Euskaraz irakurri: Iraq, inbasiotik 20 urtera

Under the pretext of getting rid of massive destruction weapons and to free the Iraqis from the yoke of Saddam Husseinthe international coalition led by USA, in which he was Spain, invaded Iraq in 2003. But today, 20 years later, the country is still in the process of rebuilding, with an unstable political system and survives thanks to a dangerous dependence almost exclusively on oil.

In the famous speech “Mission Accomplished” (mission accomplished) from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 US President George W. Bush he celebrated that “Iraq is free” and affirmed that the role of the coalition troops was now to “secure and rebuild the country”.

George W. Bush, on the USS Abraham Lincoln, in 2003. White House file photo

But Iraq is still suffering from the consequences of the invasion, which, added to the rampant corruption of the ruling class established during the occupation, has locked one of the most oil-rich countries on the planet in a spiral of crisis.

“If you look back, it was necessary to get rid of Saddam, but not through an invasion. There were some grassroots changes coming, social changes inside Iraq. It would have been a good idea to limit the invasion to just taking out Saddam and his circle, and not destroy the entire country and its institutions,” he told EFE sarkawt shamsuntil 2021 deputy in the Iraqi Parliament at the head of a Kurdish formation.

The years of the occupation left between 100,000 and 500,000 deadaccording to different estimates, in addition to billions of dollars lost and a State that, to this day, is still unable to continuously supply electricity to its citizens.

For Bayarek al-Khayr, also a former representative of the Sunni faction, Mohamed Othman al Khalidi“the deterioration of services and infrastructure, high poverty, unemployment, forced displacement and the feeling of instability” are “heavy price” paid for freedom from Saddam Hussein.

And it is that the successive conflictssuch as the sectarian war that bloodied the country between 2006 and 2008, or the devastation caused by the terrorist group Islamic State between 2014 and 2017 have left the country in a very bad light and have undermined the efforts made to ensure the stability and development of Iraq.

Are Iraqis free?

After the fall of the dictator, the United States assumed political command of Iraq and installed, under a sort of “viceroyalty” of Paul Bremer, a series of leaders opposed to the old regime who were in exile, to whom they were entrusted build a country from scratch.

“The legacy (of the invasion) is to bring incompetent exile politicians to rule and leave the country in the hands of warlords, while the United States did not guarantee the survival of civil society,” Shams said.

According to Al Khalidi, the fall of Saddam and the lack of planning for the transition process also meant the proliferation of armed groupsas is the case of Al Qaeda, and militias loyal to Shiite clerics and political leaders who “imposed their dominance” in Iraq, something that continues to happen today, he regrets.

The attacks have been constant during all these years.

The Iraqi constitution approved in 2005however, guaranteed some rights unthinkable under Saddam for all the religious communities and ethnic groups that make up Iraq, who were oppressed during a dictatorship that did not tolerate any kind of dissent or criticism.

For Salem al Anbaki, a parliamentarian from the current majority coalition in the Iraqi Legislature, Al Fatah, the fall of Saddam did provide Iraqis with a freedom of expression unprecedented, at the same time as a democratic system, but with “failures”.

Bush already warned about it from the USS Abraham Lincoln, when he recognized that “the transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time.”

“The most important question is: have we reached an integrated democratic political process? The answer is no,” says Al Anbaki, who highlights the high levels of corruption in the country.

Big challenges

Mismanagement and the destruction of institutions that are still in the process of being rebuilt have generated a great scourge in what was the cradle of universal civilization: corruption.

According to Transparency International, Iraq ranks 157 out of 180 countries in the corruption indexwhich severely affects its reconstruction and development.

The Iraqis do not understand how OPEC’s second largest producer, which generates about 8 billion dollars a month in oil exportsis unable to provide basic services to the population.

More than 90% of the State’s income depends on crude oil, and they are mainly used to pay the salaries of public sector workers, which employ more than 60% of the population.

“I don’t think it’s fair to say that Iraq is a failed state, but it is definitely fragile. It will surely take a couple more decades to become a stable and strong player in the region,” Shams says.

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Ten years after the invasion of Iraq

Source: Eitb

Ricardo

Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.