Six years ago, the dynamic trio of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld announced to a cheering neo-conservative media that Mission Accomplished and Iraq was now a free nation and America no longer had to worry about being destroyed by WMD from Saddam Hussein. Salah Hemeid, writing in Al Ahram, surveys the past six years for the people of Iraq. There was hope six years ago that getting rid of Saddam Hussein might usher in a new era of national reconciliation, peace and stability. “Sadly, the sounds and the sights of a war-torn Iraq are as much in evidence as ever,” writes Hemeid. Bombs, ambushes and kidnappings have returned with a vengeance to baghdad and other Iraq cities although they do not approach the levels of two years ago. Six years ago, George Bush promised freedom to Iraqis, but the sounds of ambulances echo through cities carrying bodies of those blown to pieces or wounded in the latest episode of violence.
The Obama announcement that American troops would withdraw within a year has been met with renewed violence by al-Qaeda and other militants. Hemeid notes the Awakening Councils which played a key role in diminishing violence are disintegrating and some Sunnis are rejoining insurgent forces. The Iraq government failed to hire Sunnis into the army and the result is more violence. The country’s rival factions have yet to resolve the conflict over power and the goodies that come with power.
“The anniversary could serve to remind Iraqis of the need to end their national political drama and, equally important, that the solution to their national crisis rests in their own hands.” No more accurate words could be written. The fault lies not in the stars but in themselves.