Iraqis express mixed feelings on Bush pledge
Iraqis expressed a mix of feelings today when asked about US President George Bush’s pledge to keep American troops in their country until Iraq’s security forces can stand alone, with some agreeing and others fed up with what they still call an “occupation”.
“Iraq cannot be stable if the American and coalition forces left it because Iraqi forces don’t have the required level of training to protect the country,” said Baghdad University engineering professor Moayad Yasin al-Samaraie, 55.
Orioerty agent Ali al-Jibouri, 45, disagrees, saying only Iraqi politicians were benefiting from the foreign presence.
“Everything was plotted by the Iraqi politicians who came from abroad to prolong the time of the occupation because it will serve their personal interests,” al-Jibouri said.
Bush’s speech last night at a US Army base in North Carolina came on the one-year anniversary of the handover of sovereignty, but many ordinary Iraqis still believe the presence of about 138,000 US troops prevents local officials from fully controlling internal affairs.
“The transfer of authority was a great dream, but nothing took place,” said Samah Abdul Mihsen, a 24-year-old housewife living in al-Amin al-Thaniyah, a middle-class neighbourhood in eastern Baghdad. “Bush does not want to pull out the American forces although we can defend our country. There are so many problems because of the presence of foreign troops.”
Bush rejected suggestions he set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq or send in more troops, counselling patience for Americans who question the war’s painful costs.
But some Iraqis are growing weary of daily bloodshed and want to know when US troops will leave because they feel their departure will be a huge sigh of relief psychologically.
“We haven’t felt any change since the transfer of authority last year and the reason behind that is the lack of a withdrawal timetable,” said Saeed Yasin Moussa, 52, an employee at the Oil Ministry who lives in eastern Baghdad’s Baladiyat neighbourhood. “The timetable can lessen the psychological pressure on the Iraqi people.”
A senior official of what is believed to be the country’s largest Shiite political group said the speech probably did not have much resonance with ordinary Iraqis.
“As far as Iraqis are concerned, there was nothing important in the speech,” said Ridha Jawad Taqi of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq. “But I heard it was important to the Americans … It is necessary not to set up a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops. Their presence is linked to the security situation here.”
A Sunni Arab politician said he felt that members of his community – a minority in Iraq – were marginalised in the political process and in the Iraqi security forces.
“The country is now run by the Shiite and the Kurdish alliances,” said Ayad al-Samarrai, a senior official of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a major Sunni party. “This reflects badly on the political process … We think that the American way of dealing with the situation here wither reflects a failure to understand the nature of the place or shows that they’re not working as seriously as they should be.”
