When the invasion of Iraq happened in 2003, Iraq’s army was disbanded at that time, the president at that time Saddam Hussein was accused of usage of weapons of mass destruction, it was said that he has used chemical bombs against Iran. Still it is argued that this was made up and no chemical bombs were used, but whatever has happened just because of that is the reality and Iraq has to face it. When the Iraqi army was disbanded the security of Iraq was took over by the US troops. It stood like that for almost six years, then in 2003 the US troops handed security of Iraq back to the Iraqi forces, although they are still assisted by the US forces but the Iraqi forces are in charge now, and with an operating Iraqi present now.
The sectarian conflicts between Shia and Sunnis, and the Kurds and Arabs is not hidden from anyone, such rivalries are a disease which weaken the countries from within, after the invasion, a lot of these sectarian groups combined and formed as formidable forces against the troops, some of them have been dealt with and some are still in contention, everyday Iraqi forces face combats with the militants. Sunnis are not in majority in Iraq, at the time of Saddam Hussein they were very strong and he being the president at that time he was accused of only recruiting Sunnis in the Iraqi military, whoever is in majority the Shias or the Sunnis, people need some safeguard and assurance from the government, otherwise things would not be put to bed. And Iraq I think cannot afford any more destruction, already a lot has been demolished, not only the infrastructure the economy, trade business, and even the mindsets of the citizen suffer when in situation of war. It would still take years to regain some stature in the international trade market starting from today.
Iraq may face the situation where the government may find it hard to decide what the first priority should be, its security concerns or its economy and business side. I personally think that securing and assuring the lives of the citizens must be first in their priority list, and once security concerned are eased off the business side would automatically flourish and Iraq will once again be attracting investment. This gulf region is full of oil and the world has always invested here in the oil industry and Iraq was one of the top most oil and oil related product exporters.
Security forces are fighting every day, and trying to impose the lost weight of the government. The Iraqi forces are not that strong as they used to be once, so they are continuously assisted by the US troops and other forces, their operations and tactics are aligned together, people oppose the presence of US troops in Iraq but the question is that are the Iraqi forces able to handle the militants on their own?