America's Iraqi Mandate

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The stench of the security agreement America wants to impose on Iraq keeps rising, again and again, and the news mostly revolves around whether the American soldier will stand before Iraqi law. The news dies down for a while, and the media forgets that security bonds on Iraq are being tightened and reinforced, and then suddenly the matter resurfaces. The reason is that the Iraqi leadership is on the verge of committing a great crime against Iraq and against the Arab nation, and wants to make Iraqis, and Arabs generally, swallow the poison drop by drop, so that the American stake does not hurt enough to make them scream. This is the step-by-step policy, the kick-by-kick policy, that collaborators make the nation swallow under slogans of the supreme national interest and wise, rational thinking.

They have sold the nation with their great “rationality,” squandered its wealth, and turned it into a submissive mount for its enemies, all in exchange for their own desires and the preservation of their own rule.

The American Saviors

The Americans came, according to their own propaganda, to save Iraq from the fires of enslavement and despotism, and to spread democracy. They came to fight so-called terrorism and to strip away weapons of mass destruction. They said they were saviors, sent by the Lord to spread eternal happiness in this world. But now that they have destroyed Iraq, killed its sons, spread strife and corruption, squandered its wealth, and set brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor, what more do they want? A savior, by definition, is one who does good without waiting for thanks, recognition, or gratitude, acting either for God, or to satisfy his own conscience, or to fulfill human values and principles.

The American did not come to save — he came to occupy, arranging for that occupation to be carried out, by proxy, by the sons of Iraq themselves. America wants its army to remain comfortably in its bases, while overseeing the good conduct of its Iraqi agents, who carry out the dirty work against their own people by proxy.

Iraq’s Sovereignty

The presence of even a single American soldier on Iraqi soil is a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, and a violation of Iraq’s honor and the honor of the entire Arab nation. So what, then, of an entire army stationed on Iraqi soil?

Reducing the matter to the question of whether the American soldier is subject to Iraqi law is a naivety intended only to mislead the naive among the sons of the nation. The matter is far bigger than the misconduct of an American soldier in a bar in Baghdad, or his flirting with a girl walking along the banks of the Tigris, or his theft from a shop selling cigarettes. The matter is that there is an American army standing over Iraqi soil, above Iraqi law, its boots upon the necks of Iraq’s lowliest.

Some of Iraq’s subservient politicians try to tell us that they are not submitting to the Americans, that they are not meeting their demands, offering as proof that they are holding up the security agreement in order to affirm Iraq’s sovereignty and subject the American soldier to Iraqi law. Is the presence of American forces in Iraq itself consistent with the Iraqi constitution and Iraqi law? Or does the security agreement stand above both law and constitution? This is a security agreement that grants the Americans the right of military presence on Iraqi soil, granting them privileges at the expense of Iraq’s security, the integrity of Iraqi territory, and Iraq’s independence; it is a means of threatening the security of neighboring states, and of threatening the resistance factions opposed to occupation and colonialism, factions keen on the independence of the Arab and Islamic nation. It is a security agreement that turns Iraqi soil into a launching base against the people of Iraq and against the peoples of the region as a whole, transforming Iraqi territory into a mere American military province, easing America’s customary assaults on the nation, and granting it the advantage of defending the Zionist entity and facilitating its aggressive actions.

The Government of Iraq Has No Authority

Whoever receives protection from the Americans cannot rebel against them, or claim to be setting his own terms for them; whoever eats from American largesse, or draws his own standing from them, cannot claim to be working to protect Iraq and preserve its independence and sovereignty. The largest mustache in the Iraqi government does not stand taller than a single stinking American soldier hiding in a hole to escape Iraqi resistance. You who claim to be defending Iraq — you would never have had status and authority were it not for this American soldier you claim to be subjecting to Iraqi law. You are worth nothing without the Americans, and you could not hold out for a single week without American tanks. You are mere tools.

The Americans have no interest in stripping you of your clothes before the media and before the people, because it serves their interest for some to believe you carry weight. They want you to appear as though you matter, as though you hold the decision. We have your like in Palestine, and the people of Palestine know well the enemy’s methods of manufacturing illusory leaders who amount to nothing but media noise that produces nothing but illusions among the naive. And across the Arab arena, there are illusory leaderships like yours in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen, and elsewhere.

You Are Selling Iraq

No thanks are owed to you, leaders of the Iraqi government, for fixing the period of the American presence until 2011. The year 2011 will come, the years will pass, and the Americans will remain on Iraqi soil unless Iraqi resistance manages to expel them. You will find no rest if the Americans leave Iraq — indeed, the earth, for all its vastness, will grow too narrow for you if the Americans leave. Who will protect you, who will defend you, if the Americans depart from Iraqi soil?

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “ولاية أمريكا العراقية” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.