Seven years ago this week, armoured columns of coalition forces stormed across the border with Kuwait, routing the Republican Guard in a matter of seven days. It has taken nearly a decade to begin to see the kind of pictures we witnessed over the last few months – television journalists walking round busy markets with not a soldier or piece of body armour in sight.
The kind of violence which tore Iraq apart from 2003 was hardly new of course. The country has suffered external invasion by the British in the 1910s, bloody coups in the 1960s and 1970s, and a horrific war with Iran in the 1980s.
But what is remarkable is how Iraq and Iraqis have stayed together – often a fragile and violent unity, but as one country and one identity despite decades of conflict, repression and sectarian strife.
It is something to celebrate that a murderous fascist is no longer allowed to brutalise his own people, or invade his neighbours.
In Britain, so much of the debate, like the Chilcot Inquiry, is stuck in the quagmire of the events of 2003. Endless theories are posited as to who said what to whom when, as if any of it would mean the decision to remove Saddam Hussein was one that wouldn’t have happened, and wasn’t in the long term interests of Iraq, the Middle East region, or the world.
Iraqis must see such discussions with the world weariness of most except the BBC and some other segments of the British media who still seem fascinated by it.
In the meantime, they are beginning to build a secure and robust state, with the seeds of democracy being sown in a way which positions Iraq as a beacon in its neighbourhood. The election campaign was colourful, robust, and remarkably modern – with the use of SMS campaigns and the emergence of new political forces, such as the Kurdish political party Goran demonstrating the way in which a peaceful political culture is being solidified. Turnout in the election stood at 62 per cent – something that we may struggle to achieve in Britain at the next general election. As vice president Joe Biden put it “politics have broken out in Iraq”.
The move toward reconciliation was symbolised by the recent release of the hostage Peter Moore, who had been in captivity for two and a half years. Of course others are still held in Iraq, but his freedom is a sign that the terrorists and militias are seeing their power ebb away.
Iraq’s economy is getting back on track, buoyed of course by oil revenues -which are going to the people of Iraq, not stolen by the west as the Stop the War group claimed. The ending of sanctions is enabling Iraq to trade effectively, though she will need stronger relations with her neighbours to continue on the path to prosperity. International companies like BP are helping to modernise Iraq’s oil industry, but even more important than that will be for Iraq to broaden its economic base beyond the exploitation of its natural mineral wealth.
We need to do much more to support Iraq on this path, and not simply let the media and political caravan move onto Afghanistan.
As Gary Kent, the indomitable director of Labour Friends of Iraq, puts it, “those who took opposing views could unite to assist the actually existing Iraq to overcome the legacy of dictatorship, war, sanctions and occupation.”
Basic services such as electricity, water and transport are still not nearly as good for a country with such potential. We must help Iraqi businesses and political leaders stamp out corruption, one of the most invidious problems that can hold back developing nations. We should increase trade, foreign direct investment and other exchanges with Iraq now security is beginning to return. We must support trade unions and women’s groups, some of whom are still saddled by cultural hangovers from Saddam’s era.
Above all, we must tell the story of the new Iraq. From the mountains and oil fields of Kirkuk, through the western deserts, to the port of Basra, Iraqis are continuing the daily struggle of existence – more mundane than before, but moving forward again.
I hope Alex is right and Iraqi society is heading for normalcy. But there are still major flaws in Iraqi democracy, and one of them in particular is actually a holdover from Saddam Hussain’s rule. That is the law that bans trade unionism in the public sector (which is most of the economy in Iraq). It is used whenever the Government, or even individual employers in the public sector, find trade unionism is just too tiresome, eg when people want a raise, or better health and safety, or an end to corruption. And that law is set within a context of continual intervention in the internal affairs of trade unions by the Government and political parties. Iraqi unions are now running a campaign for a fair labour law, with support from the TUC and others, and you can find out more at http://www.iraqitradeunions.org
Well, Iraqis will have SOME control over their affairs when the occupying powers, mainly the US imperialists, are kicked out, bag and baggage, lock stock and barrel, except the imperialist many murderers (including the British Army thugs who tortured Baha Moussa to death) THEY should stay in Iraqi jails for life.
But what about the reparations? For a start, let ‘indomitable’ – until a better offer comes along – Gary Kent (by the way, on 17 March he did not even know the Kurdish for ‘excuse me’ – it is ‘dereng’) let Gary press the Israelis for a full payment for the unprovoked aggression against hte Iraiq Osirak reactor in 1981. Then for the sanctions of which Madeline Allbright boasted that half a million dead Iraiq children is a price worth paying….. If she is right – and we share so many values with our US Democrat allies, than let her and her country – and htis country, who joined in the sanctions, fork up. A ;price worth paying is a price worth paying.
Let other progressives name the price for each dead Iraqi child, any offers?
then General Barry McCaffrey and his 24th Armored Division – their burial alive of so many captured Iraqi troops perhaps deserves a few trials and reparative payments. And many other wantonly infliected deaths in the Great Turkey Shoot as the Iraiq army retreated from Kuwait and Basra.
Not to mention the April Glaspie deception whereby George HW Bush led Saddam to understand that the US had no interest in the integrity of the corrupt British neo-colony of Kuwait, a feudal fiefdom which made apartheid South Africa look democratic and liberal by comparison. Oh, they have just let women vote, something achieved by Iraqi under the Baath half a century ago.
And there is the murderous attack against Baghdad and Rashid Ali in 1941 – of course, any attack against the sacrosanct British Empire .
must be Nazi,mustn’t it, if no other excuse is available….?
Well, this is just episode 1 of a long history of UK aggression against the people of Iraq.
Bigham and Tudor effectively state (they don’t argue) that we must move on…..which criminal and aggressor does not want to forget the past?
Fair do’s, though. Equal standards. For every crime committed by Iraiq occupying forces in the UK against our peaceful society, we should demand twice the reparations I propose for US to repay to THEM.
after all, we are the (well.second) MASTER RACE, are we not?
step up to the plate, Progressives!
Sorry, I forgot Bigham’s drooling over the super-profits he and his financier cronies – quick, quick, you can benefit too – can derive from direct investment in a state deprived of all sovereignty.
Dont’ worry, US troops in the Green Zone will keep up your financial returns…..
As for New Labour (Blair’s mega-millions, Mandelson’s intensely relaxed ‘conscience’ and mortgage deals…. , Byers, Hewitt, Hoon… 20+ freeby trips for foreign government bribery….) they/we are going to teach the Iraqis how to avoid or repress corruption?!
don’t make me laugh….
btw, the Serbian for ‘forgive me’ is izvennite….
“Labour Friends”. The latest effusions of the spokesman of Labour Friends of Israel shows us a Labour Friend turning from defending the theft of Palestinian homes and land, and the oppression of the Palestinian people to justifying the theft of the identities of British citizens. Can anyone claim that the Iraqi claim to the 19th governorate (Kuwait) was weaker than the Zionist claim to the whole of Palestine (indeed, ‘from the Nile to the Euphrates” to quote historic and still unrenounced Zionist propaganda? Plainly not. Let us be more moderate:
what Friends of any country applaud the gratuitous invasion of THEIR Friend – aka client. (Saddam’s offer to go into exile to render the invasionunnecessary was contemptuouly ignored by our warmongering Progressives, as was the Taliban’s offer to consider the extradition ofg Al Qaeda – yes the same Taliban with whom we are now preparing to negotiate – no doubt in the very worst of faith). Do the LFI advocate AngloAmerican repossession of the whole land of Palestine and its return to the original inhabitants?
Bigham is keen to move on from the Labour/Bush aggression of 2003 – ancient history…. Do LFI ever cease using the mass murder of Jews, which stopped in 1945, to justify today’s Zionist crimes? just look at this week’s newspapers for an answer.
Friends like Labour Friends of Iraq, the Iraqis hardly need enemies.
Hi Alex I would suggest forwarding your article to all your Iraqi friends. You have clearly timed the article to coincide with the murder of 57 people in two seperate bombings – it’s at moments like these when the good people of Iraq need to be reminded how lucky they are that ‘peaceful political culture is being solidified’. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/world/middleeast/09iraq.html?_r=1&hp Keep up the good work – we need arguments like these to make the case of liberating Iran. Hopefully this time without the 1.3 milliion dead 🙂 Abdul