RAED JARRAR, jarrar.raed at gmail.com
An Iraqi-American blogger and political analyst based in Washington D.C., Jarrar was in Iraq two weeks ago. He said today: “The coordinated wave of attacks that killed and injured hundreds of Iraqis this week were not religious, sectarian, or ethnic in nature. And unlike what many U.S. pundits have been claiming, these attacks are yet another reason for the U.S. to leave Iraq and end this war that started in 1991.
“Iraqis from all different backgrounds were killed and injured in a dozen cities around the country this week at a time when U.S. and Iraqi officials are negotiating the future of the U.S. military presence in Iraq. These attacks seem to create the right excuses to justify prolonged U.S. military involvement in the war-torn country. Many U.S. mainstream media outlets took the bait and published editorials and op-eds supporting a longer U.S. military presence — beyond the agreed-upon deadline by the end of this year. But while the conventional wisdom in Washington has been all along that prolonging the military presence would help stabilize Iraq, the vast majority of Iraqis believe the opposite. All public opinion polls, and all the results of past elections in Iraq, show that the majority of the Iraqi public sees the U.S. military presence as part of the problem and not part of the solution. Extending what Iraqis view as a foreign military occupation of their country will not solve the real reasons behind the violence — the real reasons that have prevented Iraq from having a strong government and functional armed forces that are able to protect the country’s sovereignty and stability and provide the public with the necessary basic needs.
“Iraqis and Americans agree that Iraq is a broken country — almost a failed state. The question at hand is who will be able to fix it? It has been more than eight years — more than 3,000 days — since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and President Obama promised the U.S. public and the world multiple times that he will abide by this deadline and withdraw the last U.S. soldier from Iraq. It is long overdue that the U.S. quit wasting treasure and blood on this disastrous 20 year war.”