What Does U.S. Withdrawal Mean?

The United States’ withdrawal from Iraq is a security disaster. As the proverb says, “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” Are Iranian intelligence and the loyal militias who support them the first to begin playing? No one can deny that parties loyal to Iran are now planning and waiting for the U.S. withdrawal, and not in some distant future. In the words of al-Khafaji, Eden and the like, is every statement issued from inside no more than an advance offer of loyalty to Iran? The domestic front is now weaker than before, and if the army is not present in the streets and in all the provinces, then there is no sin in the lawlessness and security disorder.

Under the guidance of al-Maliki and Farouk al-Araji, is the army turning into policemen on the streets of Iraq? Are they leaving the nation’s borders open for the wanton and the Iranian and Turkish armies? Are they, from time to time, conducting exercises and indiscriminate bombings? Is it strange to send a committee on a fact-finding mission that officially recognized the fact that Iran has entered Iraqi territory and engaged in bombing? Isn’t it crazy? Isn’t it an oversight? Isn’t it a waste of time?

U.S. withdrawal at this point in time and the Iraqi army’s lack of ability to defend the homeland is surely a conspiracy to divide Iraq, is it not? Withdrawal means you have the right, O League of the Righteous, Mahdi Army and al-Badr forces, to descend on the streets without hesitation. Look at a map of the Ministry of Defense and Interior, which is drawn around sectarian and ideological lines to manage a budget subject to the pen and ink of the United States. What if the landscape sets force against force and threat against threat? And is American power now morphine for everyone? Why hasn’t the American side armed the Iraqi army with heavy weapons and fighter planes? To maintain its position with the Interior? Why don’t conduct classes on artillery support and air defense? Why not arm factions with machine guns and heavy armor resistance? To maintain a balance with the Interior? When they leave the scene, will their two forces be equal in arms and loyalty?

O people of Iraq, brothers and honorable leaders of yesterday and not today, around whom there are politicians and leaders who do not think as much for you as for themselves until they end up far from their parties’ bases, have the ranks been blinded by their personal vision, their villas and money and their goal of being both first and last?