Has the US Occupation of Iraq Really Ended?
By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
Reports from Baghdad indicate that the last American soldier has finally left Iraq 23 years after the US had invaded and occupied the country by ousting its “no longer of any use agent Saddam” on fears that the Iraqi Muslim masses would take over their homeland from the tottering Ba’th minority regime.
The US troop withdrawal is indeed a welcome development and the people are rejoicing all over the country, but the question arises: Has Iraq really rid itself of the despised Americans?
The answer is obvious. Sadly, it hasn’t. This is clear by the continued control of oil-rich Iraq’s hydrocarbon resources, and more important its revenues by the crafty Americans.
Moreover, the current cabinet in Baghdad, especially Prime Minister Ali Faleh az-Zaidi, seems more inclined towards preserving the vested interests of the US than the interests and welfare of the Iraqi Muslim people.
In other words, Iraq’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, its dedicated defenders, its religious identity, and relations with age-old neighbours, especially those who saved the Land of the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates from turning into ‘Takfiristan’, no longer appear to of much interest to the current Chief Executive.
If this is part of the Washington-dictated agenda of Baghdad, then it is indeed a historical blunder and admittance of the continued US control of the policies of Iraq even if all American occupied soldiers have left the country.
The Iraqi Muslim masses, however, are closely monitoring the situation and will not allow the government in Baghdad to be indifferent to their interests and ungrateful to their most trustworthy ally, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The real representatives of the Iraqi people, that is, Hashd ash-Sha’bi or the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), have also not minced words when they say that any attempt to force them to handover their lawfully and legitimately weapons of defence of the country, is an American plot to dismantle the defences of Iraq and dangerously expose it to Zionist designs.
These are the facts that Prime Minister Zaidi should realize, and before it is too late (not for the Iraqi people but for his own political survival), summon up the courage to tell the murderous criminal Donald Trump to stay out of the country’s affairs.
An independent Iraq should be in charge of its own resources and revenues, rather than allowing the sworn enemy of its Muslim people to control them.
Let us see how the situation unfolds, especially regarding the role of Iraq’s Resistance Movement in the country affairs and the ability of the government to discern friend from foe, and that includes sincere cooperation and coordination with time-honoured and time-tested friend, Iran.