When the Rats Come Out of the Sewers
by Firas Al-Atraqchi
Dissident Voice
December 31, 2002
Sixty-five
thousand U.S. military men and women are poised around Iraq for an impending
invasion; 50,000 more are likely to be called up after Christmas. Arab
politicians are screaming till they are blue in the face that a war on Iraq
would plunge the entire Middle East into chaos. Israeli government officials
are imploring the U.S. to launch the war now.
However, none of
the above succinctly indicates the unimaginable devastation yet to befall the
region. The only surefire way of foretelling the hellish outcome in Iraq in the
next few months is to count the number of rats finally emerging from the sewers
to festoon the night streets with their stench and loathing.
And emerge they
did in London.
Three hundred
so-called Iraqi opposition members gathered in their Armani suits, Rolex
watches, and flowing Islamic garb to express their desire to forge a new future
in Iraq. If the London meeting, held December 13-17, is any indication of the
unity to which the Iraqis can look forward, well, they are sure to be
disappointed.
Firstly, several
prominent Sunni Muslim and non-Sunni opposition groups boycotted the London
meeting. They charged the London conference with bias and favoritism, and
under-representing their concerns. Iraqi women's groups also claimed they were
not represented. A pathetic number of five women were allowed to join in the
London conference. That is five out of three hundred; only 1.6 percent. Women
make up nearly 52 percent of Iraq, yet they are represented as 1.6 percent. We
are well on the way to pluralism, it seems.
Secondly,
infighting, squabbling, furious walkouts, charges of complicity in war crimes
against the Iraqi people, accusations of greed and allegiance to the U.S.
marred the London conferences. A large portion of the attendants harbor ill
will to the U.S.; however, this is not being publicized so as to show that all
Iraqi opposition groups support the current Bush administration's push for war.
Thirdly, the
London conferences did not squeeze into the agenda any mention of the plight of
the Iraqi people, the suffering from two decades of war, the ill-effects of the
U.N.-sponsored, U.S.-dominated sanctions, nor the crisis over depleted uranium
in southern Iraq.
Perhaps the most
puzzling outrage is the claim that the London conference was organized by the
Iraqi people, of the Iraqi people, and for the Iraqi people. The Western
analyst may be impressed by this nostalgic tip-of-the-hat to Jeffersonian
democracy, but it is hardly true of the situation in Iraq.
A breakdown of
the Iraqi opposition reveals startling facts. A large corps of the opposition
served in the Iraqi army, secret services (almukhabarat) and, indeed,
participated in and often encouraged several atrocities committed against the
Iraqi people: Kurdish Halabja, where 6,000 rebelling Kurds were gassed to
death, and the Anfal project, where some 200,000 Iraqi Kurds were either
relocated or altogether ''disappeared.'' These military figureheads are now
touted as saviors of Iraq when their hands are drenched in the blood of
innocents: Former Iraqi General Najib al Salihi, one of those nominated to
replace Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, is currently awaiting a war crimes
conviction for his role in using mustard gas against Iranian troops during the
1980s. General Khazraji, a U.S. favorite, is also being investigated in Denmark
for coordinating and planning with Saddam Hussein key campaigns against the
Kurds. We are now expected to believe these men are democratic pioneers?
Turning away
from military persona, the rest of the Iraqi opposition is comprised of stately
figures, with scrupulous pasts, who have not stepped foot in Iraq in more than
30 years. Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), has been
indicted in Jordan as a thief and fraudster for his role in the demise of one
of his financial institutions in Amman. The collapse of his financial
institution led to the forfeit of 10 percent of Jordan's budget for 1988. He
has been sentenced to 20 years hard labor in absentia. A thief to run Iraq?
Sherif Ali bin
Hussain, who presents himself as heir apparent to the Iraqi throne, has not
been in Iraq in 43 years, having left at the age of two when his cousin, King
Faisal, was killed in the bloodthirsty 1958 Iraqi revolution. Most of the
King's family were killed: an expression of Iraqi resentment to a foreign
Jordanian monarchy in Iraq. Now, bin Hussain wants a nationwide referendum on
returning the monarchy to Iraq.
Various
allegiances within the Iraqi opposition also raise some poignant questions. On
the one hand, Ahmed Chalabi has promised to scrap all existing oil deals with
Russian and French conglomerates in favor of deals with American (Texan) oil
franchises should he grasp power in Iraq. He has also promised to sign a peace
treaty and defense pact with Israel, running contrary to the policies of Iraq
and every other Arab country since 1979. He has been accused of being an
'agent' of the Americans.
On the other
hand, the Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI)
sold itself as the sole representative of the Shiite majority in Iraq while
pledging allegiance to its Iranian backers. Amidst calls of fraud and political
arm-twisting, "Everything has been cooked up behind closed doors
upstairs," Ihsan Abdul Aziz of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan told the
BBC. This resulted in furious walkouts by various Shiite and Sunni groups.
The Kurds, for
their part, came out with the most gains as they coerced the London delegates
to adopt the notion of ''federalism'' in the final draft resolution. Federalism
paves the way for referendums down the road; a Kurdish referendum on
independence is a likely scenario in the next two years.
Turbulent times
await the Iraqi people as petty thieves, war criminals and foreign agents
conspire how best to divide Iraq amongst themselves. A civil war is now a
likely specter.
Although the
above seems somewhat bleak, what is most disheartening is the fact that
ordinary American, British, Australian, Canadian, Egyptian and Swedish citizens
of the world (among others) increasingly care far more for the Iraqi people
than do the so-called Iraqi opposition.
A popular
Canadian debate program, CounterSpin, recently investigated "the
intentions of the internal, regional and international forces now fighting over
Iraq, and [whether] any of them really represent the interests of the Iraqi
people."
Issam Shukri, an activist campaigning for the removal of
the sanctions on Iraq, asked members of the Iraqi opposition how they could
justify war and carnage and account for thousands of Iraqi deaths in their call
for the U.S. to forcibly remove. The Iraqi opposition could not answer. Blame
Saddam, is all they seemed to reiterate.
Firas Al-Atraqchi, B.Sc (Physics), M.A.
(Journalism and Communications), is a Canadian journalist with eleven years of
experience covering Middle East issues, oil and gas markets, and the telecom
industry. He can be reached at: firas6544@rogers.com. This
article first appeared at Yellow Times.org