William Blum in his article ”Oh! By the way Iraqis don’t really want us” explains the results of survey conducted by US military hired firm amongst the cross sections of Iraqi society. In nut shell, William’s report states the following facts:
* Until the March 2003 US occupation Sunnis and Shiites coexisted peacefully.
* Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the US military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them.
* After the United States leaves Iraq, national reconciliation will happen “naturally.”
* A sense of “optimistic possibility permeated all focus groups … and far more commonalities than differences are found among these seemingly diverse groups of Iraqis.”
* Dividing Iraq into three states would hinder national reconciliation. (Only the Kurds did not reject this option.)
* Most would describe the negative elements of life in Iraq as beginning with the US occupation.
* Few mentioned Saddam Hussein as a cause of their problems, which the report described as an important finding, implying that “the current strife in Iraq seems to have totally eclipsed any agonies or grievances many Iraqis would have incurred from the past regime, which lasted for nearly four decades — as opposed to the current conflict, which has lasted for five years.”
Apart from the above mentioned facts article also refers to another companies which is been conducting widespread polls in Iraq’s 18 provinces and who came up with the results and findings not very different from above. Systems, a Virginia-based company that maintains offices in each of Iraqs provinces, recently released survey findings, which reveals similar findings. One os their report states that majority of the Iraqis believe that “we are suffering more now because of the invasion not when the local fanatics who ruled us before“
The Washington Post added this note on December 10th “In just ten minutes time US did the biggest air strike on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, which invading army considered to be the safe heavens for al-Qaeda. Other media report printed the statement of Cesar Pardo, representative of the governing Democratic Revolutionary Party, which holds a majority in the legislature, legislature of Panama declared December 20th the national day for mourning. 20th day of December in 1869 was the horrific day when the nation of panama was invaded by the most powerful army in the world. US officials downplayed the issue saying that they prefer to look at the future.
“As with their attack on Iraq on March 19, 2003, the United States, with no provocation or international legality (yet raged another war of aggression), first bombed Panama, then staged a ground invasion, killing as many as a few thousand, while offering no believable reason for their psychopathic behavior.”
Critiques of Iraq war are of view that there will be a day when Iraq will again be a free state and will also observe mourning on March 19th.
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This article is rephrased from the essay by William Blum, “Oh! By the way the Iraqi’s doesn’t really want us”
William Blum is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Rogue State: a guide to the World’s Only Super Power. and West-Bloc Dissident: a Cold War Political Memoir.