It is a simple and clear scene. The last US combat troops have left Iraq. The soldiers who reached the Kuwaiti border did not try to hide their joy; they are on their way back to their country and their families. By the end of this month, there will only remain fifty thousand US soldiers in Iraq, whose mission will be one of training and consultation. All the US forces will leave by the end of next year. President Barack Obama insists on adhering to the specified withdrawal timeframe. We are heading towards the final chapter of a costly American adventure that was perpetrated seven years and five months ago. This adventure was characterized by lameness, miscalculations, and the inability to carefully read the structure of the invasion's scene and environment. It is an adventure that cost America 4400 soldiers and a trillion dollars and caused the collapse of historic balances in this part of the world. It is perhaps for this reason that US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley called the end of combat operations yesterday a “historic moment”. There is another scene that cannot be dissociated from the first. On March 7, the Iraqis went to the ballot boxes to elect a new parliament. A belief prevailed that the atrocities suffered by Iraq after the invasion and prior to it with the single party and single leader regime, would prompt the Iraqi political forces to estimate the gravity of the phase. In other words, respecting the election results, reinforcing the legitimacy of institutions, and closing the windows through which the winds of sectarian strife infiltrated, as well as the gaps that allowed mobile fighters and their likes inside the country to exploit the land and the blood of Iraqis. Those who competed or clashed in the elections were aware of the seriousness of the US withdrawal decision. Despite this, they spent the last five months in disagreements that allowed Al Qaeda and similar organizations to re-emerge through bloody operations and infiltrate themselves into places from which they were kicked out inside and outside Baghdad. In spite of the explosions, assassinations, the division of the ranks of the ‘sahwas', and the carnages of civilians and military men, the political forces remained impassible. We are aware that the Iraqi situation is extremely complicated. Uprooting Saddam Hussein's regime at the hands of the US forces is no simple thing. The change that affected the internal balances in Iraq is no simple thing. The transformation of Iraq from a regional player to an arena for regional forces, especially Iran, is no simple thing. The internal situation is open to all risks, and the Iranian nuclear file is open to surprises. Faced with a situation of such gravity, it is hard to understand the insistence of the Iraqi blocs to increase the state of void, and affect the credibility of the democratic process and the status of institutions. Anyone who has visited Baghdad in the past months has felt the desire of the different forces in not giving things their true appellation. There is a wish to deny the deep Sunni-Shiite crisis in this country. It is a crisis disclosed some days ago by al-Maliki when he described the al-Iraqiyya list as being “Sunni” and the list's leader Iyad Allawi when he reacted by ceasing all negotiations with al-Maliki's list. We could have understood the pleasure derived by Iraqi politicians from deliberations, discussions, cameras, suggestions, and counter-suggestions, had there been no killings. However, since the mobile carnages threaten to drown Iraq in an ocean of blood again, this behavior turns into an unprecedented scandal. The occupation wants to leave, and the locals are unable to agree on dividing the shares; they amuse themselves by attacking divisions on TV stations. There is also bound to be fairness in making accusations and distributing responsibilities. Many forces that have called themselves Iraqi resistance have not stopped shedding Iraqi blood. The word resistance must not be used by those who effectively participate in assassinating Iraq and perhaps inadvertently achieve the dream of those who wish to turn Iraq into a perpetual arena and a perpetual ailing country. What is taking place in Baghdad resembles a conflict over a country that seems to be heading towards a new abyss. It is a great scandal and crime. History will not forgive those who act according to the logic of fanaticism, greed, impositions, rejection of realism and national responsibility, and exchange of compromises. I thought that the Iraqi politicians learned from the perpetrations committed by Lebanese politicians against their country and its citizens. It seems I was wrong. May God help Iraq in what is coming.
