‘Iraq yet to achieve stability 16 years after Saddam’

‘Kuwaiti, Iraqi ties clouded by uncertainty’

“THE invasion of Iraq by the United States of America and Britain’s occupation of this country in the past, shall all remain a source for critical, political thought, because this invasion and occupation were cooked up by both the US and British political leaderships for their selfish motives and wider interests. These invasions shall make good material for the writers and thinkers to expose the concerned politicians,” columnist

wrote for Al-Qabas daily. “For the time being, a movie shown in Kuwaiti theaters ‘An Official Secret’ revolves around the story of a female employee working for the British secret service. This employee reveals the secret that the US was attempting to blackmail envoys of the United Nations Security Council and urged them to vote for the proposal to go to war in Iraq.

“However, although the invasion in question liberated the Iraqis from the injustices, the persecution of a dictator, the strategy adopted to topple Saddam Hussein actually remained incomplete because the big question as to who will fill the vacuum following the downfall of the dictator at the top remained unanswered.

“In this connection, we say if we concede that if the Iranian Revolution of 1979 represented the first spark to incite the sectarian thought and promote the sectarian identity in both the West and East Gulf, we suggest the American occupation of Iraq was the most important factor in stoking the sectarian sentiments in the region.

“However, although the State of Kuwait and the Kuwaitis appreciated the downfall of the Iraqi dictatorial regime which had overrun the Kuwaiti homeland, it is needless to say the downfall of this regime did not bring a new stable regime that could assure us of tranquility and peace.

“After two years of holding an international conference for the reconstruction of Iraq that was hosted by the State of Kuwait in February 2018, those taking part in the conference had promised $88 billion to assist Iraq in general and the provinces which were liberated from the scourge of DAESH domination in particular, but the donations were extremely less than expected and the donors found no opportunity to disburse the money they had promised or make investments in this country.

“Not just that, the resumption of ties between Iraq and Kuwait are nowhere near normal yet and have not achieved the targeted objectives including the exchange of visits and commercial activities at all levels.

“This happened although two decades have passed after the invasion in question. In other words, the governments of the two countries (Kuwait and Iraq) have managed to build strong ties to handle the effects of their wars within a relatively short period.

“Take for example Germany which during the

Dr Al-Humoud

World War II had overrun most of Europe, but within a short period post this war, the German companies started investing in France and the Poles who suffered as a result of the German invasion and occupation of their country during World War II, started working in Germany post this war.

“Speaking of the Kuwaiti-Iraqi relations, they have yet to develop either at a popular or economic level but to the contrary we have observed the visits paid by the Kuwaitis to Iraq were relatively confined only to holy places in Najaf and Karbala.

“With regard to the investments, although this has been successful in the oil and telecommunication sectors to some extent, the fact is Iraq has yet to achieve stability 16 years after the downfall of the dictatorial regime.”

Also:

“It looks like the West uses the slogan ‘fighting terrorism’, like the ‘Trojan Horse’ to justify its intervention in most areas of the world including the Arab region,” columnist Al-Mutairi wrote for Annahar daily.

“In other words, the declared objective is apparently aimed at striking the terrorist cells in the region, but secretly aims to achieve other objectives.

“In this connection, we elucidate that the influence in the Middle East is no longer confined to the Americans and the West, rather we saw how Russia, China, Iran and Turkey have made inroads and are currently playing the same role.

“We also found how some states such as Syria, Iraq and Palestine have become theaters for international players to destroy these countries and their peoples in collusion with some rulers of the area, while the others are weak and incapable of doing anything.

“However, all dangers, destruction and wars in the Middle East ignited in Yemen, Iraq and Syria and so on, but this will not end there as long as the relevant parties continue to exploit them in the name of fighting terrorism to justify their deeds in these countries.

“Such being the case, the so-called war on terrorism which is currently ‘fought’ in our Arab region, is a laughable matter because through this war we found how the principles collide with reality and the practices on the ground.

“In other words, the West and Russia who are currently involved in a military coalition in Syria bombed ‘DAESH’ militias with recognition between the latter and that of the Syrian opposition and both the West and Russia in the meantime are providing cover and protection for the terrorist practices by some states against their peoples through overwhelming genocide and this actually opened the door for intervention of other foreign powers.

“To add insult to injury, we saw how both Russia and the West launched their campaigns against terrorism from the Syrian soil — the two powers which are currently involved in a futile war that can be deemed as more brutal than terrorism the menace they allege they are fighting.

“In other words, this war seems to have been directed against an unknown foe and this means the war against ‘DAESH’ which started last year led by the United States in North Iraq and in some of the Syrian areas and the border along Turkey has failed to defeat the Islamic State or DAESH as it is called.

“This is because the real war is not against ‘DAESH’, it is rather engineered to achieve other objectives and the relevant parties are striving to impose their dominion and eventually begin the distribution of new roles among international powers.

“This is likely to lead to a change in the political map of the region and eventually write a new Sykes-Picot pact for the Middle East.”

“We have read and heard about various proposals from some members of the National Assembly and meetings with the government about asking the Public Institution for Social Security to provide soft loans to retirees at 16 times the pension, and another proposal to grant civil and military employees a loan equivalent to 10 times the salary,”

wrote for Al-Qabas daily. “The proposals are worth several billions of dinars. What I am interested to show in these proposals, which is more serious than the financial cost to the state, is the social and humanitarian dilemma in making room for people and facilitating their borrowing from the Public Institution for Social Security. This will prompt them to borrow the ease of action either by their will or under pressure from a family member, becoming a scourge for most of them at the start of repayment, in addition to debts and other burdens on their shoulders.

“This will accustom society to the destructive consumption behavior of the family and the community, especially as Public Institution for Social Security provides funds- as soon as the borrower requests for this loan unlike the banks that scrutinize the matter to protect the bank and the borrower. In short, facilitating lending to people in this way is often a devastating social policy for the family and society regardless of whether the loan is good or ugly.

“The question to be answered is: how the state will provide these amounts immediately by liquidating the country’s investments for an absolutely unjustified purpose in these difficult circumstances? The other question is, let us imagine such an amount or part of it when pumped into the market within a short period of time. What will it do in the prices of goods and services other than the crazy rise? How will the general populace face it? How will this devastating inflation facing people and the state be addressed?

“Unfortunately, I hear that government’s position is very weak in the face of those proposals that are not based on sound scientific or technical grounds, perhaps because of the great corruption of the Public Institution for Social Security during the past thirty years without doing anything in the face of this corruption. This led to weakness in facing any proposal that does not have the necessary objectivity. Therefore, I ask brothers in the National Assembly and the government to slow down on this matter. I urge them to use international consultative houses to study the issue from all sides before approving any of these proposal”.

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb