Another Liberation of Iraq! Who are the Real Barbarians?

By Haifa Zangana

It goes without saying that very little space has been available in the media, whether Arabic or international, for Iraqi voices that challenge the dominant rhetoric about the situation in Iraq.

Under the dark shadow of US “War on Terror”, the crimes and massacres of 11 years of Iraq invasion, occupation, the killing of hundreds of thousands of  Iraqis  and the daily oppression carried out by a sectarian kleptomaniac regime, have been covered up, not just by a garb of democracy but also by the media’s silence coined  the “Iraq fatigue”, only to be looked at, in the last few weeks, to be reduced yet to a fight against terrorist organisation called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ( ISIS),  supported by ( take your pick) either one or all the following countries, no matter how bizarre the notion is: Saudi Arabia, Qatar , and Israel  not forgetting Turkey .    Once again, as in 2003 feverish drumming up for war, desperate Iraqis who are trying to defend themselves against a ruthless regime that uses the pretext of combating terrorism as a ploy to silence critical voices have been sidelined, not to be heard and not to be seen. In the Arab countries, joining the choir of exaggerating the role of ISIS in Iraq and elsewhere became the bleach to clean the bloody hands of those responsible of invading, occupying and laying the fertile ground for endless acts of terrorism including state terrorism.

Today, Thousands of Iraqis are fleeing their homes. So far this year, an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis have been displaced by fighting, including from Anbar, and Ninewa, west and Northern governorates. Carrying out airstrikes in Mosul  and Tikrit as well as extrajudicial executions of detainees by the regime’s  forces and  militias in Tal ‘Afar, Mosul and Ba’quba in northern Iraq have raised fears of a large scale vengeful attacks leading to a large  scale humanitarian crisis.

Meanwhile, an international competition is on the way between US, Russia and Iran to supply the regime with weapons.  Russia has already sent five Sukhoi fighter jets, the first of 25 warplanes expected to be delivered soon,  the US has sent Special Forces, Apache attack helicopters and drones as part of the top up in U.S. military presence, and the fact that Iraq has been, for many years now, a battlefield to settle scores on nuclear programme between US and Iran will only lead to an endless bloodshed reaching far beyond the region where the politically correct whispers about the Maliki’s  regime  “violations of human rights” in annual governments’ reports, are seen as adding salt to injuries.

In this hysterical atmosphere of supplying arms while tainting everything happening in Iraq by ISIS, which is by no mean comparable to the nearly 1 million strong army and security forces, and especially to the Special Forces (inherited from the occupation, trained by the US and now attached directly to Maliki’s office), it is worth remembering how the current eruption of fighting begun.

It begun with a few hundred people demonstrating in both Anbar and Nineveh, in December 2012, at the news of rape of women detainees at the hands of the Iraqi security forces under Maliki’s command as Commander in Chief. Within few days the protests morphed into a genuine mass movement and a vigil which lasted for over a year. The demand for the release of 4500 women detainees, some of whom have been tortured, raped or threatened with rape gained a wide support, igniting a gradual escalation.  Other demands focused on release of prisoners and the repeal of section 4 in the Terrorism Act which allows the arrest of anyone without a warrant and without submitting him/ her to courts and  to abolish or suspend the Justice and Accountability Law which have been used to target political dissidents labelling them Ba’athist. The regime’s response was to brand the demonstrators terrorists (ISIS was not born yet).  A campaign of arrests and assassination of vigil’s leaders was followed and amid world silence 50 demonstrators were massacred in Huweija, north of Iraq.  With every arrest, torture and killing, with every act of humiliation and marginalisation, the prospect of justice diminished thus pushing people to the verge of madness.

To arm the current regime by any country is a crime against Iraqi people. The last 11 years have proved the total failure of US policy in Iraq, and the world is not safer than what it used to be before the invasion. Compare the US list of terrorist organisations acting in Iraq in 2003 with its list now to measure the success of its policy. At the beginning it’s only included Baathists and Saddamists, now it includes: ex Iraqi army officers, 1920 revolution brigade, al Qaida, Islamic State of Iraq , ISIS, Naqshbandi Army, Ansar al-Sunnah, Sunni insurgents, and Sunni tribes together with the military council for the Iraqi revolution. However, militias such as Muqtada al Sadr Mahdi Army, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq’s Badr Brigade, and Asaib Ahl al-Haq have been given a clean slate, for the time being, since their leaders are either part of or pro al Maliki’s alliance.

In the last few days, while much of the attention has been focused on ISIS declaring  its restoration of the rule of caliphate in Iraq, various factions taking part in the fight against Maliki’s army , among them The General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries (GMCIR) ,  the Iraqi National army, and council of tribal rebels in Al-Anbar Province, issued statements  emphasising the Iraqiness of the uprising, condemning terrorism, calling out to protect the holy places and not to target them because Al-Maliki’s regime is “ trying to use the protection of holy places as a pretext to target the revolution”. Above all, they reject all kind of interference in Iraqi affairs.

And while a spokesman for the GMCIR, described ISIS as “barbarians“.

The influential Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq issued a statement dismissing the new Khilafat declaration, describing it as a step against the interest of Iraq and its unity that will be employed as a pretext to divide the country and harming its people.

Listening to these voices while admitting responsibility about the mushrooming of terrorist’s organisations, in a country that had no link to any before the US led occupation, no airstrikes, is a must if the US and international community are genuinely interested in the stability of the region and the world.

By Haifa Zangana

The image that I am talking about is the reality of the city of Mosul, as described by Mosul people themselves. They testified so in the past few days to the few courageous media who dared to pass on the details through the barrier of censorship and global accusations of aiding ISIL terrorism.

Streets crowded with pedestrians and cars. Markets busy, with clothing and household provisions shops open, and vegetables and fruit stalls in their spots of old. The smell of fresh bread wafting from the bakery. Women and men shopping or going to work. A strange sense of time and place. People no longer late for work because of blocked streets and military checkpoints chocking them and the whole city over the last 10 years. There is the sense of confusion of the prisoner just released, taking his or her first steps outside the prison walls. How does one moves in his city without military checkpoints? Without a bunch of recruits or mercenaries who cover their ignorance and inferiority complexes by humiliating the people of the city at every turn?

Are we in the capital, Baghdad, protected by «democratic government» which provides citizens with reassurance and stability? Maintaining the dignity and heritage and history? Keeping the heart of Iraq, its unity and diversity of the pulsating ethnic groups and religions and doctrines? Is it Baghdad with the promise of freedom and democracy fulfilled ? Is it Baghdad where we heard at the time of the invasion : “ give us a period of six months only and we will get rid of the occupation as we get rid of the tyrant” ? Is it Baghdad where life was reduced to merely staying alive, with the hope of waking up on the morning to a day without assassinations, arrests and torture for someone dear or near?

No, this is not Baghdad, supposed to be living in safety, with security layers guarding the headquarters of the ruling party with its army , its ‘golden brigade’ , and its special forces. Next to the US headquarters of the largest embassy in the world. Fort Green Zone.

The image that I am talking about is the reality of the city of Mosul, as described by Mosul people themselves. They testified so in the past few days to the few courageous media who dared to pass on the details through the barrier of censorship and global accusations of aiding ISIL terrorism.

But, why would the people of Mosul, the second-largest of Iraqi cities and provinces, a city of culture, science and long history, the city that gave Iraq so many of its doctors, academics and historians, welcome ISIL terrorism? Has their moral compass to human values ​​and civilization been damaged to the extent of expressing satisfaction for the presence of members of the organized barbarism in their midst? Why?

Here, we must look carefully at the picture of what has happened, and is happening now, in the city of Mosul, with a population of nearly two million. The event was extraordinary and astounding to everyone. The army senior officers had shed, within a few hours, their uniforms which they swore on their honour to wear in defence of homeland and people. The soldiers, on seeing their generals fleeing asked what they should do. The reply, and I quote was: «deal with it yourself ». ( in colloquial Arabic : ‘ Dabbur Halek!’) . So the soldiers looked after themselves and fled, leaving behind modern weapons, equipment and machines for which Iraqis and Americans paid billions of dollars.

Testimonies from many Mosul people who fled the city during the first two days of its fall is that they fled because of the reputation of ISIL barbarism, because of the flight of soldiers and the expected shelling of the city. But the refugees decided to return after hearing how calm life is, and that the fighters have encouraged residents to return to their jobs. The fighters had carried out in days what the Maliki system and the occupiers before it, with their huge resources and budgets, did not mange in 10 years: providing electricity, water supply and cleaning the city. Another point underscored by the people of the city, contrary to what is common to hear, is that there is calm and that they did not witness any assaults on people because of his ethnic and religious affiliations.

But how can ISIL, these terrorist, barbaric, brainwashed throat-cutters and eaters of human livers and hearts, mange to behave in this civilized and efficient way, not seen in the armies of the civilized world? Just compare that to the behaviour of the two armies in Iraq, the U.S. and the British, with their record of massacres, arrests and rape of men and women, during the occupation of Iraq. How can the city actually ” fall” in hours to a few hundred ISIL fighters? Doesn’t that raise serious questions about the truthfulness of the story promoted by the Maliki regime and the U.S. administration and its allies in the media, who suddenly rolled up their sleeves to defend its citizens against terrorism?

Nuri al-Maliki is selling the very same goods manufactured in Washington, labelled «war on terror». Its hallmark was the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. Under the same banner stand the rulers of scores of countries from Saudi Arabia to Egypt , to shield themselves and their age-old corruption. It is the ever-present stick to terrorize their people. The media and the intellectuals oblige the rulers either really scared by the stick or because of the carrots. So now even researching the truth is labelled terrorism, and an investigative reporter would not be proven innocent. Iraqis have long lived this suffocating situation. Those who dared to raise their voices in protest are either called an insignificant bubble or nests for the terrorist ISIL, in the words of al-Maliki. Often he regurgitated such phrases in his weekly broadcasts, repeatedly humiliating decent people and provoke their anger. As if the arrests, torture , executions and indiscriminate shelling are not enough.

You have to wonder why should the people of Iraq need ISIL to come with foreign fighters across the border in order to rise up to get rid of the sectarian unjust system? Is it really ISIL who liberated the city and been welcomed by the locals? Or is it the people of Mosul themselves that liberated the city , having exhausted all avenues of reasoning with a corrupt sectarian system? According to credible reports, several local and national old resistance factions, together with local tribal fighters, have worked with former Iraqi army officers to form the Military Council General of the Revolutionaries in Iraq. The media ignores this message, and the Council relies on websites and social networking.

ISIL ,with its low numbers, are a double edged sword. Used by the Maliki regime to get U.S. support, but also used by insurgents to terrorize the regime and its army. This is what had actually happened in Mosul. Inflating ISIL had terrorised the military command and the soldiers of the Maliki army and hastened their flight. On the other hand the General Military Council of the Revolutionaries distance themselves from ISIL, especially the council members themselves had fought Al Qaeda previously.

The overriding fear, today, in various parts of Iraq, is of the Maliki and US use of air power to destroy cities without discrimination, especially after the regime officially resorted to request the assistance of America. The signs point to the possibility of air strikes, and use of drones, as well as special operations teams. This has been legitimised the “ war on terror” discarding the right of the oppressed and humiliated people to rebel.

The realization of democracy in Iraq must and will be carried out by Iraqis themselves, without foreign or regional intervention, or ISIL. The lessons of Iraqis politicians inviting intervention by the US and the UK for regime change must now be clear to all.

Haifa Zangana is an Iraqi novelist, artist and activist. Her recent books are “Dreaming of Baghdad” and “City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman’s Account of War and Resistance” and co authored “The Torturer in the Mirror” with Ramsey Clark and Thomas Ehrlich Reifer. She has also published three novels and four collections of short stories and many chapters in books on Iraq and the ME. As a painter and writer she participated in the Eighties in various European and American publications and group exhibitions, with one-woman shows in London and Iceland. She is also a contributor to European and Arabic publications such as The Guardian, Red Pepper, Al Ahram weekly and Al Quds (weekly comment). She contributes to academic conferences on women, gender, resistance and war. Haifa is co-founder of Tadhamun: Iraqi Women  Solidarity, founding member of the International Association of Contemporary Iraqi Studies (IACIS) and advisor for UNDP on “Towards the Rise of women in the Arab world”. Currently she is a consultant at ESCWA.  Haifa Zangana is a member of the Executive Committee of the BRussells Tribunal.