|
|
|
50% of the
Iraqi population have no access to electric power.
|
TIME
Magazine just voted the US soldier as its Person of the
Year. However, I would like to take this space to suggest an
alternative the publishers of the weekly magazine may have
overlooked.
Primarily,
for the more than 12,000 Iraqis who died during the invasion,
the more than 3,000 who have been gunned down by trigger-happy
US soldiers and rampant acts of terrorism and sabotage, the more
than 990 who have died from the 10,560 US cluster bombs that
were dropped in civilian areas, the more than 10,000 Iraqis
detained in squalid camps in the desert, the more than 50
percent of the population that has no access to drinkable water,
the more than 50 percent of the population with no access to
electric power, the 28,000 teachers who have been fired, the
400,000 Iraqi soldiers who now have no means of sustenance, the
Iraqi police who died doing the work of US soldiers, the farmers
who had their crops and fields uprooted and/or burned because of
collective punishment, the Iraqis who have to carry IDs when
going from home to market, the Iraqis who died from revenge
killing and settling of scores, the Iraqis (Assyrians and
Turkomen) who have been kicked off their ancestral lands to make
way for Greater Kurdistan - for these and others, the TIME
Magazine choice is in rather poor taste and proves to the
world at large, and the Arab World in particular, that the
suffering of 24 million Iraqis is meaningless; the actions of an
occupying force of 130,000 are far more important.
Iraq
is in ruin. It has been plagued by countless wars; in the
mid-1970s Kurdish rebels, backed by the US’ man in the Middle
East - the Shah of Iran - and the CIA, launched a massive
rebellion in the north of the country. In 1980, a vindictive
Ayatollah Khoemini, incensed with rage at Iraqi President Saddam
for tossing him out of his refuge in Iraq, makes designs for a
Shiite revolution in Iraq public. Iraq responds by invading Iran
leading to a prolonged war that bled both countries dry. The war
is supported by the Reagan administration which surreptitiously
backs Saddam to ensure Iran does not win (See Rumsfeld-Saddam
connection). In 1990, Saddam misreads the intent of a Bush Sr.
administration, by way of the now-disappeared US Ambassador
April Glaspie, and invades Kuwait, defies the will of the
international community and brings devastation and economic ruin
onto his people.
The
TIME Magazine choice proves that the suffering of 24 million
Iraqis is meaningless. |
|
Adding
insult to injury, the Iraqi people are forced to continue
suffering under the most systematic and ruthless sanctions
regime ever devised in the history of man; everything from
pencils, textbooks and school computers to necessary hospital
equipment and water filtration system were deprived of the Iraqi
people. Blood pressure medicine, insulin for diabetics and other
medicines were prohibited under the sanctions regime.
Unemployment rose although the Ba’thist government tried to
subsidize what it could. Teachers, civil servants and others in
the public sector sold off pieces of their houses - doors,
windowpanes, upholstery, cabinets, etc. Crime rose, prostitution
rose, drug use rose, executions rose; and yet the Iraqi people
endured. Those who could leave the country did; 3-4 million
Iraqis created a new global Diaspora. The most educated working
class in the Middle East was reduced to begging for hand-outs.
Iraqi embassies around the world begged Iraqis to send medical
and science books back to Iraq. The most efficient health care
system in the Middle East was devastated as hospitals become
little more than hallways of horrendous death.
And
yet the Iraqi people endured.
Iraqi
embassies around the world begged Iraqis to send medical and science
books back to Iraq. |
|
When
the invasion of Iraq played itself out in all its military awe
and fatalistic glory, the Iraqi people endured. They were
resigned to the fact that there was change in the air. It
was unlikely Saddam would last and so the Iraqis hoped for a new
dawn. That dawn never came and has not come despite his capture.
Today, drug pushing and consumption is rampant. Newspaper
vendors glide between cars at traffic cops and ask commuters if
they want to buy “capsule” - the Iraqi street word for drugs
of all varieties. Pornography is the first and foremost
implementation of freedom as it is freely sold on street
corners, in cafés and grocery stores. Unemployment is epidemic,
electric outages persist, and oil and gas shortages are the new
Gods of Babylon in an area with the second largest oil reserves
in the world. Abductions and rape are everyday pleasures for the
perpetrators, and demonic nightmares for the victims and
survivors.
This
is the Iraq the Iraqis see on a daily unfortunate basis. It is
not the Iraq of the sensitized, self-censored Washington Post
or CNN. Iraqis have called this writer crying about their
situation. There are mental health issues that have now come to
the fore. More than 20 million Iraqis are depressed,
demoralized. They are neither dancing nor singing.
But
this version of Iraq is a heavenly vision of peace and
tranquility compared to what is in store in Iraq’s
eco-political future - consider it Iraq-lite. Ominous signs that
are systematically being denied by most non-Arab media are
emerging from Iraq. The Sunnis throughout Iraq are beginning to
feel disenfranchised; they feel they have been jettisoned by the
US. Some prominent Sunnis have called for a regional government
of their own. This is a dangerous precedent as it will lead to
fragmentation.
Certain
Shiite elements within the Iraqi Governing Council have started
to move to extremes from the other ethnicities in the Council:
“The Americans view Iran as part of the axis of evil, while we
view Iran as a strategic partner,” influential Council member
Mowafaq Al-Ruba’ii told Al Jazeera television last month.
Kurdish
leaders Al-Barazani and Al-Talabani have both called on an
implementation of federalism in Iraq before the Iraqi
constitution is written up. Why? The answers are simple - a new
Iraqi constitution may not provide the Kurdish minority with the
necessary tools to secede and declare independence. Further
adding tension was last week’s 50,000-strong demonstration of
Kurdish militants in the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk
demanding that the city become part of an independent Kurdistan.
The city has witnessed early signs of ethnic cleansing as Kurds
displace Arabs who were moved into the city in the 1970s.
Since
Saddam was captured, revenge killings have become the staple of
daily Iraqi life. Shiite and Sunni militants have taken to
harassing one another as US soldiers look on, unable, or
unwilling perhaps, to disengage both parties.
“Since
Monday, Shi’ite (sic) and Sunni Muslims battled across a
Baghdad river separating two traditional strongholds of each
sect, Adhamiyah and Khadamiyah,” said a Boston Globe
report last week.
Sunni
and Shiite clerics and intellectuals have created a joint
emergency task force to tackle such situations. How they will
fare remains to be seen. If they fail, civil war will dominate
the headlines.
Indeed,
for a people that have endured far too much, TIME Magazine’s
choice is provocative.
Firas
Al-Atraqchi is a Canadian journalist of Iraqi heritage.
Holding an MA in Journalism and Mass Communication, he has
eleven years of experience covering Middle East issues, oil and
gas markets, and the telecom industry. You can reach him at firascape@hotmail.com.
|
