Article: Outsiders In Iraq

"Those whose forefathers have lived together for thousands of years on this land as brothers ... come today so we can write our history, our present and the future, for our children and grandchildren, in forgiveness . . . Do not let those who are depriving you of security impinge on your unity." -- Kurdish leaders today, in a joint statement One of the proposals being floated from within the 'Iraq Study Group' headed by daddy Bush's concierge, is a suggestion that Iran and Syria should be re-engaged to get their cooperation in ending the sectarian violence in Iraq. The reasoning behind all of that is built around the administration's claims that these two rivals of the U.S. are somehow responsible for fueling the escalation of attacks and counterattacks between Sunnis and Shiites, so, they must have some influence they can exercise to end it. Yet, these two countries have already reached out to the new Iraqi government in support, well apart from any initiative which may have been contemplated by the Bush regime. Syria is no adversary of the new Maliki regime in Iraq. In fact, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki spent the majority of his 30 years of exile from Iraq in Syria as they opposed Saddam and allied with the U.S. in the first U.S. led campaign against the renegade puppet. Iran is no adversary of the Maliki regime as the two heads of state have met in Tehran, forged security agreements between their countries, and publicly pledged their affection for each other. President Jalal Talabani is set to make a visit to Tehran as soon as the curfew is lifted and the airport re-opened. If there is a limiting factor to the relationship between Iraq and Iran, it is the Bush regime's prattling on and on about Iran's sponsorship of terror and violence in Iraq and around the globe which keeps Iran at arm's length. For all of the accusations, there has been no concrete proof of any sponsorship of violence by Iran in Iraq. If anything, Iran is encouraged by the emergence of a Shiite friendly regime in Iraq. The incentive for Iran to see the Maliki regime succeed is far outweighed by any nefarious plot to fuel the resistance. According to Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it's the U.S. presence in Iraq that prevents Iran from influencing anyone away from their resistance campaigns. Ahmadinejad vowed to help Iraq . . . if the U.S. would first withdraw. "Iran is ready to show you the way of deliverance - but first, all alien forces must withdraw from Iraq and stop further bloodshed and chaos," Ahmadinejad said in a speech Sunday reported by the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. "Revise your policies, return to spirituality and withdraw your forces and then we will help you to get out of the swamp in which you are struggling in Iraq,' Ahmadinejad reportedly said. Not even Maliki attributes any of the violence there to Iran or Syria. He has correctly pinned the root of the violence on political divisions within the Iraqi Parliament. In a televised news conference, Maliki laid out his view of the origins of the fighting. "The ones who can stop a further deterioration and the bloodshed are the politicians," he told reporters. "Only when they agree and all realize that there are no winners and losers in this battle," he said, can the end be achieved. "Let's be totally honest - the security situation is a reflection of political disagreement," he said. All of that is quite true. Politicians are infamous for flailing their followers against each other in vain attempts to conquer and dominate; or for some vague ideological principle which exist mostly in their speeches and declarations and are irrelevant to the struggles to survive their contrived battlefields they've distanced themselves from by their assumed offices. But, Iraq's violence is a bloody reality not experienced in the Rose Garden, or inside of Saddam's palaces which have been transformed into American outposts. The gruesome reality of Iraq's violence isn't found behind the podiums on platforms lined with flags and mission titles on the backdrop. It's in the neighborhoods which suffer repeated raids and collateral killings of innocents by the U.S./Iraqi forces. Right in the midst of all of the violence and killing, our troops are locked in their own struggle to survive the Iraqi's civil war as they are directed by their commanders to make progress in a struggle that the Pentagon's own Iraq 'study group' concluded they didn't have enough troops in the entire U.S. military to achieve success. If anything, the continued U.S. presence in Iraq has been the main aggravation fueling the violent resistance and escalating the conflicts, according to almost every government intelligence agency. Still, agencies and task forces, at least the republican components, argue about 'outside influences' and outside interference. It's amazing how hard these 'study groups' have been working to find cause and solution to the escalating violence in Iraq without bothering to take the U.S. invasion and occupation into account as the most pernicious element in all of the unrest. The NYT reported that Baker's group is divided over whether to include Democratic expectations for at least a partial withdrawal in their recommendations they will present to Bush. The 'outside influence' they've been bemoaning along with the Bush regime comes, not from Iranians of Syrians, but from Bush's own blundering attempt to conquer and own Iraq. We are the interfering problem in Iraq, not Iran and Syria. It was the U.S. who invaded and occupied Iraq on the basis of Bush's lies; not the Iranians or the Syrians. It is the U.S. who has overthrown the government of the sovereign nation, replacing it under occupation with consecutive, exile puppet leaders; not the Iranians or the Syrians. It is the U.S. who seized the resources of Iraq and dispersed them at their pleasure, opening Iraq up to unprecedented foreign investment, selling the country out from under the Iraqi citizens; not the Iranians or the Syrians. It is the U.S. who has detained thousands of Iraqis, indefinitely without charges or trial, not the Iranians or the Syrians. It is the U.S. who has admittedly participated in torturing these prisoners with barbarism rivaled only by the brutal dictator they deposed, not the Iranians or the Syrians. It was U.S. troops who have admitted to the heinous rape and murder of an Iraqi youth and her family,not the Iranians or the Syrians. It is Americans who are awaiting trial, and have stood trial, for other killings and tortures committed in Iraq, not the Iranians or the Syrians. It is the U.S. who is pumping money, arms, and armaments into the Iraqi military to better facilitate the killing of Iraqis by other Iraqis, not the Iranians or the Syrians. In fact, the report today in the NYT asserts that the Iraqi insurgency was self-funded through various criminal enterprises like, oil smuggling, kidnapping, and counterfeiting - not waging their battles as paid proxies of some foreign nation. Bush is the ultimate outsider in Iraq, represented there admist the violence and unrest by the resources and humanity of our nation's defenses while he skirts around the country and the world; safe from suffering the reprisals and recriminations waged against our troops by the very folks he claims to be liberating. He'd like to directly target Iran and Syria in Iraq. Better still, Bush would like to benefit from making Iran and Syria look like they're resisting helping with the cajoling of the combatants to end their feud. However, right now, both of Iraq's next-door neighbors are content to sit on the sidelines and wait for the real outsiders in the 'hood to stand down before they stand up.