and iraq over in syria as part of the conflict that s been going on since 2011. unless there is major change among the government of iraq in baghdad and government more inclusive and willing to reach out to kurds and sunni groups, how do you see this continuing or resolving or i assume you don t see it resolving. well, i think there are a number of scenarios but firstly, i don t think it s likely that the shia government will agree to a government of national unity. he rejected that idea a couple times, including most recently today. it s highly unlikely that will happen. on the other hand, the shia community don t particularly like prime minister maliki but don t have a choice. i think he s seeing himself as reasonably stable in his leadership role, even though the country is looking shaky. david, appreciate you being on. thankanderson.
perhaps leaving too soon, the war in syria, and maliki s unwillingness to reach out to sunni groups? yeah, that s exactly right. this has have been coming for a very long time and i think it s not inevitable but it s now a reality on the ground and the three main factors are firstly that we pulled out too early. we stopped the job of training the iraqi military half way through. we drew down our intelligence capability and pulled out from any kind of leverage over the iraqi government. secondly, the iraqi government basically didn t go through with a lot of the deals that were made with the sunni and the k r community as part of stabilizing iraq between 2007 and 2010 and so alienated the kurds and sunni community and thirdly, isis is able to grow and recreate basically the son of al qaeda
does he see no need to reach out to sunnis, to kurds? he seems to believe his rivals are traitors, it s hard to believe it but prime minister mall la maliki believes he s an iraqi democrat and everything he does, he truly seems to believe at least in my experience is necessary for iraq. that is hard for him to do anything other than what he thinks is best. last week maliki blamed the aud d saudis, they do not want to get involved in iraq. we have arms flowing to the shia government and perhaps bombing targets. this is no longer iraq. is this is a regional war, isn t it? right. first of all werks ne need to recognize the iraqi civil war
people don t quite know who to get into power. but one of the things i m being told, also, is that the shiites are genuinely terrified still. they are very afraid what will happen now is that the sunnis might think they can again take over. bobby, i mean, you ve worked in iraq for a long, long time and known maliki for a long time. do you have belief he s the leader that can reach out to sunnis and reach out to kurds. no, anderson. he s had plenty of opportunities to do that and he s doing none of it. he hasn t been doing it in the last 7 two hours when the pressure is great to do so. when it s clear his policies aren t succeeding, he s not shown flexibilities. i ve known him for a long time. i met him before he was considered prime minister candidate and even back then, he was very much a shiite partisan and his policies in government have remained consistently
we re hearing floated, and also we re hearing the name of ahmed chalabi, a shiite being floated. if you remember, he was the name associated most with helping to pull the u.s. into that war. so see how far things have come. people don t quite know who to get into power. but one of the things i m being told also is that the shiites are genuinely terrified still. they re very afraid that what is going to happen now is that the sunnis might think that they can again take over. bobby, you ve worked in iraq for a long, long time. you ve known maliki for a long time. do you have any belief that he is the kind of leader who can bring the country together, who can reach out to sunnis, reach out to kurds? no, anderson. he s had plenty of opportunities to do that. and he is doing none of it. he hasn t even been doing this in the last 72 hours when the pressure on him has been so great to do so. and it is clear that his policies are not succeeding. he hasn t showed any kind of flexibilities.