News Analysis: Iraqis skeptical over Obama's new anti-IS strategy in Iraq

It is not yet clear whether a new U.S. plan to send hundreds of troops to Iraq to help defeating the Islamic State (IS) militant group was the right move to give a push to the Iraqi forces on the battleground, but some Iraqis here met President Barack Obama's new strategy with scepticism.

On Wednesday, the White House announced that Obama authorized the deployment of up to 450 more American troops to Iraq to train and assist the Iraqi forces battling the IS extremist group.

Obama's decision apparently, was based on a fact that despite daily air strikes on IS positions, the Iraqi security force have failed so far to stem the advance of the extremist group which took over Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi last month.

In addition, a year has passed and the Iraqi forces have also failed to retake the northern city of Mosul from the hands of the IS militants.

Earlier, the fall of Ramadi to the IS militants on May 17 pushed the U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to blame the Shiite-dominated security forces for their lack of "will to fight" in the battle for the Sunni city of Ramadi, despite that the Iraqi soldiers "vastly outnumbered" the IS attackers.

"What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight," Carter said, adding that the Iraqi soldiers quickly withdrew and left behind large numbers of U.S. vehicles, including several tanks, that are now presumed to be in the IS hands.

Najib al-Jubouri, a political analyst, told Xinhua that "based on Carter's comments, Obama's administration sees that there is no partners on the ground in Iraq, as long as the troops have no will to fight, then the airstrikes would be useless."

"This is a sort of partial shift in the U.S. strategy of fight against Daash (IS group) in Iraq, which depends of recruiting more Sunni fighters in the Sunni provinces in order to reduce the depend on the Shiite-dominated forces and allied Shiite militias," Jubouri said.

Jubouri believes that the Iraqi forces still have real problems, including poor command and control, lack of coordination, intelligence deficit and other logistic issues.

The deteriorated situation of the Iraqi army and police forced Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to depend on Shiite militias who are better organized, having faith and ready to sacrifice, unlike the soldiers who work just for the salaries.

The Americans apparently are disappointed from Abadi's slow and ineffective measures in reaching out to the Sunni community, as the U.S. administration sees that it is crucial to bring Sunni tribal fighters, who are the land owners, to the battlefield, according to Jubouri.

The Sunnis believe that a large presence of Sunni paramilitaries within the Hashd Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization, or even separately is necessary to reduce the fears of the Sunni residents of possible burning and looting to their homes by the Shiite militias based on sectarian and revenge motives like what happened in the cities of Tikrit, Dour and other towns and villages in the Salahudin province which the security forces and allied Shiite militias freed most of it from IS extremists.

However, Abadi's efforts to bring Sunni recruits to the battleground were hampered by the embattled political parties, who failed to enact a law to form the national guard from tribal Sunni fighters in order to join the Shiite-dominated security forces.

For his part, Hussein al-Shimmari, a military expert, said that the U.S. decision of sending hundreds of U.S. troops has both positive and negative impacts on the situation on the ground and the future of the country.

There is no doubt that both Anbar and Mosul are powerful strongholds for IS militants and are of a great vital for the extremist group.

"IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi selected Mosul for his (caliphate) speech last summer, and that was dramatically symbolic," Shimmari told Xinhua.

"Anbar also has long been a hub for powerful Sunni insurgency. Its geographic complexity, expansive deserts and multiple borders made its security task the most difficult," he said.

"If the American be more effective in helping bolster security forces to free such significant targets from IS, that would be great if they succeed. But empowering Sunnis in the Sunni heartland could lead to fast split up of the country from the Shiite dominance," Shimmari said.

Shimmari wondered if there is enough and true guarantees for the Iraqi government that any new Sunni forces would be under full control of Iraqi armed forces.

However, the positive impact would occur if Iraq succeeds to develop an effective configuration of Iraqi forces, from the security forces (army and police forces), Hashid Shaabi, and Sunni tribes, he said.

In addition, bringing the Shiite young men and the Sunni tribesmen together to fight a brutal enemy would close the ranks of both Muslim communities and let the Sunnis feel that they are no more disenfranchised by the Shiite-led government.

Described the military situation in Anbar, Shimmari said the cities of Anbar lie in a line along the Euphrates River, which will allow a distribution of roles among Iraqi government forces, Shiite militias and allied Sunni tribes.

So far, the IS controls about most of Anbar's cities, while the Iraqi forces and allied Sunni tribesmen control the towns of al-Baghdadi and Haditha in west of the IS-held Ramadi, and some areas like Ameriyat al-Fallujah in east of militant-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad.

"Arming and training Sunni tribes could be useful as the tribes can play major role in securing their areas in Anbar province which will be turned into secured launching pads for the liberation of Fallujah and Ramadi from Daash (IS group), as well as the town of al-Qaim, northwest of Ramadi, near Syrian border," Shimmari said.

Sabah al-Sheikh, a professor of Baghdad University, expressed his doubt that the deployment of some 450 U.S. troops at al-Taqqadum base near the town of Habbaniyah, in eastern Anbar province, could be the beginning of the return of U.S. occupation to Iraq.

"I am afraid that the American president would take another decision in the near future to bring back his troops to Iraq if the Iraqi security forces failed to defeat Daash in Anbar and Mosul," Sheikh told Xinhua.

Sheikh accused the U.S. of showing a false picture to the world that Iraqis are not capable of defeating IS alone. "But his is not the truth, we Iraqis just need support and weapons and we will solve our own problem and will liberate our lands from Daash."

"To many Iraqis, it is sensitive and rejected to have U.S. troops again. If people here want to blame someone for their misery, bloodletting and the expansion of Daash in their country and the region as well, they would certainly blame what they name the irresponsible policy of the U.S. administration in dealing with world issues," Sheikh said.

"The aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, sparked hatred and deep division among Iraqis when the occupation empowered some Iraqi factions and disenfranchised others, making co-existence among Iraqis difficult and sometimes almost impossible," he said.

Iraq has been witnessing some of the worst violence in years. Terrorism and violence has killed at least 12,282 civilians and wounded 23,126 others in 2014, making it the deadliest year since the sectarian violence in the 2006-2007 period, according to a recent UN report. Endit