Iraqis Not Ready for End to Occupation

Most Iraqis are surprised and even stunned to see how the Americans – of course excluding President Bush and his aides – are united in their assessment that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has conspicuously failed to achieve the smallest sliver of the national plan for Iraq – a plan for which the Americans have paid such a high price in the blood of their children.

Aside from the horrific images bombarding the American public, the equation is simple: Maliki bears personal responsibility for every drop of American blood shed, as does his party and his political allies. Even worse, this failure, which the Americans characterize as a deliberate and premeditated failure, has served to plunge them even deeper in Iraq’s quagmire.

At a meeting in Amman, Jordan, Maliki had promised Bush to carry out a plan to eradicate the influence of the militias that are waging sectarian war in Baghdad, and to pursue so-called national reconciliation. But to stall for time, Maliki and his fast-diminishing supporters are trying to sedate Iraqis prior to implementing plans that will throw open the gates of war across the entire region, affecting generations to come.

Certainly, parties other than the militias also promote and contribute to Iraq’s civil war, but the militias have tremendous influence within the government. Those in the seat of power must realize their duty is to extinguish this war and make sure that power is transferred from mosques and husainiyas back to the state. [Husainiyas are Shiite community centers].

There is no sense in the transfer of security authority from American forces to Iraqis if our government is unable – perhaps intentionally – of terminating the authority of religious and sectarian groups; or when government officials exercise their authority over political and security affairs by using their prerogatives to seize the property of others and kill their opponents for purely sectarian reasons.

These shameful facts which have so stained Iraq’s reputation, its land, its history and its people, must be fully recognized. Iraqis must work to liberate the country from this petty violation by our own leaders before the end of the American occupation, which at any rate is bound to end within a year and nine months.

Al Maliki has personally failed to demonstrate to Iraqis the skill and national leadership needed to heal their wounds. But his failure is reflected across the entire spectrum of political players. This is a consequence of the blatant political hypocrisy that officials practice against ordinary Iraqis, which is a behavior that was first given formal blessing by the long-absent Paul Bremer.