Bush and Ahmadinejad                                    [The Telegraph, U.K.]

Azzaman, Iraq

Regional Conference on Iraq Will Solve Nothing

"Such a conference is the kind of event, the organizers of which would like Iraqis to believe that elephants fly."

By Fatih Abdulsalam

March 8, 2007

Iraq - Azzaman - Original Article (English)

As long as Washington and the government allied to it think that their way of dealing with the Iraq crisis is correct, the forthcoming regional conference will be a waste of time and blood.

The conference to be held in Baghdad comes three weeks after the start of a new Baghdad security plan that many Iraqis see as unfair and unbalanced. Nonetheless, the government says the plan has been a success.

If the security plan has succeeded, then why do we need a regional conference?

The answer is simple. This latest campaign to subdue Baghdad was the climax of government efforts unify all political factions behind it and drum up support for its policies.

But unfortunately, the campaign is now in its fourth week and the political scene is as atomized as ever.

American troops are more cautious and knowledgeable than the government they support. Their expectations for what this campaign could achieve are far more limited than those of the government.

We believe the regional conference will be the death knell to an already troubled political process. The conference is not designed to bring Iraqis together. Rather, it is a gathering of the very powers who are now taking such good advantage of the status quo.

Iraq isn't in need of other countries coming to its capital to deliver closed door speeches and hold meetings, while Iraq's government has closed its ears and its eyes to the real needs of the Iraqi people.

Such a conference will not criticize the political process which began in 2003 with the fall of Baghdad to U.S. troops.

Such a conference will not have the courage to announce that the entire political process has been a huge blunder for which Iraqis have paid in rivers of blood.

Such a conference will not say that the "democratic" track is altogether undemocratic, and the Americans themselves are now aware of this fact.

Such a conference is the kind of event, organizers of which would like Iraqis to believe that elephants fly.