Someone fell captive to the Iranian military during the Iran-Iraq war. When he was sent to the prison camp, he realized that the first thing he was asked was his sect. He saw that smoking was allowed in the area where Shiites are held; they have permission to go outdoors and the food is good. So he said, “I am Shiite.” But apparently he was Sunni. He even changed his Sunni name to a Shiite one. This is how his story begins. After being held captive at the prison camp for some time, he started being trained by the Iranians. Once he completed his training, he was informed about his location and position and sent back to Iraq. They told him, “From now on, you are in the Badr Brigade.” So despite being Iraqi, he fought in the same war for Iran. He is still in the Badr Brigade today, doing the same thing.

The unanimous response we received when we asked, “Are you hopeful of the Mosul Operation?” was, “The war with Daesh will end and a new war will start.” Almost everybody is aware of the Hashd al-Shaabi's strength and al-Abadi's weakness and think Iran will not give up. They believe that Mosul is the last area in Iraq left for Sunnis and when they lose that, Sunnis will have no choice in Iraq but to either become radicals or refugees outside of Iraq. However, this is not the sole concern. They believe that the Shiite militias will not stop after Mosul and turn toward Kerkuk, Duhok and Erbil. This is something that is already frequently implied by the Hashd al-Shaabi militias. The general view is that the “Shiite-Sunni” war will be followed by the “Kurd-Shiite” war. Meanwhile, even though some Kurds think there will be no other Kurdish infighting, the majority of them project that a “Kurd-Kurd” war might also break out. To sum it up, the realities in Iraq are much darker than what we see, people are in more despair than we think.