2019 Intifada in Iraq

We publish here an opinion piece by former Baghdad based journalist, Louay Alzaher (pictured at the chess board). – Ed.

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In the Midst of the Iraqi Uprising …

“Iraq is a stockpile of great events that turned into a book which shows the suffering of its people from occupations and injustice of internal and external calamities and who have risen up steadfastly and expelled occupiers and who then stood up conceitedly as their date-palm do, beautiful and generous….” – Louay Alzaher

Before the US invasion of Iraq, there was a US agreement and coordination with Iran on Iraq. As Iran had already opened the doors of Afghanistan to America, it did the same with Iraq, without which America could not invade and occupy the two countries.

At the beginning of the American occupation, there were American and British groups that were involved in dirty work, which started with bombings, booby-traps, killings and slaughter. This was their response to the Iraqi resistance that emerged after the fall of Baghdad. Their media, in cooperation with Iran, attributed all their crimes to the Iraqi resistance in order to discredit it and strip it of its popular support. What followed was the training of American and Iranian dirty operations in Iraq, the formation of death squads and rapid interventions which turned Iraq into hell.

It is not arbitrary to build the largest US embassy in the world in Baghdad. This is an indication of their decision to control Iraq, its capabilities and energy resources for long periods. Not surprisingly, President Bush’s first decision was to disband the Iraqi border police force and make Iraq an open land for all the intelligence services of neighboring countries, gangs thieving antiquities, drug dealers and human traffickers, as a gateway to creative chaos. It is not surprising that they highlight the religious authority in Najaf as a prestigious force in a charade in which its representatives line up and the US forces retreat!

It is not surprising that the Iraqi army and police and other security institutions were dissolved and restructured to ensure control over them to implement the role of the US administration, to implement US policy and to preserve its interests. It is not surprising what occurred: that the gangs of antiquities were under their protection, and the destruction of the Iraqi National Museum, as well as the destruction and theft of the precious books and historical documents from the libraries of Iraq and the theft of all that what was stored in the Central Bank of Iraq, all the historical valuables and documents. They also targeted their destruction upon educational institutions and universities.

In the Central Bank of Iraq were precious historical monuments and documents. In destroying educational institutions, universities and schools, they were targeting the national identity to reformulate it into a sectarian and racist identity and to spread ignorance and illiteracy among the Iraqi people. In addition to the dismantling of all industrial facilities and transferring them to Iran and Jordan, the destruction included the agricultural and animal sector and the privatization of the public sector.

The Americans have built huge military bases throughout Iraq, with Israeli headquarters spread throughout the country, especially in northern Iraq, where Kurdish parties are in control. They established brutal religious forces, such as ISIS and others, which enjoyed American protection and support.

Iraq is under US tutelage. So it is the Americans’ responsibility to address crises and protect Iraqis. But it has not done so yet, so what does this situation reveal?

We know that the Americans created ISIS and prepared the ground for it to commit its crimes and handed over to it the cities and supported it.

It is true to say that the popular uprising is motivated by demands for basic rights, including the provision of employment opportunities for the vast majority of the masses, more than eighty percent living in poverty and hunger, but the main objective is to restore national identity and liberate Iraq from the clutches of foreign control, whether that control be Iranian or American. By achieving this goal, Iraqis will have their rights. Therefore, we see that the revolutionaries wear the flag of Iraq and sing in its name, prompting all segments of the people to join and support it with full force. It is a historic and articulated moment of this battle, which will determine the fate of Iraq and the region.

Intentions of the Revolutionaries for the Nation …
The clearest example of Iraqis’ awareness is that they started from the city of Nasiriyah by raising their real slogan, which they summarized as:

• Yes to Iraqi national sovereignty on our land, sky and water.

• No to US and Turkish bases and to Iranian hegemony.

• No to Bremer’s Constitution
• Yes to a Constituent Assembly that writes the new constitution.

• The people must decide their own destiny, not the corrupted parties and foreign countries.

In the midst of the Iraqi people’s battle for the liberation of their homeland, the United States is playing a malicious role in shaping the events. America takes the position and its opposite publicly, and takes neither of them in reality. Its real position may be different from both declared positions. The US administration aims not to support the government or support the demonstrators, but to deplete both of them and the status of Iran and its proxies in the face of the uprising, while concealing its role as the largest killer in the uprising. In this way, they turn attention to the actions of the Iranian side and parade themselves as innocent.

The revolutionaries of the Iraqi people know these plots, so they describe the American role as occupation and the Iranian role as dominating. Information from Iraq confirms that the uprisers need to unify and more coordination between field commanders must be greater than what is happening now

There is no turning back or stopping in the middle of the way. The revolutionaries have all declared that it is “either victory or death, if Algeria provided one million martyrs to be free from French enslavement, then we are ready to give ten million for liberation.”

By Louay Al Zaher, 19 November 2019, (Translated from the Arabic at https://iraqibeacon.wordpress.com/2019/11/19/في–خضم–الانتفاضة–العراقية–المؤشر–الوط/?fbclid=IwAR3SSVIm7O6F7kK6EyRT5DqCMI5kfdKZsOE83hex_ln7yv_zYDvi683TcIo)