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Raed Jarrar: The Iraqi Road Map

by Raed In The Middle (reposted)
The ongoing post-war-Iraq plan is not working. When the US administration stops lying to their people, they’ll start searching seriously for an “Exit Plan”. The US administration and other governments that took or still taking a part of the collapsing coalition should adopt a three-point Iraq Roadmap to stop the on going crisis from their side and guarantee the safety of their troops, and give the space for Iraqis to work on healing Iraq from their side too.
1- Issue a Public Apology and hold responsibility for the destruction of Iraq. A public apology is important for both launching a new start point in the Iraqi-International relationship, and paying respect to victims’ families. A public apology is very important to prove to the world and to Iraqis that the US-led occupation is honest in changing its strategy this time, unlike the half dozen of strategy changes that weren’t fruitful. A public apology is the best way to start a new page and try to start fixing the big mistake called “War of Liberation”. Without even mentioning the international laws and treaties that were violated during and after the war, the war of occupation was proven to be a big lie when the very phoney reason given to the world by the US-UK administrations justifying the war was confirmed to be incorrect, once no WMD were found at all.

2- Announce A Schedule For Complete Military Pullout From Iraq; a full withdrawal that leaves no permanent bases behind. I think a timetable of one year is more than enough for all the troops to leave safely without being attacked by the resistance. There are around 100 existing temporarily military bases in Iraq, the US administration is in the process of building at least 4 permanent bases around the country, using permanent building materials and methods (i.e. reinforced concrete slabs). These permanent bases are a part of the original plan of occupying Iraq, the plan that should be forgotten. Some small steps of asking the bush administration to start a full withdrawal are steps in the right direction, like what happened a couple of weeks ago with the Woolsey proposal.

3- Start fixing the mess caused by the war and occupation by both Paying Compensation And Bringing War Criminals To Justice. Iraq is paying 5% of its oil revenue for the last decade or more because of the unjustified war and occupation of Kuwait in 1990. Iraq should continue paying compensation to Kuwait and Kuwaitis because of the big mistake committed by Iraq, and the US led coalition should pay compensation to Iraq and Iraqis because of the big mistake committed by the so called “coalition of the willing”. A national Iraqi government should fight for the rights of Iraq and Iraqis in getting compensation, and even stop paying compensation for Iraq’s mistakes until Iraq and Iraqis start receiving compensation that they deserve. In addition, the war crimes committed by the US led coalition won’t be forgotten or forgiven by Iraqis, Arabs, and Muslims until all war criminals are brought to justice.

Isn’t this easy? Wallahi it is really easy. Just three points, then Iraqis will start participating in solving the crisis and everything will be fine, instead of the current situation where the US-Hakim-Jaafari-Talbani administration are stumbling their way in Iraq with no public support. Can anyone believe that out of 81 Iraqi Army Battalions, there are 3 rated “green”, which means they’re able to conduct operations independently? 25 months of occupation and three out of eighty one! What a failure!

How can it get any worse?
I’ll tell you: Of the 26 larger brigades’ headquarters formed so far, only one earned the green rating. Yes, one!

The ongoing post-war-Iraq plan is not working, this fact is as clear as the sun. Anyone who doesn’t see it is either blind or republican. When the US administration stops lying to their people, they’ll start seriously searching for an “Exit Plan”. This Iraqi Road Map plan makes it safer for the invaders to pull-out their troops with minimum humiliation. Why wait to be kicked out while you can simply leave safe and sound?

The invaders can stop their daily casualties; tens of thousands of soldiers have been already killed and injured. Most of those are innocent people with no political opinions, why should we wait till more people are left to die for no reason?

Furthermore, the invaders can stop wasting their people’s money on nothing. The US people, living in a developing patriarchal conservative society, need this money to work on their own problems, and believe me they have a lot of problems. They need the hundreds of billions of dollars that are being spent on killing people worldwide to develop their education system, their health system, and the rest of their infrastructure systems. They even need the money for non-infrastructure issues like developing their human rights, racial and minorities’ rights, and women rights. The number of racial and gender crimes is unbelievable in the United Stats, men and women are not equal in the constitution, and gender and coloring are still significant factors that decide citizens’ opportunities. The development and life quality in the US is better than many countries in the Middle East, yet it’s not comparable to the achievements of many European countries. The US people and government should look up to some European countries and try to understand the meaning of freedom, democracy, and equality. The US has a long way to go through, and US citizens deserve a better administration that thinks more about enhancing the local conditions.

On the other hand, Iraqis will solve their local problems and rebuild the country by themselves, the same way they did many times in the past. Iraq and Iraqis have enough human resources and knowledge to manage their country, and they have a unique experience in post-war reconstruction which the rest of the world should learn from. Iraq and Iraqis don’t need any training or governance support; they don’t need any foreign assistance at the time being to help them stop the mess caused by the US led occupation. The best way in helping Iraqis is to leave them alone. Yet, a boost of some trillions of dollars of compensation from the murderers who attacked Iraq would make our life even easier.

Stopping the current cycle of violent and leaving Iraq is better than waiting until we lose this option. Admitting mistakes is better than going on and on to keep a false self-pride, right?

It’s a better scenario than another humiliating-Somalia-Style-Kick-Out when some dozens of US soldiers got killed and dragged through the streets…
It’s a better scenario than another humiliating-Lebanese-Style-Kick-Out when hundreds of US soldiers were killed…
It’s a better scenario than another humiliating-Vietnam-Style-Kick-Out when tens of thousands of US soldiers were killed.

Isn’t the idea of pulling-out with some dignity better for international image of the US and other countries in the coalition? Doesn’t that guarantee a better reputation for the always-condemned US Foreign Policy?
I’m sure it is. The US people should work hard to enhance their government’s foreign policy.

So why should we ask the occupation troops to stay in Iraq? To prevent Iraqis from having a civil war?
The answer is: NO.

For those who support the idea of keeping the occupation troops in Iraq under the excuse of “preventing Iraqis from having a bloody ethnic war”, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Iraqis never had a civil war or any ethnic clashes; they know how to solve their problems by themselves and live in peace and harmony. The very hard experiences of the last month proved how Iraqi leaders have the capability of solving the most critical ethnic tensions in peaceful ways. We never had ethnic tensions before the occupation, we never identified ourselves depending on our ethnicity or religion before the occupation, and we never felt the sharp edges of our demographic partitions before the occupation. Iraqis will forget these imposed political partitions after the damned occupation ends. Even if there was a negligible possibility for an Iraqi civil war to happen, it will be under the US led occupation and because of it.

If any foreigner is worried about Iraqis and their country, just support pulling out the occupation force.

So why should we ask the occupation troops to stay in Iraq? To prevent other 9-11s in the future?
The answer is also: NO.

The Anti-US feelings are the strongest ever in the Middle East and the rest of the world. The best environment for extremists is the occupied Iraq. Pulling out from Iraq will decrease the extremism and anti-Americanism in the entire area. Staying in Iraq makes is more possible to increase the possibility of further attacks against the US and coalition countries. We should work together, as individuals and non-governmental groups, to fix the relationships between our populations and build more personal bridges to reduce the space of hatred and extremism in both sides.

The Jaafari-Hakim-Talbani government and their militias won’t stay “in control” for more than some days or weeks without the US troops support, this fake and imposed government will fall apart as soon as the occupation troops leave Iraq (whether they left voluntary or by being kicked out). Authentic Iraqi leaders with real public support will figure out their way to lead and rebuild the country, no help is needed from anyone outside. Even the expected minor clashes between Iraqi Kurds and Iraqi Arab in the north of Iraq will be contained in a way or another; the Iraqi Arabs and Iraqi Kurds can and will find a way to live under the national Iraqi flag, unlike the current corrupt and separatist political leaders that refuse even being around Iraq’s flag.

The US led coalition still has the time to pull out their forces. They can have a public amnesty with the Iraqi National Resistance and the Iraqi political leaders to make sure no side would attack the other. Why wait until bigger disasters happen and other thousands of US soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis get killed for no reason?

Three simple steps:

Sorry >>> Bye-Bye >>> then some War Crimes Tribunals and lots of Compen$ation.

Iraq is for Iraqis; they're free to do whatever they want after the foreign occupiers go away.
Posted by: Raed Jarrar / 12:16 AM (55) Comments & Forum

http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2005/06/iraqi-road-map.html
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Comments (Hide Comments)
by Jon Lee
Great Plan!
by ruins, not runs
I meant "ruins" not "runs"
by ProPolice State
I'm all for a free Iraq. Free to determine their own way. Free fromm the U.S.. Free from the Pro Hussein pressures. Free from that weak, Old ass Al Zawahri. He wants to insult the Freely elected Barak Obama. Well, bring your cripple ass here so I can knock you further back into the stone age.
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