Like many in Iraq, Saleh would not accept Tony Blair’s claim that the war was planned in order to liberate Iraq from the tyranny of despotism. Iraq’s leaders continue to struggle to assert themselves over an unruly assortment of power bases and militias, which have emerged from the vacuum of the past 13 years. Thahabee said 12 years of sanctions before the war heralded a decline in Iraqi society. A tussle for control of post-Saddam Iraq has barely relented, and continues to ravage the country’s finances, communities and social fabric. Photograph: Hadi Mizban/APThahabee said he had lost faith in Iraq’s political class to deliver outcomes for the country’s most vulnerable.

Source: The Guardian July 05, 2016 17:33 UTC