Iraq Still Bleeds

THE events of April 9, 2003 still haunt me. Nearly all TV stations aired the moment when the US-led forces marched through the streets of Baghdad heading toward the city center. A number of heavy tanks were soon to stop in the so-called Paradise Area in the heart of the Iraqi capital. Several soldiers stepped out of tanks and armored vehicles and began to climb a five-meter-high statue of President Saddam Hussein. With the aid of a military armored vehicle, they tied chains around the statue’s neck. The big statue fell down as the tank moved away with several ordinary Iraqis chanting and jeering. The toppling of the statue, in a way, was an end to Saddam’s regime. But it was a beginning of a more bloody conflict and unrest in the country shaped by uncertainty.

On the USS Abraham Lincoln and in front of several men and women in uniform, President George Bush delivered what seemed to be a victory speech saying that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” He was overwhelmingly pleased at such a swift and decisive victory. He was also sending a clear message to skeptics either in America or abroad that a Vietnam-styled war was highly unlikely.

America’s involvement in Iraq has now completed five years and still the invasion motives are unclear. It was surmised that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and was posing a grave threat to Iraq’s neighbors. Even though, the US diplomats failed to get a UN endorsement of such view, United States and few other countries decided to get rid of the “tyrant” who used lethal weapons against his own people.

The quick and decisive victory in Iraq encouraged the US government to take reckless decisions and irrational measures in post-Saddam era. The Iraqi army was immediately dissolved, Baath Party members were disallowed from taking part in the new political structure and a large-scale manhunt was launched to capture Saddam’s aides and the regime’s symbols.

After five years of the fall of Baghdad, the picture remains quite bleak. Many Americans have now come to believe that it was not worth going to that war. American casualties are mounting in Iraq with more than 4,000 soldiers killed and many more injured. Iraq is no longer a beacon for democracy. Iranian influence on the Iraqi political landscape is undeniable with certain members of the Iraq government boasting of their strong ties with America’s foe. President Bush’s numerous visits to Iraq had been arranged secretly because of security concerns. It was not the case with Iranian President Ahmadinejad, whose first state visit to Iraq was made known months ahead of the visit.

Sectarian violence has been claiming lives of ordinary Iraqis. People are getting killed on sectarian lines. Even funeral processions are being targeted by suicide bombers. The Sunni-Shiite sectarian war is utterly jeopardizing the territorial integrity of Iraq and calls for a federation are now getting louder. The Iraqi people, who were living in harmony for centuries, have been forced to entrench themselves in sectarian enclaves.

As a result of the sectarian conflict, thousands of Iraqis have been forced to flee their homes and hearths and languish in refugee camps in Syria and other countries. According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates, more than four million Iraqis have left the country since the invasion in 2003. Another two million are internally displaced.

America’s inability to control Iraq has encouraged Al-Qaeda to carry out deadly attacks against non-military and civilian targets. Kidnapping, suicide bomb attacks, roadside bombs and mortar attacks are inflicting innumerable casualties, the majority of them being civilians. Several attacks have been videotaped and released for propaganda purposes.

Never in modern history have the human rights been as widely violated as in occupied Iraq. According to international estimates, one million Iraqis lost their lives since the invasion in 2003. Violation of the basic rights of human beings include torture – which is widely used by interrogators to glean information from detainees – murders, beheadings and imprisonment without trial of thousands of Iraqis either by the Iraqi government or by the coalition forces. The horrific massacre of Haditha where seven women and three children where killed by US Marines and other terrific abuses of detainees in Abu Ghraib prison are indicative of the large-scale violations of the basic notions of human rights. All this is despite the fact that the United States has long been using the notion of human rights to threaten or to blackmail its enemies.

Five years ago, United States led a coalition and launched a war under the pretext of disarming Iraq of its lethal weapons. Ruling parties in almost all countries which were part of the coalition lost elections and the new governments there fulfilled their promises and pulled out their troops out of Iraq. Even Britain, the closest US ally, decided it was time to get out of the Iraqi trap.

Politically, the Iraqi government is undermined by sharp divisions and conflicting interests of parties. Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki is under extreme pressure from United States and from the parties supporting his government to curb the growing clout of the militias. But Maliki risks the very survival of his fragile government if he disarms the militias.

The US-led occupation of Iraq has sent the country back into Stone Age. A clear example of that includes the brain drain of its finest doctors and academics, the poor condition of public services and, more importantly, the disastrous economic situation in a country known for its wealth of natural resources.

In the end, it may take some time for Iraqis to heal their wounds. This can be achieved with a nationwide reconciliation and drafting a new constitution that opens a new window of hope for the Iraqis to live in peace.