DR. BOUTHAINA SHAABAN: WHAT WE MUST DO FOR IRAQ NOW
05. Dec, 2010
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Over one million Iraqis have met violent deaths as a result of the 2003 invasion, according to a study conducted by the prestigious British polling group, Opinion Research Business (ORB)
“The price paid by the Iraqis is of no consequence to Biden. What does it mean for him, or for his administration, that a million Iraqis have been killed, wounded and tortured. That is why we find him ignoring this price. Biden stresses that it is in the United States’ real interest to maintain the gains made by Iraq. Of course he means the gains made by the United States in Iraq.”
By: Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban
Under this title, American Vice President Joseph Biden wrote an op-ed in The New York Times on November 20, 2010, coinciding with a NATO summit aimed at confronting the rest of the world, a European endeavor to salvage Ireland and with American incentives to Israel to freeze settlements (in reality ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians) for three months only. The deal in itself constitutes a shift that demonstrates the extent of Israeli control of American decision making on the Middle East. The author wants to conclude that Iraq is a country consisting of conflicting and warring factions, that the recent agreement of the parties to form a government in Iraq came as a result of concerted efforts on the part of the United States which does not want to exclude or marginalize anyone.
The actual reality, however, is that the US has marginalized Iraq as one of the richest and most ancient countries in the Middle East. The American invasion of Iraq is something that Biden did not mention. Reading the article, one is bound to feel that the US is the power which created oil under Iraqi soil, endowed it with civilization, moulded its people to become decent human beings, and will continue to do so until Iraq becomes capable of survival after seven years of destruction and terrorism inflicted by the US war on Iraq. Naturally, Biden does not identify those who caused the war or those responsible for waging and sustaining it.
AP PHOTO
So, in order to unleash the Iraqis’ potentials and talents, the US, according to Biden, is not withdrawing from Iraq, but “rather, the nature of our engagement is changing from a military to a civilian lead [one].” For the 50,000 soldiers remaining until 2011 have a new task which is advising and assisting their Iraqi counterparts.
At the same time, Biden writes: “Meanwhile, we are establishing a diplomatic presence throughout the country and, under the terms of our Strategic Framework Agreement, building a dynamic partnership across a range of government sectors, including education, energy, trade, health, culture, information technology, law enforcement and the judiciary.”
The remarkable thing here is that education takes priority over energy, trade and the rule of law, because the objective is to effect a drastic change in the vision and identity of future Iraqi generations so that they grow up accepting, through brainwashing processes, this new form of neo-colonialism, which planned, before the invasion, subjugating Iraq and blundering its resources for centuries to come. In order to camouflage this neo-colonialism, the Americans use terms like “providing intensive assistance,” “sustained American presence” in Iraq, plans for modernizing Iraqi security forces and funding the police force and providing all this assistance to security forces through civilian efforts led by the State Department. This means the responsibility for the occupation of Iraq is shifting from the Pentagon to the State Department, which, in turn, coordinates the efforts of using education, the judiciary, health and energy in order to colonize Iraq in accordance with modern methods. Biden concludes by writing that the cost of the war has been very high for the US; for 4,430 US soldiers have paid with their lives for it.
Of course, the price paid by the Iraqis is of no consequence to Biden. What does it mean for him, or for his administration, that a million Iraqis have been killed, wounded and tortured. That is why we find him ignoring this price. Biden stresses that it is in the United States’ real interest to maintain the gains made by Iraq. Of course he means the gains made by the United States in Iraq.
The main objective of the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, spending billions and sacrificing thousands of Americans for that end, is to turn Iraq into a satellite and a major base for the US in a region of vital importance for the US. This importance is a code name for protecting Israel’s security. This is the objective of invading Iraq, destabilizing Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon and others.
What do those who theorize for the West’s impartiality say to Joseph Biden who explains the United States’ objectives and interests in Iraq without showing in his article any trace of the Iraqi people, their interests and the hefty price they paid to achieve the vital American policy objective in the Middle East – protecting Israel’s security?
We know, of course, that it is not the task of the American vice president to think of the interests of the Iraqi people; neither is it shameful for him to declare the US objectives. The question is, however, where is the official Arab regime in relation to this neo-colonialism whose dangers on Arab national security have become abundantly clear?
All the Arabs, regimes and peoples, governments and opposition, politicians and intellectuals, have seen how the NATO summit has closed Cold-War shops and declared unequivocally an alliance between Europe, the US and Russia in the face of the terrorist threat, which is the expression currently used to transform Muslims into targets of their wars and neo-colonialism. What is the Arab stand in relation to the birth of this new world which declares its hostility openly and threatens us directly?
The real independence for the Arabs is achieved through science and achieving progress in the field of public participation through the appropriate forms of political democracy. Arab solidarity and harmonizing efforts constitute the only way to address the weaknesses of the Arabs and protect them against the dangers of neo-colonialism. If some people do not realize the importance of closing ranks, let them look to Europe, America and Russia. Let them see what Israel and the US are doing in terms of exchanging roles and interests. Let them remember what Biden has said about our region which he considered “a vital strategic region” for the US, because its ally and our blundered oil happen to be in it.
Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban
Professor Bouthaina Shaaban is political and media adviser at the Syrian Presidency and former expatriates minister. She has also been a writer and professor at Damascus University since 1985. She has a doctorate in English Literature from Warwick University, London. She was the media spokesperson for Syria. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
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I find it interesting that you ignore Syria’s “neo-colonialism” with its intervention in and the essential occupation of Lebanon and its support of warring factions in the centuries old conflict between the Shia and Sunni. You also chose to ignore the persecution of Christians within the Muslim world and Syria’s support of dictatorial regimes such as Iran which has its own “neo-colonial” aspirations. I won’t even mention Syria’s attempts at nuclear technology and I am sure that many Syrian ex-patriates have fond memories of democracy under the Assad dynasty. Where was Syria when Saddam Hussein was killing and torturing his own population and gassing the Kurds?
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Elias Reply:
December 5th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
The request for Syria’s intervention in Lebanon was made by the Lebanese Government and the United States to put an end to the Lebanese Civil War. There is persecution against Moslems and Christians by the Israeli Government . In fact there are 23 Laws enacted by the Israeli Government that discriminate against Non Jews. As a Christian , I can tell you that in Palestine We have excellent relations with our Muslim brothers.
As far as Saddam Hussein is concerned, I would like to also ask you , where was the United States? In fact Rumsfield visited Saddam in Baghdad, when Saddam Hussein was at war with Iran. As long As Saddam was working for U.S. Interests, they ignored everything he did.
[Reply]
The people of Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering because the USA wants a foot in the Middle East that cannot be dragged out. The leadership both of the Democrats and the Republicans has the same agenda. The lives of the people of these countries are collateral damage, meaning of no significance. However, the consequences are felt by the Americans. Their economy is devastated and may be the new leader China would dictate the world policies in the era to follow.
The damage that the USA and its allies have inflicted during the reign of terror that they unleashed on the world during their tenure of stewardship will not go unnoticed in the history, a time of poverty and that of deep poverty will have to be witnessed by the Americans too as there is an economic cycle unfolding to their detriment.
The most that they should fear however, is the retaliation of nation whom they have harmed and who in the next round would most certainly be against them.
The American people are fed news by the Jews controlled Media, and the leadership is fed news by the CIA and the Think tank both heavily infiltrated by the Jews and the Zionist followers.
The people of USA including the leadership should actually go and meet people of the world specially people of the “Foe World”, so that they can get the first hand information from the people of those countries as to what and why they have negative opinion about USA and how can that be eradicated.
The affairs of USA are more or less given on contract and are managed by the Lobbying firms or the Groups that have clouts and the machinery of the State is slaves of these power firms that hold the entire country hostage to their way of thinking or the way of thinking of their paymasters.
The working class is just like the workers of an ant colony. They toil for the queen, here the queen are the Media, the Corporations, the vested and interested groups and those that have foreign or ulterior interest in the slavery of the American people to be kept as slaves.
USA is arming Israel to its brink, and has been given arms as a tool of bribe to calm down the rhetoric of the AIPAC and other Jew Organizations to get the Media controlled by Jews in line with USA programs, however, the ever sleeping population of the West must understand that a war of words is now almost over, the war if any extended in the Mid-East, would be a final round, this has been understood by the Mid-Eastern side with utmost clarity.
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