Whoever listens to President Barack Obama while talking about the withdrawal of the last American military units from Iraq “with honor and with their heads held high,” would think that the Americans were celebrating their assistance of a population to liberate it from occupation forces, while in reality they are happy that the president respected his electoral promise to secure a “safe” exit from the Iraqi hell. True, the waves of explosions have resumed, but not all the coffins are American, and Tehran – which is accused of preparing to pounce on the “vacuum” following the departure of the US troops “with their heads held high” – is seemingly the victim of Washington's deceit that sought a “safe pullout” deal then headed toward escalation against Iran and its nuclear program once this pullout was achieved. Tehran curved the heads of its allies that abstained from striking the Americans, and the scenario of the mutual accusations with Obama's administration throughout the year was mere dust over the deal. Those promoting the conspiracy theory are confirming its veracity by pointing to the sponsorship - by the American military presence in the Land of the Two Rivers since 2003 - of the Iranian tutelage over the Iraqi authority, thus rendering Baghdad's security an American responsibility and its politics an Iranian responsibility. But in reality, the situation in the region and its Arab system prior to and following the “Arab Spring,” does not conceal the disorder of the subordinate or the minor who believes that whatever is offered to him by the tutor is a pure act of good will based on intentions. But between the subordinate and the minor there is a third type, i.e. the “defiant,” whose father is claimed to be the Al-Qaeda organization and whose victims are Muslims, and not among the occupation and its forces. Khamenei's command is saying that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki – who was received by Obama at the White House – is not American and does not extend his hand to the “Satan.” The American President is saying on the other hand that Al-Maliki is not Iranian, believing he refuses any foreign interference in Iraq. And while there are some among the Iraqis who reject the quotas system in power and joke about its ability to tolerate the love of the “two Satans” in Washington and Tehran, the paradox that emerged on the eve of the withdrawal of the last American units is that Al-Maliki's meetings in the United States to open a new page of partnership, coincided with the Iranians' celebration of the head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Ammar al-Hakim. It also reminded him that the time had come to implement the “strategic projects” that were agreed on during President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Baghdad. Let us assume that the status of Ahmadinejad's republic, which is pouncing to fill the vacuum wherever the Americans are pulling out (in Afghanistan after Iraq), is the same as the status of Obama's America, and that both want a strong, stable and prosperous Iraq to the point of provoking the Arabs' envy! In whichever case, Al-Maliki believes that only the American companies, which are the best around the world – as he says – can allow the rise of the country and its projects. During his presidential campaign, Obama chose the end of 2011 as the best time to exploit the withdrawal from a war which was not his, and alleviate the burdens of Bush's decisions on the Iraqi scene ($4 trillion and 5,000 Americans dead), without yet adopting the victory in the Afghan war. He can thus claim to have succeeded in convincing the Western allies to share the military burdens until the end, but what most of the Americans agree on is that Obama's administration does not enjoy a clear roadmap for any strategy to set the balance of powers following the two withdrawals, unless the ultimate goal is to manage foreign policy based on the logic of companies, the oil contracts and the arm deals. Some Iraqis can still recall Ahmadinejad while laughing within the Green Zone in their capital in 2008, as though he was saying to the Americans: “Let us see who will have the last laugh.” And away from the conflict over power and the conspiracy theory, the reality which cannot be erased from Iraq's memory and history is that the invasion, the toppling of Saddam's dictatorship, the occupation, the killing and the sectarian wars cost the Iraqis tens of thousands of lives. And because “vacuum” is triggering fears over possible wars by proxy, Al-Maliki's hopes will not come cheap. Indeed, the mines of the crises are ready, from the protection of the oil fields to the expansion of the provinces' ambitions in light of the unjust monopolization and distribution of the wealth, the Kurdistan oil problem and contracts, the fate of Kirkuk, the ending of the terrorism cancer and the instatement of truce. Obama is happy to be rid of the Iraqi hell. Ahmadinejad is laughing in mockery to achieve gains on the Iranian domestic arena. Al-Maliki is reassured about the miraculous partnership that cannot be shaken by Washington's hostility toward the “head of the axis of evil” or Tehran's hostility toward “Satan.” As for the Iraqis outside the Green Zone, they are facing – under the democracy of quotas – torture camps, corruption and its mafias that are hiding behind invisible lines with the powerful. The occupation is coming to end while the war over the quotas to build a state of equality has not yet started. Without it, what freedom can exist between the Two Rivers? Who will laugh last?
