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Engaging with PMU necessary to check Iran's influence in Iraq

To those concerned about Iran’s role in post-Islamic State Iraq, there might be no choice but to engage with Tehran’s allies to balance the expansion of the Islamic Republic’s reach.
Iraqi Shiite fighters from the Popular Mobilization units ride on the back of a vehicle in the city of Baiji, north of Tikrit, in the Salahaddin province, on June 7, 2015. Iraqi forces advanced against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Baiji as they battled to retake the strategic town for a second time. AFP PHOTO / AHMAD AL-RUBAYE        (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)
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The war for Mosul has come to an end; the city is freed and the Islamic State (IS) is out. But the reverberations of the monthslong battle will likely impact Iraq as a nation and the region for years to come. In fact, the war that started after IS’ occupation of Mosul in June 2014 wasn't merely a war for a country that was partly occupied by a group seen by all regional and international players as a serious threat to global stability. There was another parallel battle silently going on between the two faces of Iraq: that of Iraq following the US occupation that began in 2003 and that of post-Arab Spring Iraq that began taking shape in early 2011.

When Mosul fell into the hands of IS, few thought that it would eventually be liberated by Iraqi fighters. The fact is that Iraq didn’t have a real army despite billions of dollars spent training tens of thousands of soldiers; the latter did not have any impact on the strength and discipline of the armed forces. Later, it was a shock for many to discover that 50,000 troops were “ghost soldiers” who received salaries and gave a portion of them to their senior officers and in return did not show up for duty, enriching their commanders and sabotaging the army, paving the way for what happened in the summer of 2014.

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