Every time there is a major security shake-up in Iraq, a specific question arises in political and popular Iraqi discourse: “What shall we do?” This question should be preceded by another, more important question: “What did we do?”

Apart from the talk about the role of politics in achieving social peace, and considering security failure as a political failure in the first place, there is more than one single defect in the Iraqi security system. Yet the most prominent defect is related to serious doubts over the existence of a well-defined security strategy to face major challenges.

The only security plan, about which Iraqi security services have been talking for years, is deploying hundreds of thousands of troops in the streets and establishing checkpoints.

The complexity of the Iraqi security situation and the size of terrorist forces penetrating it will certainly force the military and security commander in Iraq to deploy the largest number of troops possible to provide a sense of security to citizens. These civilians feel safe with the presence of the official authority in the streets. They believe that the authority’s absence leads to a void that will be quickly capitalized upon by gunmen to secure their grip on neighborhoods and cities, as has previously happened many times.