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| Home Front: Politix |
| Don't Abandon Us |
| 2007-05-04 |
| From the Washington Post Opinion Page regarding life in Iraq. The writer is foreign minister of Iraq. by Hoshyar Zebari Last weekend a traffic jam several miles long snaked out of the Mansour district in western Baghdad. The delay stemmed not from a car bomb closing the road but from a queue to enter the city's central amusement park. The line became so long some families left their cars and walked to enjoy picnics, fairground rides and soccer, the Iraqi national obsession. Across the city, restaurants are slowly filling and shops are reopening. The streets are busy. Iraqis are not cowering indoors. The appalling death tolls from suicide attacks are often high because of crowding at markets. These days you are as likely to hear complaints about traffic congestion as about the security situation. Across Baghdad there is a cacophony of sirens from ambulances, firefighters and police providing public services. You cannot even escape the curse of traffic wardens ticketing illegally parked cars. These small but significant snippets of normality are overshadowed by acts of gross violence, which fuel the opinion of some that Iraq is in a downward spiral. The Iraqi people are indeed suffering tremendous hardships and making grave sacrifices -- but daily life goes on for 7 million Baghdadis struggling to take back their capital and country. Today, at an international summit on the future of Iraq in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, my government will ask the international community to maintain its engagement in our country to help us achieve our goals of security and stability. We recognize that our request conflicts with a plethora of voices decrying the situation in Iraq and those in the British and American publics who seek an expeditious withdrawal from a war they claim is all but lost. So why should the world remain engaged in Iraq? There is no denying the difficulties Iraq faces, and no amount of good news can obscure the demons of terrorism and sectarianism that have risen in my country. But there is too much at stake to risk failure, and everything to gain by helping us protect our hard-won democratic achievements and emerge as a stable, self-sustaining country. We remain determined in spite of our losses. Spectacular attacks may dominate foreign headlines, but they cannot change the reality that Iraq has made steady political, economic and social progress over the past four years. We continue to strengthen our nascent democratic institutions, pursue national reconciliation and expand Iraqi security forces. The Baghdad security plan was conceived to give us breathing space to expedite political and economic development by "securing and holding" neighborhoods across the capital. There is no quick fix, but there have been real results: Winning public confidence has led to a spike in intelligence, a disruption of terrorist networks and the capture of key leaders, as well as the discovery of weapons caches. In Anbar province, Sunni sheikhs and insurgents have turned against al-Qaeda and to the side of Iraqi security forces. This would have been unthinkable even six months ago. Contrary to popular belief, most government ministries are located outside the Green Zone, and employees drive to work every day despite death threats and attacks on colleagues and families. We government ministers are always at risk of assassination. When a suicide bomber attacked parliament last month, the legislators sat in defiance in an extraordinary session the following day. I am particularly inspired by the commitment of the young diplomats in the Foreign Ministry, a diverse mix of Sunni, Shiite, Christian, Arab and Kurdish men and women who serve their country without subscribing to religious or sectarian divisions. Iraqis are standing up every day, and we persevere because there is no other option. We will not surrender our country to terrorists. They have failed to cripple the elected government, and they have failed to intimidate us into submission. Iraqis reject their vision of a future whose hallmarks are bloodshed and hatred. Those calling for withdrawal may think it is the least painful option, but its benefits would be short-lived. The fate of the region and the world is linked with ours. Leaving a broken Iraq in the Middle East would offer international terrorism a haven and ensure a legacy of chaos for future generations. Furthermore, the sacrifices of all the young men and women who stood up here would have been in vain. Iraqis, for all our determination and courage, cannot succeed alone. We need a healthy and supportive regional environment. We will not allow our country to be a battleground for settling scores in regional and international conflicts that adversely affect stability inside our borders. Only with continued international commitment and deeper engagement from our neighbors can we establish a stable democratic, federal and united Iraq. The world should not abandon us. |
| Posted by:Delphi2005 |
| #6 No the problem is Islam. It is stagnant and lifeless - nothing grows, nothing developes. Oriana Fallaci wrote that it is like a dead stagnant pool - poisonous to anyone who drinks from it and so it is - and she is absolutely right. Its a death cult where those who murder the innocent are made 'heroes' and those who die while murdering innocents are made 'martyrs' and promised eternal sexual bless in the afterlife. Where women are held in bondage and are treated as property - less then goats. They have to be hidden from head to foot because the islamic man simply cannot (or will not) restrain himself. Those who are enslaved by it cannot easily escape. Its illegal ( and most likely a death sentence) to convert to something else. You cannot even talk about any other religion without risking your life. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2007-05-04 23:01 |
| #5 Nesvarbukas, at least half the Israelis come from the Muslim world, mainly the Middle East (they were forcefully ejected after the Arab armies did not manage to overrun the brand new Israel in 1948, and about half the ejectees managed to survive the trek to the borders) -- and their birth rate is considerably higher than that of the European-descended Jews. On the other side of the fence, the Palestinian birth rate isn't nearly as high as trumpeted, and has been falling steadily since 1967. A few years ago someone looked closely at the statistics put out by the Palestinian "leadership", and discovered at least a one million overcount. Since the security fence went up and the Palestinians turned their need to kill inward upon themselves, the rate of emigration has steadily accelerated. The percentages who've already left, and those who are actively working toward leaving, are significant fractions of the population, fractions with small integers as denominators. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-05-04 22:51 |
| #4 See also RIAN > ITS TOO EARLY TO WITHDRAW FOREIGN TROOPS FROM IRAQ. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-05-04 22:45 |
| #3 The main problem for iraqis IMHO is not religion, but demography. At least it is in the former USSR countries once occupied by soviets. There is a need for religion or ideology which can make people to have at least as many children as there are in islamic countries. Otherwise, the only advantage is technology which, as you perfectly know, can be bought by any conflicting side given enough money. Look at the demography at the IL-PA conflict. The israelis in demography are doing best of europeans, but this is still not enough to prevent the flood attack of aggressive fanatics. |
| Posted by: Nesvarbukas 2007-05-04 16:56 |
| #2 Let me know when the Iraqi people make some sort of united national gesture of gratitude to America and the Coalition for liberating them from Saddam's murderous tyranny. So long as they continue to regard us an occupying force, they can pound hot dry sand. Yes, I'm happy that they're making progress. I just do not see much of a shift away from the Islamic bullshit that will continue to make them into an enemy. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-04 12:07 |
| #1 What these people REALLY need is to escape from Islam. Denounce it, convert, get out, raze the mosques, start thinking like human beings not robots programmed by some goat phalking cleric. Dance, sing, listen to music, stop praying to the stone god 5 times a day. When you hear that bullhorn guy yelling 'yaaaa eeyaaa eyeah yayaaah', shoot the son-of-a-bitch. Escape the yoke of the religion of blood and death...your blood...your death. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-05-04 10:41 |