Years after Saddam Hussein’s long and bloody reign over Iraq and former U.S. President George W. Bush’s brutal invasion of the country, a general election earlier this year held the potential to set the country on a course away from sectarianism and toward stability.
Yet politicians have since been unable to form a coalition government and plant the seeds of stability in their country, preferring to take their citizens hostage in their political rivalries, rather than to come to terms with each other. For them, Iraq has become a prized bull on which they have thrown a noose.
The results of this mad competition have become an all-too familiar sight. As political violence continues to take a toll on Iraqi civilians, we have grown accustomed to images of devastated streets in places like Baghdad and Fallujah and of traumatized Iraqis weeping among rubble and debris. …
The blame, arguably, was once squarely laid on the shoulders of a misguided U.S. leadership. But today, as Iraqis hold the reigns of their country anew, this responsibility has shifted, and it can be attributed first and foremost to the unwillingness of the Iraqi leaders to dream of their nation’s future as one. …
Iraq’s neighbors have unfortunately exacerbated the intensity of the country’s political quagmire by assisting proxies aligned with their sects rather than judging them on their ability to govern.
Competing politicians and powers will, however, eventually have to come to grip with reality: Iraq is indeed a prized bull, but one that is too big to be controlled by one. Access the full article>>
