The Iraq of today is still a burning place for human beings with the killing machines still continuing. This is evident to all by solely looking at the events of the last month in which hundreds of people have been killed by suicide bombs and explosions. The Iraqi government still, to date, remains unformed since the election of March 2010, and still the winning parties have not reached any agreements for the setting up of this future government.
In the last American election there was a promise by the Democrats to the voters that, if they won, the Obama administration would withdraw from Iraq, from a war they called futile and resembling that of the Vietnam War. Obama’s promise to the electorate stated that there would be a withdrawal of all combat operation by 31 August 2010 due to the fact that they had failed to find any Weapons of Mass Destruction and it was believed that the new administration had no pretext for invasion! Half of the American soldiers have now left Iraq and gone home. The reaction of people has been one of great upset and confusion. As the BBC reported on 26th August, America has been sending computers to Baghdad to be distributed amongst the schools. Yet, as soon as one of the administrators heard of the American withdrawal and their heading for Kuwait he diverted all the computer loads to the black market and sold them all. The Iraq of 2010 is still an unsafe place but surely not the same as in 2006 and 2007.
Robert Fisk in The Independent summarised on the 20th August “Goodbye to Iraq.” I do not believe that this is the correct respons to the present day situation in Iraq. As Marie Colvin of The Sunday Times 29/08/10 put it “Al-Qaeda are sticking back with a renewed intensity”. I do not believe that nowadays Al-Qaeda has anything left to confront Iraq with, considering their backbone has been broken by American–Iraqi forces. What is going on in Iraq is a war between the gangsters and the leftovers of Saddamist fighting for more money on contracts and business controls. This is according to the latest reliable sources returning from Iraq.
American ambiguity in its dealing with Iraq and the delegacy of the Saddam regime cannot claim any credit even by its disbanding of the Iraqi army. Torture, corruption, and civil war are all the marks America has left in Iraq. But if anybody thinks America can withdraw totally from the third largest oil exported country in the world and leave Iraq for the thugs of Al-Qaeda must think again. America is not heading for losing this war and in addition Iraq will not fall victim to the oil curse.
The author is a regular writer of KurdishMedia.com: mufid@btconnect.com
