American Withdrawal -Iraq's Greatest Obstacle

We spoke yesterday of one of the many obstacles that block the signing of a long-term security agreement between Iraq and the United States of America: the issue of the security company Blackwater, which the government of President George Bush refuses to submit to Iraqi law. Today, we will discuss one of the most serious impediments that the Iraqi side is rejecting altogether: the withdrawal of the American forces that occupy Iraq by resolution of the International Security Council – subsequent to their entry into Iraq, their toppling of the Ba’athist regime which ruled single-handedly for decades, and the forcing of the country into wars and suffering to which the best of the Iraqi people fell victim, added to which are now millions of bereaved mothers and widowers!

Indeed, the Iraqi identity was damaged beyond all imagination as a result of this occupation. The result has been the fracturing of Iraqi society which has existed in the country for thousands of years. And so that society has split into separate Sunni and the Shi’a ways. Led by Islamic parties and urged on by help from other countries within the region, this split has succeeded brilliantly in killing thousands of innocents. So too, these forces have succeeded in partitioning Baghdad into Sunni and Shi’a neighborhoods, ushering in one of the worst phases through which we Iraqis have passed in our long history. This sectarian arrogance has spread into all regions of Iraq. Indeed, the occupying forces have aided in this killing, for during their war on the terrorist organization Al-Qaida and their war on the extra-judicial militias, many innocent Iraqis also fell victim. And meanwhile, the political parties heading the Iraqi government and parliament set about an overt theft of Iraq’s oil wealth under the auspices of raising the prices of crude oil barrels within international markets.

The presence of the occupying forces paved the way for this theft and caused the gratuitous deaths that have touched each and every echelon of society. Its presence is a divisive and destructive factor. They cannot stay, looking over the shoulders of the people, killing them and removing them from their daily life. This is double-sided, for these forces are also bolstering some of the ruling political parties and their constituents. The occupation of the last five years has unquestionably benefited these ruling parties. This is supported by the fact that the Iraqi who had the task of negotiating with the Americans was not on the side of the Iraqi’s but rather of Kurdish persuasion – Foreign Minister Zibiri has, within the past few days, been removed from this task which has now been assigned to others and to the office of the president. It was Minister Zibari, by means of his daily statements about this agreement, who rejoiced in the drawing near of an agreement for the continued long-term presence of the American forces. What this minister neglected to mention was that Iraq has become a democratic country. After the so-called liberation of Kuwait and the subsequent subjection of Saddam’s regime to agreements that clipped his wings, the Iraqi people will not be fooled again.

The challenge of the withdrawal of the American forces, which to this day occupy Iraq, may well be the gravest hurdle facing the Iraqi parliament and the Iraqi people. The departure of the American forces within the year will bring the Iraqi people closer together and increase their patriotism in the aftermath of the bitter catastrophes which have beset them in these last years. These last years have been a nightmare for all society except the Kurdish parties, which controlled the northern cities and which have established territory tantamount to an independent nation tied financially to Iraq only by their annual oil revenues which can amount to billions. The ruling parties’ hold over Mosul, Kirkuk, Khanaqin, Jalula, and other areas has been strengthened by means of the American occupying presence. From these cities, the deployment of the Peshmerga and Asayesh militias have posed problems for the government and armed forces of Iraq. The best example of this is in a related crisis which was concocted in Kirkuk and in Khanaquin and which is still ongoing: the Kurdish refusal to recognize that the Iraqi constitution calls for the elimination of extrajudicial militias.

Every day we watch the marathon negotiations that the Kurdish parties have with the government in Baghdad. They are reminiscent of the Palestinian negotiations with the Arab nations that occupied Palestine for 60 years. How much wealth has been lost on these unjustified meetings and on the travel of officials from Irbil to Baghdad? It is the Kurdish side that insists on the continued presence of the Americans – the Americans who put them in power, however temporary – and that aspires to build American bases in the north of Iraq and become second only to Israel in American favor. These are the dreams of the Kurdish parties. Yet these dreams will not be realized or achieved in parliament, as the Iraqi government noticed their game before it was too late, and replaced the negotiator along with the ambitions of his party.

The question yet remains – will the Iraqi government under Nuri Al-Maliki’s presidency and the parliament take a stand for the Iraqi nation and insist on the removal of the American forces within a year and settle on a long-term economic agreement which will build the nation as quickly as possible? We are getting sick of the camouflage uniforms and the weapons and the killing and the war and its terrifying effects. Will the Iraqi national parties hasten to reduce the Kurdish role, expel the party of Al-Talabani and Al-Barzani from the capitol, and cut off the money stream being used to fund their project of partitioning Iraq?