By Ghanem Abdel-Zahra

After five years of occupation, Iraq got nothing but more damages and destruction of its infrastructure, a fact that has led the Iraqi citizen to lose faith in the promises Bush made to him.

Translated By Samar Elia

12 October 2008


Iraq - Kitabat - Original Article (Arabic)

The U.S. plan in the third millennium, which began on the basis of eliminating terror and Al-Qaeda and was followed by destructing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, has failed; the implications were clear as early as the first months of 2008. Seven years after the Taliban regime fell in Afghanistan, not only have the Afghans failed to reap anything from the promises made by Bush Jr. (which included eliminating Al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama Bin Laden), but the Taliban have also manifested a resilience in dealing with the reality on the ground after the entry of foreign occupying forces. They have become stronger in warfare and have adopted the use of advanced technologies in order to strike the occupying forces with advanced weapons and tactics.

This has brought about a state of depression among allied countries that invaded Afghanistan, with calls from one capital to another to withdraw their troops. And it highlights America and its allies� inability to provide security to the Afghan people and eradicate Al-Qaeda. One of the factors that has contributed to the Taliban's rise in popularity is the occupiers� unilateral use of force with civilians as U.S. warplanes have been hitting Afghani and Pakistani villages several times in the past few weeks, leaving dozens of casualties amongst innocent civilian women, children and seniors, and thereby fueling anger against America and its allies in Afghanistan. Furthermore, the bombing that hit Pakistani villages several times in Wazeeristan, on the Pakistani side, has embarrassed Pakistani leadership, leading it to affirm it will strive to resist any air strike against Pakistani villages, and straining relations between the two allies: the U.S. and Pakistan.

And what is most dangerous is that the popularity the Taliban had lost in the past few years, they have now regained as a result of U.S. domineering practices and disregard for the hostility amongst Afghanis and Pakistanis that it has brought upon itself as a result of bombing unarmed villages under the pretext of the presence of Qaeda leaders. This has led the Afghani government, which rules over only half of Afghanistan, to call for a dialogue with Taliban, which the latter rejected. It is now clear that the Western coalition led by America seven years ago is now disintegrating as it did not achieve anything for the Afghans.

As for Iraq, the same scenario seems to repeat itself. For after five years of occupation, the Iraqis have not only enjoyed neither security nor stability but scenes of death are manifold, ranging from the tyrant�s prisons and graves, to expulsions and identity card based-killings, to booby-trapped cars, to suicidal attacks, to all sorts of explosives, and for all sorts of reasons. And despite the improvement in security during the current year, many aspects of modern life and civilization promised by Bush Jr. to the Iraqis did not materialize.

Financial and administrative corruption operations have also emerged, threatening the country, as they are no less dangerous than terrorism. Indeed, corruption has spread in all government institutions and the Integrity Commission has failed to find practical solutions and stand in the face of the corrupt or those who play with money, and this has a result of pressure on behalf of certain political entities and parties, pressure that has largely contributed to protecting many of the corrupt and not turning them to justice, despite the presence of evidence condemning certain government officials. This facts appears the most dangerous for Iraq�s future after the reduction in the killing and religious-based expulsions. In addition, despite Al-Maliki�s declaration that the current year will be the year of fighting against corruption, we did not, thus far, witness a turning of any highly placed corrupt official to justice, or any attempt to pursue them, which evidently fuels the greed of the corrupt who try to obstruct the wheel of advancement in Iraq.

Even more than that, the occupation has greatly contributed to corruption practices through fictive contracting and fictive companies with some officials making contracts with fictive or failed companies for projects in Iraq that are never implemented. And the contractors run away with the money and their fictive companies. In many other instances, contracts were sold to many contractors, but with nothing executed on the ground. What is required from the Integrity Commission is that its experts undertake evaluation exercises so as to know the reality and the value of implemented contracts and whether such value really equals the actual contracts value, as well as if it they are in conformity with the pre-agreed upon specifications and conditions.

After five years of occupation, Iraq got nothing but more damages and destruction of its infrastructure, a fact that has led the Iraqi citizen to lose faith in the promises Bush made to him, such as transforming Iraq into a country that enjoys democracy. On the contrary, occupation has allowed terrorists and murderers into Iraq, it has allowed the corrupt and the bribed to play with the money of Iraqi citizens, and has turned the lives of some to hell as a result of random killing, be it from the forces of occupation or from lawless, undeterred security alliances that feast on the Iraqi�s blood and honor.

The U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have failed miserably and their dangerous implications have started surfacing in the U.S. economy, a foreteller to the fall of American power and the one pole governing the world, reaching to the disappearance of the American empire Bush dreamed about when he said, after invading Iraq: �God has commissioned me to do this.� This is the year of falling in the Iraqi and Afghani quagmire, out of which the only way is to quickly withdraw before it is too late.