The establishment, in July 2014, of the Islamic State that straddled Iraq and Syria, was the product of the disruption in the Iraqi political and social order due to the US occupation, the shaping by the US of a new political system in the country on ethno-sectarian basis, and the consequent divide between the country’s Sunni and Shia communities and the increasing inter-sectarian violence between them. This nascent order was in the vice-like grip of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who based his authority on fomenting the sectarian binary, personally controlling the country’s security
...more
