There is no oppressor in Iraq today. Whereas the despair living conditions of its population after the occupation by the US troops and its allies aggravated badly and border on the humanitarian disaster.
During the war thousand of bombs were dropped on Iraq that entailed grave harm to the national economy and ecological damage to the nature and environment. Many towns and settlements were smashed to ruins, the oil production, water supply and energy sector infrastructure was destroyed and still lags behind the pre-war indicators. Overall unemployment and lack of improvement in the economy result in the situation when more than 30 per cent of the Iraqis today live below the poverty line, many of them starve and have no elementary living conditions.
Today the problems of the Iraqi economy are far from successful solution even with billions of Dollars invested by the Western countries and first of all by the United States. According to the World Bank estimates, only in 2003 restoration of the Iraqi economy needed at least 56 billion Dollars. Various states and international institutions promised to Baghdad totally 8.2 billion Dollars. In fact they transferred only 4 billion Dollars. Of this amount the Iraqi authorities actually used only 1.5 billion Dollars. Iraq will feel the negative economic consequences of the American invasion for many years. According to the World Bank, the cost of occupied Iraq “reconstruction” will exceed 35 billion Dollars. Who will pay this money? The answer is pending.
The death toll is a national tragedy. According to approximate estimates, the population of Iraq decreased from 2003 by 650 thousand people killed during the non-stop war. Beside, during the same period 4 million of Iraqis left the country saving their lives.
The corruption rate in Iraq is the highest worldwide. It affected most heavily the security structures where the chicken generals get their profits mainly from the illegal arms traffic. It became known that more than a half of the several thousand small arms supplied to “the new National Army of Iraq” vanished into thin air. The US-made rifles, machine guns and pistols supplied by the United States for the security structures of Iraq today may be found not only in the Iraqi resistance troops but also in Afghanistan, Pakistan and even Myanmar.
The security situation in the country remains fragile. If at the time of Saddam Hussein all religious confessions and Islamic groups lived in peace in Iraq, today every day either Sunnite kills Shiite or vice versa. Iraq faces uncontrollable “reproduction” of terrorists sponsored by Al-Qaeda. The country daily witnesses about 80-100 acts of terror with 100-150 peaceful people killed, mainly women and children. The number of suicide bombers increased. The “peacekeeping” aircraft make 30-40 salvos every day against “point targets” using cluster bombs killing the same peaceful people.
Today Iraq practically has no synagogues, the Christian churches have been either destroyed or abandoned by their priests. Flowering Babylon has been brought down to ruins and desert, and looks like “a waste dump”. According to the Greens, up to 2 thousand tons of high-toxic wastes are imported annually by US corporations. These wastes are either non-recyclable or need huge financial expenses to be recycled.
Currently the Iraqi authorities are unable to control the domestic situation themselves. They “are assisted” by the 167-thousand foreign troops. The largest contingent is of the United States (157 thousand). The US allies have a bit more than 8,500 troops. In general 26 countries including the USA have their troops stationed in Iraq. Besides a small number of militaries from the NATO countries, which are not with the coalition force is also stationed there. Recently Spain, Ukraine, Japan, Iceland and other countries withdrew their contingents from Iraq. Certain countries, for example, Poland, radically decreased their contingents.
The key problem of the occupation force is death toll. As of today the American death toll in Iraq is 4062. Approximately one third of the American militaries who returned from Iraq suffers serious mental disorders. A report prepared by the Rand Corporation reads that one fifth of the American militaries suffers depression or posttraumatic syndrome after the tour of duty in Iraq. According to the report, the total number of soldiers suffering the serious mental disorders exceeds 300 thousand. The report emphasizes that only half of the potential patients approach medical specialists for help. The veterans often postpone their visits to the mental physician because they are afraid that they will be recognized mentally sick, and it will affect their carrier.
The total death toll of the US allies in Iraq is 314.
The losses of combat equipment in the coalition force are also high enough: almost 1300 tanks, APCs and IFVs; and about 200 planes, helicopters and UAVs. The total cost of these loses is approximately 1 trillion Dollars. It’s big money equal to three Pentagon’s annual budgets or annual budget of all African countries. This money would be enough to provide food and shelter to all miserable people in the world.
The analysis confirms that we may hardly expect peaceful life of both “the aliens” and local people in future. The Al-Qaeda division leader in Iraq proclaimed the beginning of “a new offence” against the American troops in this country. Mukhtada as-Sadr, a leader of the Shiah “Mahdi Army ” , threatened to unleash “an open war” against the Iraqi authorities if the government US troops continue combat operations against his combatants. He emphasized that it is “the last warning”.
In spite of the personnel and equipment combat losses US President George Bush on March 19, i.e. on the fifth anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq, addressing the Pentagon staff declared that “America will continue the war in Iraq till final victory”. George Bush says it time and again that his Administration cannot yield to the terror. He warned: “Without maintaining the current military escalation in Iraq, this country would descend into chaos (as if it were not in chaos today – Author’s note). Emboldened Al-Qaeda could launch a campaign of violence and terror that could extend beyond the Iraqi borders and have serious consequences for the world’s economy”. As quoted to George Bush “withdrawal from Iraq would embolden Iran to continue development of nuclear arms and dominate in the Middle East” that evidently could not be tolerated by the United States.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Democratic party and many common Americans strongly oppose the steps of their President, and American war in Iraq. According to public surveys, conducted by the American mass media, currently a negative rating of President George Bush is the highest in the history of the United States – 71 per cent of Americans are not satisfied with the conduct of the WH head in fulfilling his duties. In general, according to RealClearPolitics, today the average negative rating of George Bush is 65.2 per cent.
According to Gallup Poll, 60 per cent of respondents believe that the war in Iraq is a mistake of the White House, and insist on establishment of a formal troop-withdrawal schedule.
Public survey findings in Iraq also show that Iraqis in general have negative attitude to the presence of foreign troops in their country and express low optimism in assessment of the domestic situation.
Looking for new stabilization options, the Iraqi authorities recently became more active in establishment of closer contacts with European structures. In particular, an Iraqi government delegation led by Prime Minister Al-Maliki visited the NATO HQ in Brussels and had talks with the Alliance leadership on deployment of NATO troops in Iraq after the United States reduces the strength of its force.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Zabari said that the last NATO Summit in Bucharest made a decision on “NATO assistance to Iraq”. He claimed that Baghdad intends to have “structural cooperation” with the North Atlantic Alliance. Zabari also noted that the NATO troops may be deployed on the borders of Iraq. Besides, the Iraqi Prime Minister requested to extend the program of Iraqi military personnel training by NATO instructors until 2009 (as of today more than 10 thousand Iraqi militaries have been trained by NATO instructors).
Iraq is also seeking to establish relations with the European Union. As quoted to European Commission Chairman Jose Manuel Barroso, a memorandum of cooperation in energy sector may be signed with Iraq in the near future. The European Union is going to render assistance to Iraq in restoration of its energy infrastructure. In so doing, Brussels regards Baghdad as an alternative energy supplier to Europe.
In its efforts to stabilize the internal political situation the Iraqi authorities today also count on promulgation of an approved Law enabling the Saddam Hussein’s party members to return to the state agencies. The Law will apply to almost 40 thousand former BAAS members but for those who were members of the governing bodies in this party. There is a belief that it is the dismissal of thousands of BAAS members that enhanced protest actions of Sunnites against the state authorities where the majority of positions is occupied by Shiites.
We will see what will be future developments in Iraq. Meanwhile, the prospects are in haze, and the situation in the country remains very complicated that confirms grave failures of the US policy in the Middle East in its “war against terror”, which in fact is the war for the Iraqi oil.
