Leadership Quote by Adnan Pachachi

A technocrat’s warning disguised as plain speech, Pachachi’s line treats “militias” not as a security headache but as a structural veto on statehood. “Until and unless” is lawyerly, almost weary: a man who has watched deadlines come and go, insisting that nothing else matters until the monopoly on force is reclaimed. The sentence is calibrated to sound pragmatic rather than ideological, as if disbanding armed factions were basic maintenance, like restoring electricity to a grid.

The subtext is sharper. “This country won’t be able to function properly” doesn’t mean minor inefficiency; it implies a government reduced to negotiating with men who can outgun it. In post-2003 Iraq, militias were both symptom and engine of fragmentation: sectarian protection rackets, political parties with guns, foreign influence with local uniforms. Pachachi is naming the quiet truth that democratic procedures and constitutional language become stage props when coercion sits outside the ballot box.

Context matters because Pachachi, a Sunni Iraqi statesman who served as interim speaker of parliament, represented an older vision of Iraqi nationalism and institutional legitimacy. His insistence on disbandment isn’t naive; it’s an admission that reform, reconstruction, and reconciliation all get hijacked when armed groups operate as parallel states. The line aims at multiple audiences at once: domestic leaders tempted to outsource authority, international partners who prefer stability-by-militia, and citizens asked to treat insecurity as normal. It’s a diagnosis that also functions as a dare: choose a state, or accept permanent improvised rule.