By Dr. Tayseer Abdul-Jabbar Al-Alusi
From the personalist dictatorship regime to the breakdown of theocratic klepto-fascism… That, in short, sums up what happened in 2003.
After that, Iraq did not enjoy the so-called democracy; as they only expressed their intention to spread it as an alibi to pass their occupation of the country and its goals.
After that year’s events, Iraq could not maintain its walls of resistance against fragmentation either, because of all the shortcomings and deep political rejections on account of its identity and character; which made the country and the people completely vulnerable against regional and international interventions, all the while, its “national strategies” for stability, civil peace, and adopting any projects to build and develop remained absent!
After all these years, couldn’t the forces of true national democracy learn enough lessons to make the decision to unite and give the people a real and honest national leadership that can save them from fragmentation, disorientation, and all the current exploitations that continue to tamper with their destiny?
Today, on this occasion, let us say: May the Iraqi people become a stronger collective and more united as the years pass; may the Iraqi people speak louder and take more actions as the years pass; may the Iraqi people commit harder to their unity and possess a unified national leadership capable of traversing them from the disastrous economic, social, and political tremors to a space of civil peace and stability in which they can rebuild and progress toward a development process that can restore their existence: an existence which continued strong throughout ancient Sumerian history all the to modern times, with its civilization shining bright by choosing the path of enlightenment and urbanization.
The purpose of the former statement is to show that what happened in 2003 did not put an end to the personalist dictatorship and its oppressive tyranny, rather, it was limited to removing one person and shattering his tools by dismantling them,
which only led to the dissolution of the structures of the army and security institutions, leaving Iraq without the tools of the state to impose the rules of law. Thereby, neither the occupation army was able to guarantee security and stability, nor was any national institution allowed to form as a substitute and perform the crucial and unavoidable tasks required by any country.
This occupation left the already-complex country in uncontrollable chaos and lawlessness, offering an easy chance on a golden plate to all those wishing hostility against the country to penetrate it as they wish. Thus, simply toppling or removing one person did not offer a single indicator that could have been described as a march toward democracy. In fact, instead of the occupation liberating the country, this actually helped it to dismantle the state and destroy what was left for Iraq in the fields of education, health, the economic cycle, industry, agriculture, and all the fields that ran the country and expressed – and continue to express – the people, not the dictator and his regime. And thus, even the dictum, “Iraq Liberation Act”, was reformed to become rounded on one person, his removal, and the breaking of the thorn of repression and tyranny, or rather, the political oppression, to be able to launch, as we have indicated, uncontrollable chaos and lawlessness as a result of the lack of power that could have controlled the situation and would have been the guardian of the law and its authority.
Two decades later, the October Protest Movement came into being, and the people – as loud as they could – announced that peaceful change must take place in order to restore peace and development and grant Iraq its independence, sovereignty, and belonging to its Arab surroundings.
As we witness with our own eyes the march of true and real progress, let’s cheer for Iraq’s journey to embark on its choice of a national leadership that breaks the link with the path of a theocracy disguised as false religiosity, which has been continuously spreading superstitions and ignorance under the cloak the logic and ceaselessly adopting a rentier economy to give way for local mafias and parties representing the forces of evil in the east and north of the country more opportunities for looting and theft!