Fallujah retake means Iraq restoring sovereignty: Pundit

Press TV has interviewed Nabil Mikhail, professor at George Washington University in Washington, to discuss the liberation of the Iraqi city of Fallujah from the Daesh Takfiri terrorists.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: How important is the liberation of Fallujah?

Mikhail: It is very important because it means Iraq restoring its sovereignty over its soil, its land. So the moral and the material benefit is immense, the victory is huge but as I understood from your commentary there are problems trying to eliminate some resisting groups that are dangerous.

So here is my recommendation. Basically do not move on Mosul now, study the situation well and focus on eradicating these resistance groups. How can you remove them? Make sure that they are not mingling with the local population so try somehow to quarantine them.

Also issue a call for them to surrender. It is over. You cannot pose any resistance to the will of the Iraqi people. You made a mistake. You have to pay for it.

Thirdly, try to use snipers. This is the most brilliant and selective method of targeting the enemy. Use snipers so you will not hurt anyone else and if you are a skilled shooter, you will get your target. Also I am thinking of using the helicopter for logistics, for deploying troops, for surrendering the areas where these resistance groups, these dangerous people are found.

So you can conduct a good operation to basically reach the final of a very successful military campaign and this will add to the importance of the victory at Fallujah. 

Press TV: Let’s talk about the external actors, if we may. Whenever there is a liberation in Iraq, I have seen in the US media at least, the United States and the US-led coalition takes quite a bit of credit for that but then we have had them criticizing the Iraqi forces and especially the Popular Mobilization Units who are supporting them in these liberations quite drastically in fact in the media. So where do you feel proper credit lies for such liberations?

Mikhail: For the people of Iraq for sure, because the people of Iraq showed or displayed to the world the resilience and their tendency toward the middle road.  So here they basically reflected their civilization and their good heritage and how to terminate extremism but you mentioned in your question views from the US. It is good that you used the plural form because for sure it is more than one opinion. You have the CIA opinion, you have the Department of Defense opinion, you have the State Department opinion, you have members of Congress opinion with different stripes, you have the White House, so you have different opinions. So you cannot discredit Iraq for what they have done. They did a good job. It is that simple. It is that big and no one can deny this.  

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