An International Iraq Study Group


by Ashok Malhotra - Date: 2006-12-07 - Word Count: 1533 Share This!

Today, three and a half years after the US led coalition forces marched victoriously into Iraq, that country is in a mess. Iraq appears to have become more unstable and violent then it has been ever before in its more than five thousand years of history.

This author served as a senior academic in Iraq for four years during Saddam's rule and found that during that period it was a safe and secure country except for the opponents of Saddam. At that time any citizen or visitor including this author could roam at any time during the day or night in any part of the country, or visit the colorful bazaars or pubs, roam the streets etc. with full safety. In the four years that this author lived in Iraq his apartment remained unlocked and was never disturbed. The Iraqi equivalent of FBI may have visited for a discreet routine check and returned without disturbing anything. On one occasion the apartment, located on a busy city street, was inadvertently left open for over two months when this author went outside the country for a vacation. Not even a pin was removed.

During his stay in Iraq, this author visited New Jersey in USA for a vacation in 1989. A friend advised that one should be careful of Saddam and his security forces and preferably return to another academic appointment that was pending in Vancouver. I explained to my friend that I have never felt more safe anywhere in the world than in Iraq. It is true that Saddam was a ruthless dictator if you got on his wrong side, but that occasion need never arise. Some foreign academics that were not careful and criticized Saddam were asked to leave the country at short notice. However, one could debate and criticize Saddam's policies and that was even encouraged in many ways. At that time there was danger from criminals on the streets on New York and New Jersey but none in Iraq. One could scarcely afford to venture out on the streets alone after dark in USA. Therefore, this author returned to Iraq to continue his appointment at the University of Mosul. This author often explained to his Iraqi friends that in Canada one has to look at the prices of each and everything before purchase in the stores since food was expensive. That sort of thing hardly ever happened in Iraq because most food was literally dirt-cheap. Garbage bins were often found stuffed with discarded bread and this author often warned his Iraqi friends that this sort of disrespect for food was not good. On one occasion this author too was forced to discard twenty pounds of prime French beef because his Iraqi friends refused to share it. They pointed out that frozen beef was not as tender as fresh beef.

As far as daily life and living was concerned, Iraq was perhaps one of the safest countries in the world and there was love and understanding between the various religious and ethnic communities. There was no enmity even with the Yezhidi community that is Devil worshippers rather than God worshippers. At most the other communities made a joke about them and about their peculiar habit that one should never Pee while standing up lest the devil snatch away the banana. This author did not hear of the Shia-Sunni divide ever during his stay in Iraq and both communities lived in friendship and harmony. Iraq was prosperous too and necessities like food, transportation, electricity, water and gas were cheap and rarely failed. Saddam remained constantly busy in trying to improve his country. After the Iranian war it appears that he got Basra reconstructed within a year. One small example that this author faced of this efficiency may be cited here. In 1989 one day while driving through the city Saddam noticed that the Garbage bins kept besides the light poles on the streets were an eye sore because they were black. Typically old used oil drums were used for the purpose. He passed a new regulation that they should all be painted white within a day or there would be a hefty fine. Most drums were painted white within hours but then the city ran out of white paint. This author and many others were forced to improvise white paint by mixing white cement in water as a temporary solution.

In 1991 this author could not return to Iraq because the situation had become poor in Iraq as a result of the first American intervention in Iraq, and therefore joined another academic appointment at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Although the situation in Iraq during the nineties after the first American intervention was poor it was not as poor as now because at that time the intervention was not as extensive. On one occasion in a Canadian university cafeteria this author was discussing Iraq when a colleague - Professor Adelia Livesy - advised that one should be careful and not speak anything in favor of any of Saddam's policies because that would not be good for this author. This author expressed surprise and mentioned that one could speak more freely in Iraq.

The world has waited for nine months for a report from the Iraq Study Group in USA with the hope that this group might provide a solution to the tragic mess. From what has been revealed about this report in the media yesterday, it does not appear that a solution has been found and the report admits as much. It appears that a solution to the current Iraqi problem is beyond American capabilities in spite of their sincere good intentions and efforts. The reason for this may be a wide difference in perceptions and beliefs. An example is that the report suggests that American security-training efforts in Iraq should be increased by perhaps as much as five times. In the perception of this author this may increase troubles in Iraq five times.

This author believes that the sort of training the Americans can provide is not just unsuitable for Iraq but also disastrous. Iraqi security efforts that have maintained the region in relative peace and harmony for over five thousand years are of a very different kind. They are discreet, and often based on love and understanding rather than hatred and anger. Hatred has never been as successful in solving mankind's problems as love has been. The more training the Americans have provided in the past, the more the violence and disturbance has increased. One training session displayed on CNN showed the Americans shouting 'Move, Move, Move' as they moved forward with guns in a city area. In the Iraq that this author has seen, the police forces hid their guns under gowns and moved discreetly with sophistication while on an urban mission. There is a distrust of American policies in the Middle East where it is widely believed that Americans are primarily concerned with their own interests rather that Iraqi ones and hence anything that comes from that direction is likely to be tainted. In Saddam's Iraq when Iraqi police arrested political prisoners, one sometimes heard tales of prisoners being shot military style, but one did not hear of tales such as those of Abu-Ghraib that degrade the human soul beyond redemption.

The need of the hour is for an empowered International Iraq Study Group to be created by a more neutral agency such as the United Nations, the EEC or the Commonwealth in order to restore peace. American experts should be kept out strictly from this new study group because it appears that there is nothing they can do right as far as Iraq is concerned. That would be good for USA too, since then they would then stop wasting their hard earned money on an increasingly unsuccessful venture that appears to be fuelling danger and terrorism in the world. The new group should contain experts from The Middle East, Europe and Asia. However the Americans and the British should pay for this new effort since it would be too much to expect the world to pay for clearing the mess they leave behind. If this is not done on an urgent basis the world may yet see a greater humanitarian tragedy than it has seen before.

This author has high regards for the American people and their many positive contributions to the world. However, he has been compelled to write this article because his problem is that he loves the Iraqis as much the American people. Iraqi life and liberty is just as precious as American life and liberty. In the most recent government sponsored survey Iraqis have more or less unanimously expressed their desire that Americans leave the country. It is true that the USA finds it difficult to leave a country in vacuum where existing institutions to run the country have been pulled down. However, they can request the UN to administer the country instead in the interim, if Iraq has to return to peace and prosperity - A UN led effort in which the USA remains silent, except for the payments. It would be unfair to expect the world to pay for a vase the Americans with the help of Tony Blair have broken.


Related Tags: peace, iraq, stability, iraq study group, un

Dr. Ashok Malhotra is a doctorate from UBC Canada. Some of his other publications can be viewed at http://lulu.com/am and his professional website is http://steamcenter.com Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

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