The military, political, and economic situation in Iraq continues to be extremely tense. Despite all the efforts by the country’s leaders, tangible changes for the better remain unattainable. The formation of the new government is still not complete, as a result of which many departments – some of key importance – are not able to fully carry out their functions. In particular, the position of minister of internal affairs remains vacant, and the mergers that occurred as part of the stated administrative reforms in many departments has paralyzed work in some crucial areas…

Exactly one year ago Iraq got a new government. Many pinned their hopes on the advent of this new administration, because the country had been lost inside a maze of dead ends. But today we can say that the hopes of finding a way out have been dashed…

Another scandal is on the rise in the United States and David Petraeus, former CIA Director and four-star Army four General, is in focus again… It looked like his career was over, the reputation in the puritan America was damaged and he no longer had a chance to work for the government. Not that easy. General Petraeus can fight his final battle during the 2016 presidential race. Hillary Clinton is going to be the leading candidate to run on the Democratic ticket. As a Republican, David Petraeus has something to say about it…

…The Islamic State does its best to expand the battle area to other parts of the Middle East. They have attacked a Saudi border guard force, they threaten Jordan and try to get to US military facilities in Iraq. They have attacked air bases in Tikrit and Balad (2014), Ain al-Asad and Habbanii (2015) – the facilities with US military presence. The mission is to cause casualties among Americans and make them have boots on the ground. Shiites have let their stance known – in case of US ground forces intervention they will turn their weapons against Americans to change the correlation of forces…

Iraq has gone through real hardships in recent years. There were times when the country claimed to be the regional leader but the foreign intervention set it many years back. The events of 2014 put into question the very existence of Iraq as a state… Actually the country has become divided. It’s extremely hard to piece it together again. There are influential forces that go to any length to prevent the unification process…

On July 24, the Iraqi parliament elected a new president… According to the rules imposed by US interim administration led by Paul Bremer in 2003 in the days of US occupation, the office of Iraqi President should belong to a Kurd… The Sunnis are under heavy pressing. They want an Arab, not a Kurd, to hold the presidential office… The electoral process is taking place in the heat of crisis which may end up in the partition of the country. The Iraqi Kurdistan is on the way to holding a referendum on independence. Actually Bagdad has lost control over vast lands in the Sunni-populated Iraqi provinces where the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has established its rule. The number of migrants has exceeded 1, 5 million. The Islamists made seek refuge all the Christians living in Mosul and are destroying Shiite and Christian shrines. The battle is raging at the distance of 20-40 kilometers from Bagdad…