The incalculable anguish endured by the Iraqi people has not ended with the departure of the bulk of American combat forces, and may well worsen. According to this article by columnist Sabah al Bahraini of Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper, successive governments have facilitated the mass exodus of Iraqis from their land and rendered those that remained ‘easy prey to death by bombing, suicide, massacre and burning.’
In the first of a series of articles from Iraq we’ll be posting this week since the U.S. pullout, Bahraini writes that never again should Iraqi citizens have their rights denied by governments guided by a particular ideology – but according to the ‘Constitution, its rules and its values.’
For Kitabat, Sabah al Bahraini writes in part:
In these times of suffering and death, with six million people exiled and displaced by force or by choice, the nation of Iraq continues to export more of its people per capita than any other nation. The repeated migrations began in Black February [1963] and haven’t ended since.
Doesn’t Iraq (its governing authorities) respect the citizenship of its sons? How can it, if it facilitates the departure of such a large number, and renders those that remain such easy prey to death by bombing, suicide, massacre and burning? Why has Iraq (its governing authorities) neglected to devise methods of protecting its children from the evil brute force that has killed them off generation after generation? In a single moment, hundreds have been lost – killed in genocide and buried alive. They’ve been lost in sectarian conflicts fueled by tribal chiefs and the leaders of sects. Many who returned after 2003 didn’t stay long, quickly returning to exile. They left because the government’s citizenship project for returnees, which the exiles had dreamed of endlessly, turned out to be a fool’s mission. The dreams of thousands of returnees melted away just hours after they returned home.
Iraq’s citizens are mere spectators to these violations, because the safeguarding of their rights is inconsistent with the goals of the authorities and political parties. Issues like these are political footballs subject the quest for power and other changes dictated by the deals and policy goals of self-seeking officials.
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