Insurgent JG

Two most interesting news items about US involvement in Iraq is the Congressional Democrats’ “flagship proposal” and a ’strategic partnership’ being proposed by Iraq. Both the news cause one to shake one’s head in wonder about the ideas Bush & the congress has about the future of the country in concern.

Flagship proposal will allow up to 70,000 US soldiers to remain in Iraq for years to come. Their main duty of action will be Counterterrorism, training Iraqi security forces and protecting US assets. This threefold mission of US military will be no different from what the forces are doing now in their camps now. Mr. Bush’s reason to attack and invade the sovereign country was to stop terrorism. Off course time proved that Iraq was not the hotbed of terrorism.

US government claimed that once Saddam Hussein will be disposed off and when Iraqi security forces be trained completely, US involvement in Iraq will come to an end. But why the Bush administration is not being able to oversee the flawed thinking that training Iraqi forces against their own people is a goal impossible to achieve. Their only want is to expel the foreign occupiers from their soil. The goal of whole training negates their nationalistic desires.

At the time of the murderous inhumane attack there were few US assets in the country. Now one can imagine the importance of US soldiers’ presence in the country. They will be putting their lives on the line to protect U.S. oil rigs and refineries and other related businesses to rip off Iraq’s natural resources.

Strategic Partnership offers U.S. a long term presence in Iraq in exchange of U.S. security guarantees. The associate press has summed up the strategic partnership efficiently; ‘Preferential treatment for U.S. investors could provide a huge windfall if Iraq can achieve enough stability to exploit its vast oil resources.” So dedicated U.S. soldiers will ensure the necessary stability to provide U.S. investors with a ‘huge windfall. Iraqi administration is apprehensive about internal resistance which they refer as a “foreign threat”. It is interesting to note that realization of foreign threat is what has brought this country a chaotic civil war killing more than 1,000,000 civilians and at least 3,000,000 &more to become displaced. Strategic partnership is best way to rule this new U.S. new colony, where the U.S. investors will be able to funnel Iraqi oil into American SUVs on cost of more then 4000 U.S. soldiers and innumerable citizens dead.

This article is rephrased version of Robert Fantina’s article “The future of Iraq”

Fate of Iraqis seeking asylum in Lebanon is quiet bleak, it is almost impossible for Iraqis to take refugee in Lebanon. Many Iraqi asylum seekers end up in jails or are deported back to their country, which is full of life threatening risks.

There are approximately 50, 000 Iraqis in Lebanon who are treated as illegal immigrants. If they are found by the authorities, they can be arrested for lacking residency papers or work permits. A report by Lebanese Human Rights Watch states that there are about 580 Iraqis are in Lebanese prisons, most of who will have to “agree” to go home to secure their release.

HRW report entitled “Rot Here or Die There: Bleak Choices for Iraqi Refugees in Lebanon” states that Iraqi refugees in detention has no choice but to agree to go back to the countries they fled from or continue to suffer indefinite detention in Iraqi prisons where the condition are intolerable.

Lebanon does not ratify 1951 UN Refugee Convention and has no domestic refugee law. In such conditions Iraqis who have some how managed to flee in to the country, has no legal rights. Such condition exposes them to exploitation by employers and landlords. Arrests are not systematic, but cause widespread fear. Some parents send their children, who are less likely to be arrested, out to work to provide for the family.

Human Rights Watch in its report to General Security Department urged the need to address issues related to Iraqi refugees. It also states that the international community must help countries forced to support refugees only because they share a region. “Lebanon played no role in creating the Iraqi refugee crisis, and has no more responsibility than any other country to solve it.”