Haider al-Abadi - Impossible Victory: How Iraq Defeated ISIS

Impossible Victory is Haider al-Abadis engaging, highly personal memoir, taking in his childhood in Baghdad, his opposition to Saddam Hussein and his years in exile in the UK. But the heart of the book is his time as Prime Minister of Iraq during the fight against Daesh. It is a remarkable inside story of the war from the perspective of the Iraqi Commander-in-Chief. Fascinating, very readable, and recommended.

Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor

Impossible Victory is the definitive memoir of Iraqs effort to save its people and many other would-be victims from the most destructive terrorist organisation in history. But it is also a compelling story of a life lived well despite the trauma and tumult that has stricken Iraq over the past half-century. It is clear that the author, former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, was the right leader at the right time. This book should be read by anyone interested in the recent history of Iraq and the Middle East, as well as anyone who wants to learn how to lead in extremis.

Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, former US national security advisor and author of Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World

I remember meeting Mr al-Abadi as French minister of defence, when he was Prime Minister of Iraq. His determination to fight terrorism was striking, and so was his vision during some of Iraqs darkest hours. As the French minister for Europe and foreign affairs, I am now proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Iraqi people and our allies around the world in favour of justice and the fight against terrorism. France will always be a steady partner in this battle. This book, which reflects on Mr al-Abadis time as Prime Minister of Iraq, casts a historical light on a decisive era. It will be valuable for anyone wishing to have a deeper perspective on how things happened in Iraq in the fight against Daesh.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, French minister for Europe and foreign affairs

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To those who sacrificed their lives, those who were injured and to all who fought heroically for a greater purpose to protect our values and innocent Iraqis. To the families who lost loved ones; the parents, the wives, the children of the combatants who gave their support and made this victory possible.

To those who worked with me and all who took part in any way in the success of this campaign.

To my parents, who taught me the value of morals and decency.

And to my family, who stood alongside me during the most difficult moments.

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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed) Men, women and children, whose cry is: Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will protect; and raise for us from thee one who will help!

The Holy Quran, Chapter 4: The Women, Verse 75

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The rapid advance of the Islamic State, or Daesh, the disparaging term Iraqis prefer to use for the group, resulted in millions of Iraqis coming under the organisations control. The atrocities that followed are well documented. Some non-Muslims were offered the choice to convert or die. They were the lucky ones; many were killed in cold blood. Others, like the Yezidi people of northern Iraq, were described as devil-worshippers and murdered, displaced or, if they were women, girls and sometimes young boys, trafficked and used as sexual slaves. Daeshs actions against the Yezidis have been defined by the United Nations as genocide. Open markets took place in towns controlled by Daesh in which women and children were sold.

Some Christians could pay a tax and promise to observe the Daesh rules, surviving but fearing constantly for their lives. Many were not given that chance. Thousands of civilians were murdered in ritual judicial executions for sometimes minor infringements. Because people of other faiths were considered less than human, their organs could be harvested and sold. Civilians were used as xiihuman shields and military positions were placed in hospitals, schools and densely populated areas. The list of depravity and the barbarity goes on.

Daesh, or Islamic State, or IS, or ISIS, is a strange amalgam of Sunni religious fanatics, young men seeking status, students trained in the west, rich Saudi and other Gulf Arab youths looking for power, and the last stand of the old Baathist regime and its partners in organised crime. At their height they had a core of hardened fighters, cadres of willing martyrs, dangerously ideologically motivated and skilfully able to use a small number of fighters to control huge swathes of territory using their primary tactic of fear. What spurred Daesh on to ever more shocking acts of violence?

It is not one thing; it is not only warped faith, or money, or love of power on its own. It is a complex mix of all of these wrapped in the most dangerous vehicle of violence in the world: young men without a sense of place, value or identity. The toxic combination of ideology, violence, money and sex that life in Daesh offered gave them an identity, a place in the world and, with the veneer of Islam, even the fake promise of a place in heaven.

What do Daesh want? A caliphate rooted in the ancient history of Islam? Perhaps. But if they were offered such a thing, would they opt to live peacefully in it and opt out of savagery? I see no real evidence of this in the Management of Savagery, Daeshs handbook. What I see is a blueprint for how a generation of young men who cannot find their place in the world can use violence to seize it. It is a description of a philosophy, a state of mind. But this is not new. This philosophy has been with us in its modern form since the middle of the twentieth century, created and adopted by those who xiiichoose to opt out of the world as it is because they cannot see their place in it, instead seeking to remake it in their own violent image. Before, it was the twin totalitarian secular religions of Nazism and Communism. Now it is groups like Daesh.

It will be with us in this form for a generation before it warps into something new, adapting to the world around it. It will not go away and it cannot be defeated, only changed in form. The closest the world has come to its defeat is in Iraq, and even then, that defeat was not complete: Daesh lives on, and if chaos returns to Iraq in the world after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, then Daesh will rise again. Indeed, there are troubling signs at the time of writing that there has been an uptick in Daesh attacks, including in Baghdad. Will history repeat itself?

At the beginning of June 2014, 70 per cent of Anbar province was seized by Daesh, including the cities of Fallujah and Al-Qaim, and half of the provincial capital of Ramadi came under its control. It was a profound shock to the Iraqi political system, but worse was to come. Daesh moved rapidly to seize control of Mosul and most of the surrounding province of Nineveh. The city of Tikrit also fell to Daesh forces shortly after the fall of Mosul. They took control of the central bank in Mosul, providing them with a windfall of over $400 million dollars. Iraqi army units fled in the face of their advance, providing them significant amounts of US-supplied equipment.