Opinion

The US Failure in Iraq

by Ishtiyaque Danish

 The views expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of the Newsletter (editor)

The arrest of Mr. Saddam Hussein, the forcibly deposed former president of Iraq, would not alter the ground realities in Iraq in any significant way. The conditions in which the former president was arrested amply suggest that he was any thing but the sole leader of the wide-spread resistance movement. He might have been in touch, perhaps, with some trusted Bath Party members, giving them money to hand over to the field operatives of the resistance. The Americans, in fact, had made it difficult for Mr. Saddam to move freely and guide the Iraqi fighters. The obvious conclusion, therefore, is that there are others who are leading the resistance movement. And perhaps it is good for Iraq, and for this reason alone this resistance must succeed.

The US has a nefarious gameplan to dominate the Middle East and exploit its resource. Let us digress a little here. The present US administration never tires of speaking about and working for American interests. The reality, however, is that it is under total control of America’s selfish oil lobby. The so called war on global terror is a mere camouflage to gloss over the greed for oil. A criticism of the US, therefore, is the criticism of its greedy oil cartel which is not sincere even about the American people.

It is this sinister US oil cartel and its boundless greed for oil that must be defeated. And let us hope that the Iraqi resistance by succeeding in its cherished mission of freeing Iraq from foreign occupation proves to be a step forward in that direction. No one has the illusion that the US will sure test a military defeat in Iraq. They are perhaps as powerful as Britain was in 1920 in the wake of its resounding victory in World War One. Iraq was, then, occupied by the British who promised them independence and democracy but worked otherwise and gave them a puppet regime. The Americans, today, have occupied Iraq in order to free its people from the tyranny of Mr. Saddam Hussein and establish therein a democratic order. However, they have succeeded in fooling none but themselves. Now it is crystal clear that their mission is only to set up a pliant government in Baghdad that will obediently do their bidding. The Iraqi resistance, however, is increasingly becoming an intractable problem for the Americans. The resistance seems to be led by intelligent men who are hitting the Americans where it hurts the most. They have targeted the Iraqi collaborators in order to warn their fellow citizens that helping the enemy in his mission is the high treason that would not be tolerated. But mainly, and rightly, they are after the American soldiers knowing full well that as many body bags they sent to the US as much the American opinion will turn against the Bush administration. Next they are targeting the oil tankers and oil pipelines in order to stop the flow of Iraqi oil to the market. This seems to be a well-calculated attempt to frustrate the Americans and prevent them from getting the cheap Iraqi oil for which they have occupied the country. Such attacks on economic targets will harm the US economically and force it to withdraw from Iraq. There prevail complete chaos and disorder in Iraq today. Correspondents, who rushed to Baghdad after the arrest of Mr. Saddam Hussein, have given us a feel of the bad law and order situation that obtains in Iraq today. No one is safe even in Baghdad where the American presence is most overwhelming because all the high ranking civil and military officers are stationed there. People close their shops much before the sunset and the silence of the night is often broken by loud gunfire. The panicked Americans, in order to restore law and order, have arrested thousands of young Iraqis who are being held without trial. Most of the arrests are made during military raids during which women and children are harassed, even assaulted and elderly people are humiliated in despicable manner. One wonders if this is the freedom that the Americans want to promote all across the world.

There is no denying the fact that there are Iraqis who are happy on the demise of the Saddam regime. But surely the initial euphoria is giving way to pessimism as the Americans have failed to fulfil the promises they had made before the invasion. They have neither discovered the so-called weapons of mass destruction nor have been able to give the Iraqis the promised freedom and democracy. Instead, the whole country has become a jungle of lawlessness, businesses have suffered hugely and the employed have lost their jobs. All these have swelled the ranks of the resistance fighters.

(The author teaches Islamic Studies at Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi)

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