In televised statements over the weekend, Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder Abadi sought to deflect blame on the defeat of the Iraqi military in the Anbar capital city of Ramadi, saying the troops had never been authorized to lose the battle of Ramadi and withdraw.
“The orders were the opposite,” Abadi insisted, saying if the troops had followed the orders and stayed and defeated ISIS, Ramadi would still be under the control of the Iraqi government today.
British Brigadier Christopher Ghika confirmed this sentiment, saying Ramadi was lost “because the Iraqi commander in Ramadi elected to withdraw.” Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khalaf al-Fahdawi was acting commander in Ramadi
Everyone has been trying to shift blame in Ramadi to someone else, but the suggestion that Iraq’s military lost the battle simply because they didn’t follow orders to win seems downright silly, but it does fit nicely into everyone else’s narrative that the battle was winnable, and that outside of the commanders inside Ramadi, no one did anything wrong.