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Baghdad is burning.
The stench of death and mutilated corpses filled the air on the
first day of Ramadan (the spiritual holy month for 1.3 billion
Muslims) in
Baghdad. A time usually earmarked for atonement, spiritual renewal and
compassion has taken on deadly implications as some 40 people
have died (at press time) in a spate of suicide bombings and
attacks throughout the Iraqi capital. And that is in Baghdad
only– one wonders what is in store for the rest of Iraq.
The attacks targeted the compound of the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Abu Ghraib prison where US
forces maintain a camp, a number of police stations, and the Al-Rashid
Hotel in central Baghdad.
The
attacks have become more brazen and have increased in frequency.
According to the Associated Press, one failed suicide bomber
screamed “Death to the Iraqi police! You’re
collaborators!”
The signs were there. Any historian of Iraqi culture and
politics could have easily predicted that this Ramadan would be
a bloody one. Any student of the history of US occupations
(remember the Vietnam Tet offensive?) could have predicted what
would happen during the first Ramadan under occupation.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned of this repeatedly.
Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, said that an
occupation of Iraq “would open the gates of hell.”
Baghdad
is a living hell on the first day of the holiest month of the
Islamic calendar.
Semantics do count here. For one, this is an occupation:
An Al Jazeera poll found that more than two thirds of Iraqis
considered the
US presence in
Iraq
to be an occupation. The word itself has negative connotations
and inspires expressions of combating the occupier, whether
peacefully or violently.
The US is not in control. Despite the desperate statements by
White House, Pentagon and State Department officials that
Iraq
is secure and becoming safer by the day, events on the ground
are ostensibly to the contrary. There are numerous crimes –
from rape, murder, kidnapping, to revenge killing – that are
not accounted for by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)
nor non-Arab media. The news of such events amount to no more
than a trickle.
After the 10-missile attack on the Al-Rashid Hotel, which has
become a makeshift center of operations for US forces and
visiting Congressional delegations, hotel resident and Deputy
Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz quickly escaped, fearing for
his life. At a press conference a few hours later, Wolfowitz
appeared shaken, his apparel disheveled. He said that the
violence would not deter the
US
mission to “bring democracy” to Iraq.
Some democracy.
Iraqis are dying en masse. Whether getting run over by half-sane
US drivers, getting gunned down by nervous US soldiers on alert
from constant attacks (four Iraqi civilians were killed by US
soldiers earlier Monday) or getting attacked by Iraqi resistance
fighters for collaborating with occupation forces, the number of
Iraqi dead is surpassing 50 a week. Since Iraq’s police force was reactivated, some 87 Iraqi policemen,
including senior force officers, have been killed.
The US-controlled CPA may now rescind its decision to lift the
night-time curfew imposed on Baghdad for the past six months. Iraqi analysts had warned that such a
move could likely result in an upsurge in violence.
Nevertheless, the CPA and the Iraqi Governing Council, both keen
on cementing a relationship with the Iraqi people, felt that by
lifting the curfew in Ramadan they would gain the confidence of
local residents.
After Bloody Monday, neither the Iraqis nor the US
soldiers are confident any longer that they are about to enter
into more stable times.
The attacks are almost certainly devised to undermine the US
presence in Iraq. For one, it highlights to the Iraqi people that their new
‘rulers’ cannot protect them. This has severe psychological
implications: it is designed to ensure that those
‘collaborators’ working with the CPA desist from doing so.
It is also designed as a show of force; whether it is Saddam
fedayeen, independent Iraqi resistance or foreign Islamic
fighters who carry out these attacks, the message is that the US
is not the only power in Iraq. The depth, coordination and ensuing devastation of these
attacks show that there is a highly mobile, highly sophisticated
and highly determined organization (or union of organizations)
with the resources, technical prowess and popular support to
keep the CPA weak and vulnerable.
Iraqis will now think twice before agreeing to working with the
CPA.
It remains to be seen how the relationship between the Iraqi
police and US forces will be affected.
The UN has packed up and left. Various human rights and
humanitarian assistance groups have pulled out. Now the ICRC is
likely to pack up and leave. This is very discouraging for other
international efforts aimed at restoring stability and speeding
up rebuilding initiatives in
Iraq.
In light of recent events, the 30-billion-dollar pledges from
the Madrid conference no longer signal a diplomatic victory for the Bush
administration.
Firas
Al-Atraqchi is
a Canadian journalist of Iraqi heritage. Holding an MA in
Journalism and Mass Communication, he has eleven years of
experience covering Middle East issues, oil and gas markets, and
the telecom industry. You can reach him at
firascape@hotmail.com.
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