021520

DOI 10.3726/b14217

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

© 2018 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

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All rights reserved.

Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
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About the author

Mohammed M.A. Ahmed is the president and founder of the Ahmed Foundation for Kurdish Studies, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that sponsors conferences and undertakes scholarly studies concerning Kurdish culture, history, and politics in the Middle East. Ahmed worked for the United Nations for 24 years in different capacities in developing countries and at the headquarters in New York City. As a UN expert, he provided advisory services to member states on economic and social development issues and represented the organization at numerous regional and international conferences. Ahmed is the author of America Unravels Iraq: Kurds, Shiites, and Sunni Arabs Compete for Supremacy and Iraqi Kurds and Nation-Building and is the coeditor of The Evolution of Kurdish Nationalism, The Kurdish Question and International Law, Kurdish Exodus: From Internal Displacement to Diaspora, The Kurdish Question and the 2003 Iraq War, and The Kurdish Spring: Geopolitical Changes and the Kurds.

About the book

The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq inadvertently changed the balance of power in favor of the Shiite community in Iraq and beyond. How Shiites Won the Battle Against Islamic State: Kurds and Sunnis in Iraq sheds light on how the Shiite-dominated government’s sectarian policies deepened the divide between Iraq’s major communities (Shiites, Sunni Arabs, and the Kurds) and led the country on the path of unending sectarian violence. This book explains how the government’s failure to address Sunni Arab grievances led to the emergence of the radical Islamic State and convinced the Kurds that they could not coexist with Iraqi Arabs, who had been at each other’s throats since 2003. This book notes that the emergence of a Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad was a historical event that led Iran to achieve its longstanding dream of extending its influence from Tehran to Baghdad, Damascus, and Beirut. How Shiites Won the Battle Against Islamic State places a special focus on how Shiite politicians’ slick diplomacy and media campaigns diverted attention from its sectarian policies in 2014 by labeling the Sunni Arabs as terrorists and Kurdish leaders as corrupt separatists and troublemakers. This book also uncovers how the Iraqi government was able to garner Western military and political support to defeat ISIS and derail the Kurdish statehood movement.

Advance Praise for

How Shiites Won the Battle Against Islamic State

“This is the third sequel to Mohammed M.A. Ahmed’s trilogy dealing with the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and its consequences. He presents a masterful study of the disastrous war for the peoples—Arab Sunnis and Shi’a and Kurds—as well as for the international geopolitical and geo-economical order. As he indicated in his first book, Iraq continues to unravel with great historical consequences. The fifteen years of war have contributed to a reversal of the accepted history of Iraq and much of the Middle East. For only the second time since 1517, when the Safavid Shi’a in Iran came to power, has a state dominated by Shi’a been able to come to power in the Middle East. Ahmed’s profound knowledge of Iraq’s history adumbrated early on the possibility that Shi’a might be able to come to power in Iraq. Ahmed details the history-making events that made this possible. Scholars, analysts, diplomats, intelligence agencies, and statesmen will want to read this insightful book. Ahmed’s book makes a brilliant addition to the growing historiography of the war.”

—Robert Olson, Professor Emeritus of Middle East History and olitics at the University of Kentucky

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword by Michael M. Gunter

List of Abbreviations

Chapter One: Introduction

Chapter Two: Prelude to the Rise of Islamic State

Chapter Three: Al-Maliki Seeks U.S. Support

Chapter Four: Insurgents Declare Islamic State in Fallujah and Ramadi

Chapter Five: Iraqi Army Flee ISIS Attack

Chapter Six: Al-Maliki Takes Down the Kurds With Him

Chapter Seven: U.S. Expresses Concern Over Fall of Baghdad

Chapter Eight: U.S. Eager to Resuscitate Iraqi Army

Chapter Nine: Ramadi Offensive

Chapter Ten: Fallujah Operation and Its Humanitarian Fallout

Chapter Eleven: The Battle for Mosul

Chapter Twelve: Can Shiite Coalition Put Humpty-Dumpty Back Together Again