By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
    
Baghdad was again the scene last Saturday of a huge rally of Iraqi patriots who vociferously denounced Washington’s meddling in their country’s affairs and called for withdrawal of all American military personal from the soil of Iraq.
The multi thousand strong gathering of devout Muslim men and women at Firdous Square, close to Tahrir Square – often used by hoodlums, irreligious elements, and agents of the US and Saudi Arabia – voiced support for the religious authorities and pledged to protect the independence of their Islamic homeland.
The bonfire of the US and Israeli flags along with the cardboard cutouts of US President Donald Trump, presented a grand spectacle as the orderly gathering marched on the emblem of the US Department of Treasury that was placed on the ground as a symbolic rejection of the extra territorial American sanctions against some leaders of the Hashd ash-Sha’bi or Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU).
The message was loud and clear, not only to those creating a chaotic situation in Iraq through acts of sacrilegious vandalism, looting of public and private property, gunning down of peaceful protestors, kidnapping and killing of citizens, and attempts to cut the country’s lifeline to fraternal and friendly neighbour Iran, but also to the meddlesome trio of the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.
Iraq-Iran ties are on the firm foundations of reciprocal respect, resistance against reactionaries and the neo-colonialists, and the collective safeguarding of peace, security, and progress, as was evident recently during the epic Arba’een rallies when millions of citizens of the two neighbouring countries along with millions of others from all over the world, converged on Karbala in the spirit of Islamic brotherhood to pay homage to the Chief of Martyrs, Imam Husain (AS).
This has disrupted the plots of the US, which sensing the emergence of Iraq as a vital link of the Resistance Front stretching from the Strait of Hormuz to the Mediterranean Sea, used the embassies of its Saudi and Emirati bankers to dole out dollars, Riyals, and Dirhams to anti-social elements, Takfiri sleeping cells and remnants of the repressive Ba’th minority regime in the southern cities, to indulge in organized violence against the government and lay the blame on Iran for the economic stalemate that is actually the result of the stealing of billions of dollars of Iraqi oil by American firms ever since the occupation of 2004.
As usual, the western media which for the past forty years has been ritually presenting the Islamic Republic of Iran and its spectacular developments in a negative way and harping on its downfall at the sign of any stray incident of violence and vandalism, magnified the mischief of a few miscreants in Iraq as a national uprising, while ignoring the massive pro-government rallies, in the same manner as it ignores the multi-million marches in Iran in support of the system of government.
Thanks, however, to the vigilance of the Iraqi people and the mass mobilization ability of the popular Hashd ash-Sha’bi, the US-Saudi-Zionist plot has failed.
In the words of Iraqi lawmaker Naim al-Aboudi regarding Saturday’s rally: "Today’s demonstration is clear in its aim and message. It is to reject foreign intervention in Iraq’s internal decisions. In addition, it is to reject the decision of the United States of America regarding popular leaders and on top of them Sheikh Qais al-Khazali. Therefore, all these people are here to rise up and condemn these decisions.”
In other words, any misconstrued move by the US to flex its aching military muscle in Iraq, whether in support of the hoodlums or against the popular forces, will mean the beginning of the process of the return home of CENTCOM terrorists in body bags.