Pre-war Iraqi dissidents: we were duped

[sabra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/24/world/middleeast/24makiya.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

<snip>

“There were failures at the level of leadership, and they’re overwhelmingly Iraqi failures,” he said. Chief among the culprits, he added, were the Iraqis picked by the Americans in 2003 to sit on the Iraqi Governing Council, many of them exiles who tried to create popular bases for themselves by emphasizing sectarian and ethnic differences.

“Sectarianism began there,” he said.

Mr. Makiya said he preferred not to name names. But it is well known that he had a falling out with Mr. Chalabi after Mr. Chalabi began courting Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric, in order to win support in Iraq’s first national elections. For years before the war, Mr. Makiya had toiled with Mr. Chalabi to organize the Iraqi exiles who, despite disparate ideologies, stood united in their hatred of Mr. Hussein.

Then there is the small issue of American policy. “Everything they could do wrong, they did wrong,” Mr. Makiya said. “The first and the biggest American error was the idea of going for an occupation.”

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/2093/Ex-Opposition_Figure_Now_Praises_Saddam

<snip>

Juburi told me his version of his life’s story. He claimed to have been a businessman in Baghdad’s Shorja market. “I knew Saddam personally,” he said, “and gave him my full support and Saddam tried to show he was a winner and he didn’t care about those who supported him. I lost my son in a car accident and criticized the health minister.” Juburi claims that this criticism provoked the ire of the regime. He told me his father had led the Juburi tribe, but that since Mishan had an older brother he was never expected to lead the tribe. “I like city,” he said, “I don’t want to be tribal.” He also claimed to have been involved in a coup attempt by the Juburi tribe. “I tried to kill Saddam and he killed thirty five people from my family, my brother, my cousins. I lost ninety five people from my family to Saddam but it’s indisputable that Saddam was better. I’m sorry I opposed him.”

He had lived in Jordan, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Syria, he told me, and had founded the Iraqi Homeland Party. Prior to the war he had taken part in an opposition conference in Salahedin, in Kurdistan. Now he regretted his participation in this conference. “I trusted the American lie of building democracy in Iraq and I found myself a part of the American destruction of Iraq.” He claimed he had come to this realization one month after the war ended when former US proconsul Paul Bremer had declared the American presence in Iraq to be an occupation.

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/2093/Ex-Opposition_Figure_Now_Praises_Saddam

<snip>

“Bush’s war led to the fall of the state, not just the fall of the regime,” he told me, “after the American invasion and Bush’s talk of Iraq being a model of democracy in the region it only ended in disaster and chaos which lasts until now. One of the greatest mistakes was dissolving the military and police and there were no more institutions to protect the state. The Revolutionary Guard in Iran, it wasn’t dissolved by the revolution and the institutions of the state have no relation to the leader, they have to stay because they are the ones that protect people.

He condemned the dismissal of the security forces, blaming the looting and chaos on that controversial move by Bremer. “I think in New York if you took away the police and electricity the same thing would happen. In Iran after the Shah the Islamic Revolution did not say all police and soldiers were with the Shah.” Tawfiq held Bremer responsible for the sectarianism in Iraq. “I blame Bremer,” he said, “I give him full responsibility for this worsening because he was the one who established this system of ‘shares’ so everyone started caring about their share and they stopped being one nation. This is against human rights and it was the introduction to the killing happening now.” He did not blame everything on the Americans however. “There were many things wrong with Saddam’s rule,” Tawfiq said, “and he took unilateral decisions, especially to go to war, which harmed the Iraqi people a lot. It turned into an unstable country although it’s a resource rich country but it all went to wars and not building up the country. The Baath party was not a sectarian party. There were Christian and Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. The main loyalty was to Saddam not to the sect. That period with all its problems was the most secure, there was electricity and the thought of democracy was only a luxury. Before 2003, Iraqis’ problems were running water, electricity, food, now they have given it all up because there is no security. In 2003 after the regime fell and before the government was formed the country was free of government and police but we didn’t witness any fighting and all the sects lived in a normal way. Now the Iraqi citizen lives without security. He cannot go to work or walk in the street. So now Iraqis of all sects are fleeing, Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Kurds. The reality is that an Iraqi can’t live in Iraq now. Iraq is on the brink of civil war and we have a critical two months ahead, we are at a cross road. This issue of sectarianism did not originate from the Iraqi people. The society is returning to primitiveness. After the dissolution of the police, when they don’t have anybody to govern them they return to their sheikh of their religion or tribe, its outside interference that is the main reason for this chaos. ” Many of the Iraqi opposition figures who continued to play a dominant role were his friends in exile. “We worked together and coordinated for a while. Jaafari called me a few days ago and is still a friend.” He did not blame them for the mess that had been made of Iraq. “They are only partially responsible because they didn’t have full autonomy,” he said.