To the Governors of the Green Zone America Will not Protect You

The people of Iraq, from north to south, east to west, have experienced what I can only call an awakening to the bitter reality that it has and is still undergoing. Iraq has suffered from several factors over the years of occupation by the U.S., and in this writing, I am not preparing an annual inventory of the victims or producing an expense statement detailing the money that was squandered and still is being squandered; rather, that was embezzled and still being embezzled from the wealth and subsistence costs of the Iraqi people by those having mostly nothing to do with Iraq and the Iraqi people. In fact, most of those handling Iraq’s expenses are holders of non-Iraqi nationalities, to whom the U.S. occupation authority handed over the reins of government in addition to the Arab and regional media machine.

He who thinks that the current or the previous government benefits from popular backing or public support shows poor judgment, even if some people put forward the pretext of the ballot boxes which produced the parliament; and out of this parliament emerged the current or previous governments. However, the more discerning observer of the Iraqi situation after 2003 will perceive that the elections farce took place according to a veritable sectarian perspective, irrelevant to the national spirit and the need for reforms.

According to the logic that all that is built on null and void elections must be declared null and void, the current parliament and its government are of invalid legitimacy. I do not exclude anyone, whether he is an official, a party or movement, or any personality, whether religious, political or social. When the election date approaches, you will witness promises of pink dreams, depicting Iraq after the elections as sweeter than Sweden and the where the law is applied more equitably than in the Government of Imam Mahdi* (may peace be upon him), so that one wishes to live to see this government to come. However, after winning the elections and holding to positions of power — whether by fraud or by oppression — these authorities will break their promises and all that hope will go down the drain.

Also, those who think that Iraq is just a space for them to have fun — to kill and grow from the funds of Iraqis, who are lying on the ground under the open sky and eat from their garbage bins and whatever other remains of meals they find — show poor judgment as well. No; no and one thousand times no. America itself, which provided the tanks — which before Iraq were loitering in Damascus, Iran and along the streets of Europe, trafficking in the blood of Iraqis at home to obtain exile for themselves — will be unable to face up to the march in Iraq. They thought that the hateful sectarian slogan that they are making use of to divide Iraq were backed by some religious figures whose parents enjoy a long and ancient history in the face of injustice and corruption.

America does not have lifelong friends, nor does it make permanent enemies; take Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Saddam as vivid and recent examples. Hence, when the U.S. administration finds out that the will of the people is to expel its public figures and government is unanimously supported, it will be forced to comply with the strong wishes of the people against its own will. As Mr. Shahid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr said: since “the masses are stronger than tyrants,” they will call for democracy and call for the arbitration of the people’s will. Therefore, they will reject these tyrants who currently hold power — none of whom should think that the crimes they committed against Iraq and the Iraqis will go without punishment or will not be brought to account — for sorrowful events recur and circulate among people in a cyclical pattern; hopefully the message gets across. Yes, some people do claim that the demonstrations have political overtones; also, they claim to have agendas linked to parties which lost the elections, which is ridiculous and tearful at the same time, even if we assume for argument’s sake that there are political agendas associated with these events: the government would rather consider the demands of these demonstrations and the reasons for the public holding them. More than one official proclaimed that the demonstrators’ demands are legitimate and real, and that it is the people’s right to demand what is fairly due to them from their government.

The government has attempted through various measures to dilute the demands, including questioning the legitimacy of the demonstrations and, when it failed, imposing a curfew and banning vehicles from circulating in the whole of Iraq so as to prevent the demonstrators from reaching the set protest areas. This measure consequently became a fiasco: A rumor circulated the threat of explosive belts and car bombs as well as other vacuous rumors that did not terrify demonstrators or prevent their access to fixed areas of demonstrations.

Then the government realized that the demonstrators were serious about their request and determined to make their voice heard, and resorted to taking up arms, which, alas, were funded by taxpayers’ money and, eventually, were used to kill and terrify them; this solution was not successful either. Thus it was necessary for Parliament to intervene merely to save face, since the representatives’ return to their home provinces was solely out of their fear of losing their positions — no more, no less. These representatives understand that they would step down with the demise of this government

What’s more, the government presented some conservative members of the Dawa party as their scapegoat for these disruptions to absorb the momentum of the demonstrations. Also, its attempt to kill two birds with one stone has two objectives: the first is for propaganda and to declare that the government responded to the protesters’ requests; the second is to exclude some conservatives who do not gain the satisfaction of the Prime Minister or who are not members of his party.

My advice to the government (which is not an advice stemming from my concern for this government, but from my concern for the blood of the natives of Iraq): First, the government and those who represent it should understand that they have not categorically gained the satisfaction of Iraqi citizens, and if some believe they have, it is merely that there is a group of people whose personal interests will fall with the demise of this government; they support it only because the destiny of their interests is associated with it.

Second, the U.S occupation cannot be relied upon — and you have in Hosni Mubarak (the Non-Blessed), Ben Ali, Gaddafi very good examples — and there will be more of them to follow. America is related to its interests only.

Heaven help you.

*Editor’s Note: The Imam Mahdi is a prophesized “redeemer” figure who will recreate a just and perfect paradise on earth before judgment day.