Iraq’s Real Problem: A US Occupation legacy of Sectarian Politics

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/01/occupation-sectarian-politics.html

Iraq’s Real Problem: A US Occupation legacy of Sectarian Politics
By Juan Cole | Jan. 9, 2014
(By Mohammed Alomari)

Violence in Iraq is again in the news. The biggest problem we face about what is going on in Iraq is the disinformation campaign to which we have been subjected since the 2003 invasion and occupation.

Iraq, which had its infrastructure and institutions demolished in 2003, was rebuilt on political and sectarian lines. Originally Iraq’s army had been based on a nation-wide forced conscription (in which all sects and ethnicities were represented according to their percentages in society). All that was abolished in 2003 in favor of a militia-based structure. Iraq’s current military and security forces are made of former Chalabi-led Iraq National Congress militiamen, Iran-based Badr militia, Mahdi Army militia and other sectarian based militias.

It is as though the President of the U.S. were to abolish the Armed Forces and form a new military force from recruits from extremist groups. Imagine the racial and sectarian killings that would happen here.

The recent issue with Anbar province (and the other 5 provinces) is a result of ignoring the year-long demonstrations/protests and sit-ins in Anbar, Salahadeen, Diyala, Mosul, Kirkuk, and Samarra. Tens of thousands of people have been demonstrating in these provinces for over a year to free thousands of political prisoners, stop the mass expulsions of families from their homes, and other similar demands.

[politicman]

1. mis-information

Even this article which states that everyone was subjected to an Iraq dis-information campaign since 2003, gives its own dis-information.

Iraq was never rebuilt, hardly anything was built period.

Iraqi's still live in appalling conditions, buildings all over the country have some damage to them still, security is close to being non-existent and the political process is broken.

The only things that were rebuilt and are functioning well are things to do with the oil sector.

Why can't news articles describe things the way they are, why does the media act like the Iraq civil war ended after the surge. It never ended, full fledged fighting just quietened down for a while but the daily car bombings continued. Now the civil war has heated up again.