Kerry visits Iraq in show of support
Source: Rudaw
US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Iraq on Friday where he is expected to meet top officials.
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Iraq's neighbours, Kerry added, "need to support the Abadi government in its efforts to stabilize and eventually rebuild the country."
While the Iraqi armed forces have made advances against ISIS in the town of Hit in Anbar province their offensive on Makhmour has stalled. In Baghdad the government cabinet is being reshuffled as part of an anti-corruption reform drive on the part of Abadi which has been sped up by pressure exerted by Iraq's Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who recently staged a sit-in inside the Green Zone to demand an end to government corruption.
Kerry hopes that through his visit, in the words of one US official, he will be able to "encourage the Iraqis, while they're dealing with the cabinet reshuffle, not to lose sight of the need to stay focused on the fight against," ISIS emphasizing the need "to plan steadily and carefully" when it comes to liberating Mosul.
Read more: http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/08042016
Note to moderators, this story is also on many better known sources. This one is an English language Kurdish site that I chose because it did it a great job concisely putting the main elements common to all the articles in the last three paragraphs cited.
What is clear is that Iraq, in addition to fighting ISIS, is still very much fighting over what kind of government they will have. What is interesting is that the many sources characterize the cabinet reshuffle in many different ways. Several refer to eliminating the "political elites" and rejecting the Bush administration pushed ethnic quotas. There have long been stories on the corruption of Iraqi officials. On the other hand, the quotas were a heavy handed way to ensure that Sunnis and Kurds got fair representation. This was another reason for selecting the Kurdish source because it clearly presents it as anti corruption - even as it mentions al-Sadr.
At any rate, I wish Secretary Kerry as much success as possible on this important, but very difficult, effort. Having heard his many comments on the need for good governance to be there to really succeed in the long term, it is clear that he - with all the other diplomats from many countries - are doing what they said is needed. They are trying to do something that looked impossible in mid 2014 when the US initiated the fight to stop ISIS - trying to put, not one, but two "Humptey Dumpteys" back together again.
= new reply since forum marked as read
...karynnj, for posting this. 
