The foreigners who want Iraq to fail

last updated 8 January 2015

Iraq

Salama Na’mat

The terrorists in Iraq are not really trying to force U.S. troops out, said Salama Na’mat in the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat. Their real goal is “to prolong the occupation.” Just look at their targets: elected Iraqi officials, Iraqi police, Iraqi army recruits. The terrorists “and those Arab governments that support them” want to make sure that Iraq remains unable to provide its own security. As long as the violence continues, the U.S. occupying force must stay in Baghdad. And as long as that force is there, Iraq is not really independent or democratic. It’s easy to see why most of Iraq’s neighbors—Syria, Jordan, Iran—don’t want Iraqi democracy to thrive. A functioning Islamic democracy on their doorstep would provoke democratic activism among their own oppressed peoples. Perhaps those countries are actively supporting the terrorists or perhaps they are merely, through the media, giving them aid and comfort. Either way, we must hope they fail. Because one success in stifling Arab democracy will only inspire another. “The hired killers will move on from Iraq to Lebanon.”