In an interview with CNN recently a senior advisor at the Council of Foreign Relations in the US said Maliki’s record is the source of the current situation, adding when we look at Maliki’s record, especially from 2012 onward, we see that right after US military forces left Iraq he began sweeping all his political opponents and neglecting all those who helped eradicate al-Qaeda…
I have many doubts that Maliki will be able to fix things again in Iraq, he said, adding now there is a chance and opportunity for Iraq to have a new leader, one who is more comprehensive and has more functionality.
This senior CFR advisor pointed to political mistakes made by the US and said amongst the very grave mistakes made by the US was that it first pulled out our troops and then in the 2010 elections when Ayad Allawi had won, with Iran and in cooperation with it we both supported Maliki and allowed him to win a second term.
In response to this question that will this army, that US spent billions of dollars on, hold to defend Baghdad, this senior advisor said no and right now we are witnessing Maliki is transferring Shiite militants to defend Baghdad. They are the ones in the frontlines of war in Baghdad.