US must stop political interference in Iraq: Analyst

Press TV has carried out an interview with Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a former Iraqi national security adviser in Baghdad, to discuss the Iraqi military’s plans to retake the city of Ramadi, which fell into the hands of ISIL Takfiri terrorists last week.

What follows is a rough transcription.

Press TV: So we have these terrorists now in control as reports indicate of Ramadi, even though there was some contradiction in the beginning. What is the game plane here of this counter-attack is supposed to take place; the new offensive to try to retake this town from them.

Rubaie: Well, the counter-attack to retake Ramadi, in particular, and al-Anbar Province in general, has two [inaudible] if you like. One, there are multiple minor attacks and onslaught on ISIL strongholds all over the province and in particular in Ramadi to stop them from building any defenses in the city and to loosen up their defenses and to prevent them from building any defense after they have occupied the city a few days ago.

Now this is one side of the counter-attack. The other side of the counter-attack is the big one, which is marching the popular mobilization forces, tribal fighters of locals, as well as the Iraqi army and federal police, with the Golden Division and this is going to take few, probably several weeks if not a couple of months before they start this. Because we need to reconstruct; we need to rebuild our army; redeploy our army and the Iraqi security forces all over.

Once we retake the province, there is going to be a completely different political game there and there is going to be a political capital, for their credence, for those who are going to take part in the liberation of the province. So all the members of Parliament, and the members of the Provincial Council, the governor, all the local politicians which were produced by the sectarian polarization before June last year, probably they are going to be changed radically by those who have taken active parts in liberating the city.

Press TV: When this so-called US collation is bombing these terrorists as they said in Iraq, it was roughly back in September, a little bit before that, that they started. And it was interesting how they made an announcement that there were only five thousand of them in Iraq but then that number was revised up to around 30 thousand. Do you think that the US is doing enough to get rid of these terrorists? And is there a chance that there needs to be more military equipment that perhaps the Iraqi forces might be able to get in order to make their efforts more successful.

Rubaie: Let me tell you something. I can see here, from where I sit in Baghdad, 8 out of each 10 air strikes, airplanes loaded with their ammunition, they go back without striking their targets. So more than 80 percent of the air strikes they go back without [striking] any target and only 2 out of 10 strike their targets in Iraq of this international alliance air support.

This is number one. Number two, the United States government should speed up the process of supplying Iraq with the weapons we require. There are weapons we have already paid [for], few months ago, few years ago, there are F-16s we are still waiting [for], there are Hellfires we are still waiting [for], [inaudible] and so on. There are weapons which will make the decision. It will tip the balance with ISIL.

So I think the United States government need, and should, and ought to do a lot more. And also they need spotters on the ground; OK they have advisers, they have trainers; there are about under 4,000 of them all over Iraq. But they need also spotters on the ground because how are they going to get the GPS and the targets right? And the reason why 8 out of 10 [flights] will go back to their bases with their load [is] because they don’t have spotters on the ground.

We don’t need boots on the ground. We need electronic systems for C4ISR – the command, control, communication computer and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. We need the full system, this is number one.

Number two, we need to speed up the delivery of the weapons from the United States government. We need more commitment, because they have a moral commitment, to help this country. Well, not only moral, but also they have contractual [obligations], legal contracts with us which is the Strategic Framework Agreement with Iraq which we have signed at the end of 2008 and is still valid.

Now we need all this and unfortunately because of political differences... and the United States should stop any political intervention in Iraq; they should detach the politics from security. We are now fighting ISIL. Now what we need? We need arms, we don’t need political maneuvering and politicking in Washington between the Republican Congress and the Democratic White House. We need to stop this fighting in [Washington] D.C. and we need them to help Iraq in getting over and neutralizing this horrible, evil [ISIL] if you like.

MTM/HMV

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