There is a familiar analytical noise that rises with every new government in Iraq, a noise that feels like replaying an old recording at a higher volume, nothing more. What is happening today with Ali al-Zaidi’s government is no exception; it is a pale repetition of what we saw with Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and with those before him, and with those who will follow, so long as every prime minister is born from the same equation and bound by the same conditions that have governed the political process since 2003.

All this noise manufactured on television screens—by commentators who hang their university degrees on the wall behind them—does not produce a single fruitful paragraph capable of convincing Iraqis that anything real is changing. Because what is required, at its core, is not understanding but justification; not critique, but the conferral of political legitimacy on state thieves and on a sectarian party–militia class that believes Iraq has become the private property of the sect, and that the concept of a nation is no longer usable after they succeeded in dividing Iraqis against themselves.

Iraq today, when it wants to define itself, does not say: I am Iraqi. It says: I am Shia, Sunni, loyal to this party or that leader. This is not a passing identity crisis; it is the greatest moral collapse Iraq has lived through in its modern history.

Iraq today, when it wants to define itself, does not say: I am Iraqi. It says: I am Shia, Sunni, loyal to this party or that leader. This is not a passing identity crisis; it is the greatest moral collapse Iraq has lived through in its modern history.

In the midst of this collapse, we are asked to believe that Ali al-Zaidi can be the “political solution” who will return Iraq to the Iraqis, rescue it from militias and uncontrolled weapons, recover stolen funds, and put an end to political and financial corruption. What kind of illusion is this, and what fantasy do they want us to inhabit?

What truly delights that ruling class is not reform, but the debate about reform. It thrives on this heated media and popular argument that grows more hollow with every exclusion, every show trial, every theatrical election. The higher the volume of the debate, the more entrenched their fake legitimacy becomes. They climb out of the swamp, wipe the mud from their faces, and say to the world: look, we are a democratic country where disagreement and debate are allowed!

Yet a single glance at Iraq’s position on global corruption indices, or at the latest Reporters Without Borders assessment of press freedom, is enough to see that we are trading in illusions the moment we trust that al-Zaidi is any kind of “solution”. Leave aside his........

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