Selling Confidence in Iraq
As Iraqi forces took control of towns and cities across the country on June 30, a car bomb in the northern city of Kirkuk exploded, killing at least 33 people and injuring more than 100, serving as a grim reminder of the security challenges that Iraqis face following US troop pullout. Kirkuk was also the scene of two suicide bombings last month in which 14 people were killed. It is the center of northern Iraq's oil industry and home to a volatile mix of Kurds, Arabs, Christians and members of the Turkmen community.
Although vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi asked Iraqis to stay away from crowded places during the US pullback, his appeal has largely been ignored: more than 250 people were killed in bombings over the past 10 days. Thousands of Iraqis turned up in unprecedented numbers to mark this occasion in a public holiday called National Sovereignty Day.
"I never thought that this day would come," said Ahmed Aliyan, a reporter for one of the local television networks.
The attacks in Kirkuk are not a coincidence; this northern Iraqi city sits atop lucrative oil reserves where pipelines connect Kirkuk's oilfields to ports on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Kirkuk has long been the prize sought after in an Arab-Kurdish competition for power and wealth, and for the many who wish to prevent stability in Iraq and wreak havoc, Kirkuk is the ideal launching pad. It was just such attacks which provoked Shi'a militias to take brutal revenge against Sunnis in 2006 and 2007, bringing the country to the brink of civil war and disintegration.
Will the "enemies of Iraq" (as referred to by Nouri el-Maliki) succeed?
This depends on whether Iraqi forces can prevent an upsurge of violence in the period leading up to the elections in January, 2010. Many skeptics worry that the US withdrawal will trigger another spiral of sectarian violence similar to the one the country witnessed three years ago because Iraqi forces still lack the training and capabilities to prevent it.
Meanwhile, military experts anticipate more violence in the days ahead. President Obama, who on the occasion of the handover said "Iraq's future is in the hands of its own people," also warned that Iraqis face "difficult days ahead."
Over the past several weeks, I have noticed a surge in confidence-building advertisement airing on the state television network, Al Iraqiya, and the Saudi-sponsored Al Arabiya TV targeting Iraqis to trust their own security forces in protecting them. One such promo ran a "Countdown to Sovereignty" clock but also broadcast promotional spots glorifying Iraqi history, culture and people. It ran images of ordinary Iraqi citizens walking shoulder to shoulder with members of the armed forces and police on the "path of freedom" as they dubbed it.
The upcoming days will be a real test for the Iraqi forces. Now that the United States can take credit for restoring democracy to Iraq, is it sufficiently rooted to survive the US withdrawal?
Follow Jamal Dajani on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamaldajani
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Seems like most people posting on this article dream of the good ole days of Saddam who used chemical weapons on his own people, slaughter 300,000 of his own people. Cut off hands of dissenters, really knew how to torture, oh how you must miss him because there was no outside violence against his regime. He sponsored terrorism against Israel by offering 25,000 dollar rewards to the families who gave up their children as suicide bombers.
Those were the good ole days that you wish we could just go back to because it cost so much money to give the Iraqi's a chance to rule themselves in what manner they choose.
If its all about Oil, then why are we pulling out now, Bush would have required all Oil be sold to his companies at low rates. Hmm I guess he was so stupid he forgot to write that contract.
And you forgot to mention who sold him the helicopters to launch his chemical weapons on the Kurds...Ru
An optimistic assessment is foolhardy- Iraq is at best a loose confederation prone to solve its problems with violence. therefore.
"Restoring" Iraqi democracy? When in the past was Iraq democratic?
There were democratic periods under the Abbasids (el Mansour) and Haroun el Rashid during the Golden Age of Baghdad. Also, elections were held in Iraq in 1925 earlier than mot Arab countries after the fall of the ottoman Empire.
No need for democracy. They will find another ruthless dictator, who will crush dissent and return things to "normal". And this cost us how many of our kids lives and how many billion from our pockets? Gee, we still have 130,000 advisers left there for police action. Don't stop counting yet.
"They will find another ruthless dictator?" We're the ones who put Saddam into power in the first place.
Do your homework. It's your responsibility as a US citizen to understand this society and the world around you.
"Our kids" were killed in the name of good-old-f
Restoring democracy to Iraq? Is that what you call it when Bremer and the Bush cronies suspend democratic elections, dissolve the positions of democratic
We didn't "restore" democracy in Iraq. We let the Iraqis think they were getting a democracy, and then we systematically killed genuine democratic participation. Blackwater even hired on security forces who were trained under Pinochet to suppress the people for Christ's sake.
It's well past time for Americans to wake up and be honest about what has been going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Being familiar with Mr. Dajani's previous writings I sense cynicism when he talks about the US claiming credit for restoring democracy.
Thanks for that note. I wasn't aware of any previous writings.
What I don't understand is why the Iraqis need all this training and advice from the United States to handle security, when they had no sectarian violence and no terrorism under Saddam Hussein. How come nobody ever asks why that is?
Seems like we should have been asking them how to quell all that violence, because they did under Saddam, and we couldn't afterwards. Even now there's far, far more of it than there was under Saddam.
There is something wrong with this whole story.
During our brilliant act of "de-Baathi
After we over-threw Saddam, Iraqis were polled and 70% said that they wanted a SECULAR government. Sectarian violence and violence in general was not a problem until we threw all of the state workers out of their jobs, refused to let the Iraqis participate at all in their country's reconstruction, refused to let them have any say in their economic policies going forward, ruined their culture by failing to protect their museums and libraries--which held all of the books that were important to Iraqi culture including the original works of scholars, and started halting all democratic processes because we knew that the Iraqis would not elect politicians who were friendly to privatization, foreign ownership of Iraqi firms and assets, a 15% flat tax, and all of the other radical economic policies that BushCo. wanted. Foreign embassies started getting bombed after Bremer decided that post-Saddam Iraq would have its first government APPOINTED by the US, and that a free democratic election would not be allowed. Sectarian violence began, and the peaceful protests of al-Sadr's movement moved towards violence when it became apparent that they would have to FIGHT for democracy and for their country.
You can quiet a lot of sectarian violence with gas and mass graves. And although that probably isn't the most acceptable method it might be time to stop thinking that Democracy is some sort of fix-all. The oil grab beging now, look north.
It appears that surge was quite effective. Its great to see Iraq well on the way to being a soveign nation. Interesting that Iraq was unable to auction off oil contracts yesterday. Only one company, British Petroleum bought any of the contracts. For those that thought America just wanted Iraq's oil.
It is all about OIL! It was about OIL...it remains about OIL!
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If the surge was so successful, why are the oil companies evidently skeptical about Iraq's future?
It is all about OIL! It was about OIL...it remains about OIL!
"the United States can take credit for restoring democracy to Iraq"
So, democracy is restored only when the US gets out of its way.
Now that Al Maliki is our man...we can say Iraq is a democracy.
Define democracy!
The US cannot afford to babysit Iraq anymore. This was Bush's folly. Get out of Iraq and prosecute him and his cult. Another month or two will not make a big difference. Only the oil/military industrial complexes are getting anything out of this. The world will survive an Iraqi civil war, but the multinational oil boys, weapons manufacturers and government bureaucats that do their bidding will not let it go. We're laying off teachers, while our military sits on its hands in Iraq with soldiers costing $250,000 a year each. What a load of BS
Why do we think it's up to us to decide what the Iraqis should do with their lives?
Because they've been killing each other for centuries!
Although this looks bad right now, I'm confident that the Iraqis will be better off without US presence on their lands! We will also be better off!
I'm afraid that once the US departs a civil war will start. There is so much sectarian violence there.
Sectarian violence began when the US went there!
Then Iran will move in there and you will have on Shia empire to deal with.
They're trembling in spite of Obama supporting them.
If the attacks and explosions continue no amount of confidence-building measures will work. The next few days will be telling.
The attacks will continue because they have never stopped!
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