The Responsibility of the Iraqi Resistance

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The Iraqi resistance bears an enormous, historic responsibility toward Iraq and toward the Arab and Islamic nation, because its success in expelling the Americans will help restore the nation to its historic senses, while its failure will keep the nation under the weight of colonialism, exploitation, humiliation, and disgrace. The Arab-Islamic region is now living through a stage of historic labor, moving toward a genuine independence that answers to the nation’s aspirations and hopes, and the Iraqi resistance is an inseparable part of the broader political and revolutionary movement that has begun to bend the historical trajectory that has marked the region in the modern era. The peoples of the Arab and Islamic nation want to escape Western domination, and here they are, beginning to express this will through practical steps that demand enormous sacrifices.

The Iraqi resistance has, so far, contributed to thwarting America’s hopes of achieving cultural and intellectual dominance over the world, and has placed important brakes and obstacles before the calendar of American globalization that had been aimed at every country in the world. America thought its path in Iraq would be strewn with roses, and that by this it would have paved the way toward a global acknowledgment of it as the sole leader whose judgment never fails and whose policy never goes astray. It was the Europeans who were the first to breathe a sigh of relief at America’s disappointment in Iraq, because they had feared an American advance upon Europe that would turn it into a mere political and economic tool without any independent character of its own.

The Iraqi resistance has also prevented a great Arab state from falling once and for all into the hands of American colonialism, and has kept Iraq a promising Arab-Islamic state, capable of returning to play its historic role in building the nation. The Iraqi resistance has also stood in the way of America and its aggressive policies toward Syria and Iran. Had matters settled firmly in America’s favor in Iraq, it would not have hesitated to continue its assault on the countries of the region it considers rebellious, wicked, or supportive of what is called terrorism. Every victory achieved by any Arab or Islamic faction contributes directly to blocking American and Zionist ambitions and their shared appetite for bringing the Arabs and Muslims to their knees.

Despite the great achievements of the Iraqi resistance, it still needs a moment of pause and continuous evaluation of its performance and its accomplishments. There have been failures, and mistakes have been made that must be corrected. Foremost among these mistakes is the matter of foolish sectarian bigotry. There are people in Iraq who wish to carry on the war between Ali and Mu’awiya, or between Yazid and Hussein, and who refuse to let these old disputes remain confined to the pages of history books. Such people have done great harm to internal relations within Iraq, have harmed the resistance, and have diverted it from its goals. Some Iraqis, both Sunni and Shia, have worked under the banner or slogan of resisting the occupier while busying themselves with sectarian purges, hoping that victory over the other sect would lead them to victories over the Americans. These people have weakened the resistance, weakened and torn apart the Iraqi people, contributed to the flight of millions of Iraqis from Iraq, and created a dishonorable image of the Iraqi resistance fighters.

…and sectarianism, in order to protect itself and the Iraqi people from the claws of strife.

The nation must now unite its ranks if it is to succeed, and it must turn the tables on the head of anyone who toys with this unity. The Iraqi scene still suffers under the weight of sectarianism, and division still marks the ranks of the resistance. There is a Sunni resistance riddled internally with disputes, a Shia resistance that cannot agree among itself, and rivalries between the Shia resistance and the Sunni resistance. These are disputes that reflect a lack of experience, and perhaps a lack of maturity. Through these disputes, the Iraqi resistance ends up serving the enemy, who does not hesitate to fan the flames and pour oil on the fire. This very rift between Sunni and Shia is precisely what the nation’s enemies — Americans, Zionists, and Arab regimes — work to entrench and deepen, so that it turns into an internal war that drains the energies of the Arab and Islamic nation.

The enemies — Arabs, Zionists, and Americans — tried to sow strife in Lebanon, but they failed, and we must acknowledge that Hezbollah, in cooperation with wise Sunni leaders, foiled the conspiracy. Lebanese awareness of the issue was deep and mature, and there is a great lesson for us in that experience.

History has moved past the conflict between Sunni and Shia, and the challenge before us now is to be or not to be. If we are to keep chasing after our foolish partisan bigotries, then we will most certainly not be — we will fail, our momentum will be lost, and the Zionists will invade Baghdad to become the commanding masters of a pack of treacherous, collaborating spies.

If the Iraqi resistance is to correct its course, the following lie before it:

To correct its relations with the public, or with the civilian life of the Iraqi people. It is absolutely impermissible to harm civilian life, because it is civilian life that supplies the resistance with the sustenance for its continuation. The resistance must act as an alternative to the ruling authority or as a rival to it, and this can be achieved through civilians who care about the resistance and provide it with support. No resistance can succeed if it does not win the trust of the public on whose behalf it is fighting. The resistance is not merely a rifle — it is also a pen, an administrator, a guardian of people’s daily affairs, an educational guide, an active farmer, a skilled carpenter, an aware teacher, and so on.

A campaign of conciliation and outreach by al-Qaeda and the Sadrist movement, rejecting sectarianism and bigoted factionalism and treating them as conduct that violates Islamic law, and condemning anyone who adopts, encourages, or turns a blind eye to them.

Adopting a new educational program that restores Sunni-Shia relations to their normal state, along with a deterrence program aimed at all bigots. Sometimes firmness must precede wisdom, and sometimes firmness serves as wisdom’s ally. The situation in Iraq calls for firmness grounded in a strong awareness of the unity of the nation.

Developing administrative committees that run parallel to the resistance without being directly subordinate to it. The resistance must wage the battle of civilian life through people it trusts, without formally incorporating them into its ranks, for the sake of security considerations.

Searching for friends across both the Arab and Islamic arenas. I have noticed that the space devoted by Arab intellectuals and thinkers to Iraq is far less than that devoted to Lebanon and Palestine. Part of this shortfall rests on the shoulders of the Iraqi resistance itself.

Any act that contradicts Islamic ethics cannot be considered resistance, and serves no one but the enemies. No resistance succeeds unless it is a moral example.

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