The sooner we 'cut and run' in Iraq, the better

This article was published in the Delaware County Daily Times, Monday, July 17, 2006.


By Mahmoud S. Audi, Ph.D.


We say, we had free elections in Iraq. All ethnic and religious groups participated. The Iraqis formed a unity government.
We say, we will step down when the Iraqis step up. The Iraqis are building security forces. The militias will disarm. We say sectarian clashes will subside. We say, soon we will hand them the matters of their country and its security and say goodbye to them.
We say count on us, we are forever your friends. Call us if you get in trouble. We are forever allies. We say the Iraqis will live in freedom in a democratic system of government.
We wish what we say is real. But, it is not. It is a dream. Our democratically elected government is dreaming. When you are dreaming you can hardly hear the words of wisdom, and you can hardly see the truth.
When you are dreaming, and the dream brings you happiness, you want to dream more. The government is in a bind. We want to stay the course. Telling the truth about the quagmire we are in, and our need to bring the troops safely home, calls for statesmanship, and honest leadership, not impotent politicians. The sad matter, which scholars and novices acknowledge, is that in the final analysis we will “cut and run.”
We wish the dream comes true, but reality prevails. I haven’t seen in person or talked to any Iraqi in more than 14 years. But, I met a number of Iraqi professors from most universities of Iraq at the “1992 International Renewable Energy Conference.” They were from the north, the center, and the south of Iraq.
We talked about the first American invasion of Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Many of them said they disliked Saddam, they wanted more freedom and more democracy, but they hated the British and the Americans. Saddam is an Iraqi dictator, the product of the Iraqi situation. Eventually, the Iraqis would remove him. But the British and the Americans are colonial foreign invaders. These professors spoke for the Iraqis.
Iraqis like most Arabs believe that the West has never given them a chance to grow as independent strong nations. They got educated in London, Paris, Rome, and Berlin. They learned about nationalism of the late 19th century from Europe. They learned fragmented Germans united into one nation, one country. The independent city-states of Italy united into one nation.
The Arab scholars returned to their home countries and started nationalistic movements as contrasted with the religious status quo. They allied themselves with Britain and France and fought with them during WWI. The West deceived them. Instead of independence their lands were colonized. The mouths of the Arabs are still bitter from the suppressive actions of the West against their aspirations.
The Arabs were awakened again in the 20th century. The Muslim Brotherhood movement was getting stronger in Egypt on a daily basis, during the ‘30s and ‘40s.
Western educated Arabs started political parties modeled after West European political parties. The Ba’ath party was one. It started in Damascus by a Christian Arab educated at the Sorbonne, France. Their goal was to unite all the Arabs under the banner of Arab nationalism, not Islam. Their efforts culminated in the rise of Naser in Egypt. He persecuted the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, and adopted the Arab nationalism movement as the means of uniting the Arabs. The West fought Naser until his demise. The irony is he used the American Constitution to model a constitution for the United Arab States. With the disappearance of Naser, the Islamic movement started rising again.
Saddam was one of the inheritors of Naser on the Arab seen. He wanted to carry the banner for Arab nationalism. He opened the borders to all Arabs who wished to work in the oil-rich Iraq.
When the Islamic revolution came to power in Iran, many national and Islamic Arabs hailed the rise of Islam in Iran and became strong supporters. It seemed with the religious euphoria at its peak they would overrun the lands to the west until they reached the Mediterranean. The West did not like it, and Saddam, whose country would be the first to be overrun, did not like it either.
With One million Iraqi soldiers, western intelligence and weaponry of all kinds including WMDs, and money from the Arab Gulf states, and about ten years of war, Saddam was able to stop the Iranian Islamic revolution inside its borders. Saddam became a hero to the West, and a villain to the Islamic movements all over the world. But the United States and Great Britain soon forgot. The Iraqis are mainly Arab nationals, Kurdish national, minority Iranian Shiites, and other minorities. The Arab Iraqi nationals are the majority. They include the Shiite Arabs, the Sunni Arabs, and the Christian Arabs.
A minority of the Kurds and a minority of the Iranian Iraqis will align themselves with the majority Iraqis. The other Kurds will never stop dreaming of an independent Kurdish state. The other Iranian Iraqis have their loyalties in Iran, not necessarily because it is Iran, but because it is a Muslim state, and they are devout Muslims.
If we can understand the bitterness of the Arabs and Muslims against the West, in particular against Britain and the United States, then we can conclude that sooner or later all of them will turn against us. Our current Iraqi allies will become our latest Iraqi enemies. To be a national is to refuse any kind of occupation, under any name.
Yes, sooner or later we will “cut and run.” The sooner we recognize this situation the better we will be. But this administration will never do it. If we cut and run we will become stronger, because after that we will not go to war unless it is constitutional. Our great constitution contains all the safeguards if we follow it.