ANALYSIS: Rage and protests mark the anniversary of Baghdad invasion (dpa)

Middle East News

By Pakinam Amer
Apr 9, 2007, 16:15 GMT

Baghdad - Four years after the US invasion of Iraq, large crowds bearing banners with anti-US slogans took to the streets in protest of the US presence across Iraq.

US troops seized Baghdad on April 9, 2003, taking control of the major palaces and ministries of the Baath regime and effectively toppling Saddam.

In Baghdad, the mood on the anniversary of this event, was that of caution even though the streets of the Iraqi capital were quieter than usual as a round-the-clock curfew took effect.

Many Iraqis say they do not feel safer despite foreign military presence and some are as eager to leave the country as they were years before. Officials, meanwhile, find it hard to predict the future of the war-torn country as the security's grip on militants and terror groups appears to waver.

'The situation after the occupation became crueler than during the reign of Saddam (Hussein),' said 34-year-old Wasslim Sabri.

'Saddam went, and a hundred other Saddams replaced him,' said Ibrahim Salman, who is in his late fifties. 'The murders we see are beyond even the mass graves of Saddam.'

Both Iraqi citizens said they were unable to spend quality time with their families amid the current unrest. Security at every street corner did not end the violence, even as people's movements were restricted, markets barricaded and entire neighbourhoods were sealed off.

In other Iraqi cities on Monday, rage and anger was evident as hundreds of thousands of Shiite protestors flocked to places such as Najaf to protest what they called the US 'occupation' of Iraq.

A so-called 'march of millions' was called for by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose feared Mahdi army militia is believed to have infiltrated Iraqi police and army ranks and is considered responsible for violence targeting Sunni Arabs as well as foreign and local armed forces across Iraq.

Those who did not protest kept to their homes for fear of an outbreak of violence related to the anniversary. In the media, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds argued on whether the US invasion has brought about any peace or freedom.

Talking to pan-Arab Al-Jazeera, a Sunni Iraqi expert said that the only freedom that the 'Americans have brought is the freedom of the occupier to kill Iraqis,' adding that Iraq had suffered more after the invasion.

Ismail Zayyer, editor of al-Sabah al-Jadeed newspaper, responded that Iraq had always suffered problems, especially under Saddam. Shiites were largely marginalized. Kurds were heavily oppressed under the ex-dictator's reign, as thousands of men, women and children were reportedly attacked by chemical weapons and killed in their homes.

The arguments extended to include government officials. Sunni leaders rejected the US presence and blamed it for the ongoing violence, while some Shiite leaders blamed Saddam.

Saddam's regime 'carries the main responsibility to what Iraq has become now,' said Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer, a Shiite deputy of the United Iraqi Alliance which has 128 seats in parliament.

Adnan al-Duleimy, leader of the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front which has 44 seats in parliament, blamed the US, saying it had followed 'misleading information' in order to enter Iraq, 'turning the arena into a place where sectarian and confessional vindictive acts have spread.'

Still, others blamed both Islamists and foreign forces for the 'chaos,' including some Shiite forces like the Sadr faction.

Paradoxically, this invasion and the subsequent political developments has empowered Shiites, including the Sadrists, allowing them to participate in the political scene, which they were deprived of during Saddam's reign.

Nevertheless, Sadrists - such as former Baathists and Sunni insurgents - deem the US presence 'foreign occupation' and say that the multi-national forces should be driven out of the country because they lie at 'the core of sectarian violence.'

But whether it was driven by the occupation or the underlying religious tensions that have been simmering for years under the surface, none of the parties could deny that the face of Baghdad has changed forever due to the daily kidnappings, targeted and random murders, and bombings.

Government policies, enacted to stabilize the situation and end the surging violence between different sects, were ineffective so far - according to observers. Fard al-Qanoon, the new security plan, was liable to fail as even some officials have predicted.

When raids intensified in notorious neighbourhoods around the capital, militants flew to other cities and started attacking from there. The battlefield between security forces and insurgents was only relocated but the bloodshed continued.

Even US forces have failed to clamp down once and for all on terror networks and on the spreading insurgency, leaving people around Iraq in a dilemma. On the one hand, US presence remains largely ineffective, while on the other, a withdrawal of its forces could lead to 'a disaster.'

Speaker of parliament Mahmoud Al-Meshadany says in the April edition of pan-Arab magazine Al-Watan Al-Arabi that the new security plan was the 'only means' to resolve the deteriorating situation.

But he also said that the execution of the plan was 'flawed' and the lack of real support for it could very well lead to its failure.

'And if it failed, the US administration will fail in its Iraq project, the Iraqi political project will be disintegrated, and the greater Middle East project will fall apart,' he was quoted as saying.

'With this, all the American dreams will fall and (the failure) will open the gates of hell on (George W) Bush and Tony Blair.'

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
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