August 29, 2009

One of the most unrealistic statements made by US President George Bush in recent times is that he is worried about the lack of progress in Iraq.

In his statement in the Pentagon meeting on Aug. 15, Bush also expressed disappointment at the Iraqi people’s lack of understanding of the American "sacrifices" in terms of man and material for their sake. One of the participants in the meeting said that the president also expressed his frustration and grief at the Iraqis’ support to Hezbollah and hostility toward the US.

However the most serious point made by Bush at the meeting was, according to a White House statement, his rejection of the idea of Iraq’s division as a solution to end the violence.

This meeting was not, apparently, held to express the US president’s worries over the Iraqi people’s plight. It was, presumably, to chalk out a method to extricate the US from the Iraqi quagmire.

At the same time the US also wanted to guarantee the implementation of its secret scheme to divide the Arab world into small petty states that could be easily brought to obedience in order to protect the US and Israeli interests forever.

Those familiar with the American behavior in recent times could view the White House statement only as a preliminary step on the road to Iraq’s division into three states — Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish. This division would also pave the US road to Iran and Syria.

There are some naïve people who believe that Washington would not break its promise of maintaining the territorial integrity of Iraq.

It is not yet time to forget that the US intervention in Somalia threw its people to a protracted civil war until the country was split on tribal lines. Further to the north in Sudan the US has been provoking the people of southern Sudan to cut the country to two and create a Christian nation.

As the US failed in the attempt, it is now striving to exploit the Darfur issue with the aim of gradually making that region independent and thus destabilize and debilitate Sudan.

Voices of partition between the south and north could be heard from Yemen as well. Some suggestions about a separate region for Egyptian Christians with Asyut as its capital has also been circulated.

The idea came from certain Egyptian Christians based in the US and Canada. It is hardly possible to divide Egypt. There is no single region with Christian majority in Egypt. Asyut cannot be made a capital for a Christian state as the Muslims outnumber the Christians there.

In the above-mentioned security meeting, the US mention of Iraq’s division means it is a secret design.

The linking of the president’s rejection of the idea of partition with his disapproval of the rising Iraqi death toll that reached 3,500 in July alone — apart from 1,666 explosions — means it is a warning that the violence will not stop without the partition.

The president’s disapproval of the increasing violence could be viewed as a step toward dividing the country as the only solution to the issue.

His public rejection of the idea of the partition could be dismissed as a political ploy.

However the fact remains that bringing peace to Iraq is not impossible for the American and British forces. It could be done with the help of a national government acceptable to the Iraqi people.

On the contrary, the US, seemingly, wants the chaos to deepen so that a situation would emerge in which everybody would clamor that "Iraq should be divided if peace is to be achieved."

In such a situation the world would accept the US proposal of the Iraqi partition. It would also signal the beginning of the implementation of the US scheme to divide other large Muslim countries.

The US president claims he is upset about the security situation in Iraq and disapproves the Iraqi people’s inability to appreciate the American "services" to them.

But Iraqis reject the US military presence in their country. They also reject the US plans including the imposition of a spurious American democracy.

The Iraqi resistance at present, as expressed by several Iraqis, is being undertaken jointly by the Sunnis and Shiites because their goal is one: Oppose the occupying forces and their supporters.

If the American president is sincerely worried about Iraq’s future he must pull out both his soldiers and his plans from the country and leave Iraq to Iraqis letting them decide their future.

If at all there is the need for a force to keep security let it be an Arab-Muslim force. The force should never be under the control of the US or the UK or the Security Council that has lost its credibility.

Hassan Tahsin, hassan_tahsin@hotmail.com