Al-Sudani deserves political pity

The statement issued by the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, announcing the summoning of the US chargé d’affaires and handing him a “strongly worded” protest note, as reported by Reuters, appears in the balance of realpolitik closer to a performance of sovereignty in a country that does not possess the actual tools of sovereignty. A state that cannot control armed factions within its own borders, nor prevent drones launched from its territory, inevitably finds itself in an extremely fragile position when it tries to address a superpower in the language of protest. The talk of a “firm and solid stance in preserving sovereignty” seems detached from a reality documented daily in the Western press: sovereignty fragmented between […]