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I
have seen and read many stories about members of Arab
governments who have suggested that it might be a good
idea to send an Arab ‘peace-keeping’ force to Iraq. I
have also heard, in Western and American circles, that
their governments share the same goal, that is, the
replacement of American and Alliance forces in Iraq with
Arab ones.
These declarations, wherever they come from, are equally
alarming because they fly in the face of many of the
principles of self determination, of which the following
is but a selection:
Deploying non-Iraqi forces in Iraq for any reason is
unacceptable because the Iraqi people are free and will
accept only Iraqis to protect them. The core problem in
Iraq is nothing to do with security so the
solution can have nothing to do with either security or
deterrence.
The issue in Iraq today is one that includes everything
from local sovereignty to Arab identity and its solution
must reflect all of that for its people. We are talking
here about national identity, an Islamic nation and self
determination. It is primarily political and cultural
and nothing to do with security.
We refuse to accept that Arab blood is cheap, or that
the blood of Alliance soldiers is worth more. Blood is
blood and we have more than once called the Alliance to
stop shedding the blood of the Iraqi people and its own
soldiers. So far they have not listened.
Arab soldiers are not there to help with political
experiments and neither should they be used to assist
plots aimed at dismembering parts of the Arab world.
No Arab soldier should ever be sacrificed to cover up
for the mistakes of others. Our Arab homeland has paid
dearly for the deaths of foreign forces. But we now
have enough experience to protect ourselves from ever
committing the same mistakes again and gambling with our
future.
All nations must realize that they are dealing with a
people that respects the freedom and decisions of
others. We demand the right to be treated in the same
way by others. All peoples should be free to select
their own political, economic and social paths.
Including Iraq.
The right solution to Iraq’s present sorry condition
starts with handing over the rule of Iraq to its own
honest people, not to mercenaries, lackeys and puppets.
The Alliance must admit that dismantling the Iraqi army
was wrong. We need quickly to retrain and re-qualify
the Iraqi army and charge it with the responsibility of
keeping peace, order and security within Iraqi’s proper
historical borders at the same time as we organize the
withdrawal of the Alliance Forces.
The West should admit that it committed a grave error in
Iraq. And while nothing can reverse the enormous loss
of life or compensate for the sacrifices made by the
Iraqi people we must tell the American Administration
that they must at the very least pay for Iraq’s material
losses and the destruction and wholesale theft of Iraq’s
historical artifacts.
Finally, all perpetrators must stand trial before the
new independent Iraqi courts for the crimes they
committed against the Iraqi people, especially in case
of the terrible prison scandals that shook the whole
world
Since we all want to protect Iraq and the Iraqi people
and since Alliance partners have admitted their mistakes
we call upon them now to ensure it cannot happen again,
to preserve the image, history and future of Iraq and to
leave – soon. | 
