It’s a conspiracy theory that has been brewing for years and its adherents now believe the moment of truth has come: Have America and Iran made a deal on the disposition of Iraq? Columnist Tariq Hameed of the Iraq News Agency writes that Iraqis who question this conspiracy theory have another perhaps less flattering explanation: Washington is clueless.
For the Iraq News Agency, columnist Tariq Hameed writes in part:
Among much of the Iraqi and Arab political, intellectual and media elite, there is a conviction that America is conspiring with Iran against Iraq, and that there is a plot to divide the region. The theory about U.S. thinking goes that a truce would help persuade Tehran to cooperate with America and the West regarding its nuclear program. And this is precisely what the Iranians have suggested to the West, and in particular, Washington. According to those skeptical of U.S. intentions, this is said to be why Washington sees no harm in allowing Nouri al-Maliki a second term at the expense of the other Iraqi blocs. The danger of these suspicions is that they incite conflict among political elites who don’t generally believe in conspiracy theories and who, for the most part, are rational and call for sound and moderate relations with the West.
The perception is growing that the Americans are considering handing Iraq over to the Iranians, because the U.S. doesn’t want Iraq to regain its rightful place culturally, politically and economically. They prefer an Iraq that is weak and subject to the will of others.
Accepting a new term for Nouri al-Maliki means the demolition of Iraq’s already-fragile political system and the end of confidence in the entire political process. It also means that every sect in Iraq will scramble to protect its own influence. But the most serious danger of all is that affairs would again fall into the hands of the Iraqi Baath party. The Americans forgot that Saddam Hussein’s army had more than half a million fighters. Where are they now? Who can guarantee that they won’t return?
Which leads me to this conviction: the matter has to do with nothing but America’s ignorance of the consequences of things. And these are not small things – but matters that will set the table for the entire region. This will be a mistake so great that it’s superseded only by its occupation of Iraq.
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