Iraq: Will It Ever Recover?

“Ain’t U.S. democracy great?”

Friends, I looked at Al Jazeera this morning. Iraq featured heavily in its coverage of world events.

First thing I noticed was a lead article about explosions in Najaf and Ramadi prior to the election on March 7th which is later today. Three people had been killed and fifty had been injured (see above). There are expectations that many more people will be killed before the election is over. Remember the Shia are a minority group in Iraq and there is no love lost between them and the Sunnis.

Then in the FOCUS section there are two articles. One deals with whether or not U.S. troops should or should not withdraw from Iraq. This is because there are many questions about the ability of the war-ravaged country and its warring groups to survive without the presence of Big Brother America. The other article suggests that Iraq waits on a knife-edge as the election hour approaches with hope and fear in equal proportions.

Then, lower still, in the blog section, another article states: KIRKUK’S ARABS FIGHT AGAIN FEDERALISM. As you may recall, the highway to Kirkuk killed many Allied troops. Obviously some Arabs are not happy with the direction their country is taking under the brutal foreign invaders. Another article suggests that George W Bush brought democracy to the Middle East and this should be used as an example by other Arab countries. Surely the person who wrote this must be on drugs or in need of deep psychotherapy!

In the same section, Josh Rushing talks about the Mission Accomplished joke and suggests that the mission is Iraq is still far from over despite the stumblings of the puppet government. Similarly, in Britain, the dour Brown has been defending the invasion of Iraq by the Coalition of the Killing. As one would expect, he justifies everything that the allies have done, the deaths, the fragmentation and massive destruction, even though the WMDs mysteriously disappeared like a desert rainbow as did Iraqi cohesion.

I think it would be fair to suggest that this amount of coverage clearly shows what a complete stuff-up the invasion of Iraq really was when viewed from the perspective of saving the world from Saddam’s WMDs and bringing the Iraqis the blessings of freedom and democracy.

But if viewed from the perspective of oil availability for the West or the shiny new scalp hanging from the belt of the U.S. or the further crushing of Arab countries to allow Israel to grow stronger, etc, it has been a complete success.

It is hard to see Iraq ever recovering from the invasion and occupation. What happened there is occurring in Afghanistan and will occur in Iran should an invasion take place.

Why doesn’t the U.S. stop creating immense problems for other nations and the world and, instead, try to fix up the huge economic, social and political problems which exist in its own country?

America has no right to impose its own massive problems on the rest of the world!

UPDATE: 38 people killed so far during the ‘democratic’ election in Iraq where 90,000 U.S. troops are still in occupation.