On May 1st, 2003, President George Bush stood among his troops “disguised” as a pilot to announce his victory and the end of the fighting in Iraq. Bush's announcement was foolish or a lie. In the best of cases, it was a media stunt to preserve the morale of his troops, to reassure domestic public opinion and to increase support for the war. Since that day, i.e. seven years ago, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and around five thousand American soldiers have been killed, and millions of people have been displaced. Iraq has become a focal point for breeding terrorism and attracting terrorists, some of whom claiming to struggle for a return to the early days of Islam (each imagining those days in their own way). Moreover, there are some who take advantage of the situation to promote further chaos and destruction (Israeli intelligence in Kurdistan), in addition to countries that view a united Iraq as a direct threat to their ambitions and as the possibility of restoring the Arabism they worked long to eradicate. Ever since from that date, which years of embargo and sanctions paved the way for, Iraq has been broken up and the Iraqis have become split into multiple entities, each with its own share in the state and in the regime, and each with its own army. Some of those armies have collaborated with the US and have been officially recognized, like the “Awakening” movements, and some are against the law (what law?), like the Mahdi Army and the Asa'ib Ahl Al-Haqq allied with Iran. As for the official army, it is distributed among the “entities”, breached by militias and intelligence agencies, and obstructed in its work by political leaders whose sole ambition is to remain in power. In short, the occupation has turned Iraq into multiple failed microstates, regardless of what is said about prosperity in Kurdistan – quarrelling microstates eaten away by corruption, the leaders of which buy their remaining in the political game with more loyalty to foreign parties (does this not remind us of Lebanon?). The problem is that the US Army leaving Mesopotamia will not restore cohesion to the Iraqis, but will rather deepen the divide between entities and perhaps lead to sectarian civil wars, indications of which are no secret to anyone. In fact, many Iraqis have expressed their fears of this moment, especially after the Al-Qaeda organization resumed its activity over the past few weeks, amidst political vacuum under the banner of disagreement over the position of Prime Minister, and whether it will be filled by Shiite Nouri Al-Maliki or by Shiite allied to the Sunnis Ayad Allawi. Seven years later, half the US Army leaves Iraq, and the other half turns to “charitable” work. The occupation has throughout these years produced nothing but destruction and chaos. The United States has been unable to impose its peace, neither in Baghdad nor in the Middle East. It has not brought its experience and its culture to this region, which has turned into fertile soil for the growing “Islamist uprising” in many parts of it, in addition to preparing the climate for the spread of Iranian, Turkish and Israeli influence. Saddam Hussein was a dictator. But the “democracy” of sectarian entities established by the occupation is worse.
