Middle East Focus-Arabia Deserta: Iraq and the Neighborhood: the Blame Game

Arabia Deserta

Iraq and the Neighborhood: the Blame Game

“Who among the neighboring countries that were like terrified rats would have dared get near an Iraqi post in the days of Saddam who started an 8-year war with Iran because they attaempted an assassination of his deputy prime minister……Who could have dared touch an Iraqi hair in the days of the dictator who was spreading terror among leaders of the neighborhood, he who would not hesitate to take over a whole country.......Do they, the neighborhood, long for Saddam’s days to such an extent that they spill Iraqi blood daily…….Four years ago I specifically named Iran and Syria as responsible......”

Very nice: one more cog in the machine working slowly to rehabilitate Saddam, mollify his survivors, and atone for aiding and abetting the 2003 invasion. At the same time squarely blaming the the terror attacks on the two countries of the ‘hood who are not moderate New Middle East, and hardly tribal polygamist as well.

I am sure at least one of these two countries bears some of the blame, but there is so much blame to spread about for Iraq. There is blame going all the way back to the dark day in 1963 which killed Qassim and brought the lousy Aref brothers to power, when the Ba’ath Party first tasted power, through the wars and genocide of the 1980s, and through the 2003 invasion that was based on largely falsified evidence.

This writer almost sounds like a grieving widow of Saddam, but we know he left only two behind. His name tells me that his people were the main target of Ba’athist genocide. But his job here is to pin the blame away from some in the neighborhood, and toward some others.

I wouldn’t be surprised if his royal bosses decide to rehabilitate al-Maliki, even though he is a Shi’a. Their pockets, if not their hearts, are with Allawi, who is deemed as their kind of Shi’a, if there be such a thing. And there isn’t.
Cheers and Ramadan Kareem
mhg
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