In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal today, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi celebrated the accomplishments of his few, tumultuous months in office. A recent oil-sharing deal between the central government and Iraq’s Kurds, along with purges of corrupt officers from an army routed by militants of the so-called Islamic State (IS) last summer, have brought Abadi some good press recently.
Meanwhile, the fight against IS goes on, with Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announcing yesterday that U.S.-led airstrikes had killed three senior IS leaders in Iraq in recent weeks.
Abadi, who last week pressed Washington for more firepower to take on IS, admits that, even with battlefield success, “there can be no lasting victory without governmental reform, national reconciliation, and economic and social reconstruction.” He left out another key roadblock: his predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki.