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یادداشت آقای دکتر گوهری‌مقدم:

Does Really Mission Accomplished in Iraq?

متن یادداشت:

After a seven and a half year of US invasion on Iraq the US president declared the “end of combat mission” in this country. Nonetheless it is not a complete US forces withdrawal from Iraq because near the 50000 troops including six brigades with combat capabilities will remain first to train Iraqi troops and second to support Iraqi forces especially by the air force. On the other hand while the 82 percent of US military bases are closed or transferred into Iraqi government, 4500 US Special Forces stayed there for counter-terrorism missions. In addition let’s not forget that the US government spent nearly one trillion dollar in Iraq war.

The main question is now that does really the mission accomplished in Iraq. My answer is clearly NOT. Iraq’s supposed to be an ideal type of democracy for the Arab world but it does not have even embassy in several Arab states now. As I wrote in earlier post about Iraq democracy, because of lack of democratic experiences in Iraq the new political system would not work properly; the main evidence is that Iraqi politicians have not formed a government since March parliamentary election which it means a 6 month political deadlock in the country. On the other hand the violence in recent months has escalated and hundreds of Iraqi people have been slaughtered in explosions. This means that terrorism is not curbed in Iraq as well.

I believe we should find the main reason of the security handover in Iraq in US domestic affairs and especially upcoming congressional election. President Obama during the presidential election campaign pledged to fulfill several polices including ending the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, closing the Guantanamo prison and improving the social security and health insurance internally and creating more jobs during the global economic crisis. But he did nothing to the US people. That’s why the GOP is criticizing the Obama administration and calling him as one term president. Obama’s foreign and security policies put the democrats in jeopardy and as Joe Biden said in Iraq “this war divided Americans”. This can cause the democrats lose the majority in both chambers which it means making Obama’s policies’ performance sluggish in the rest of his term in office.

At this crucial moment Obama must has done something to rescue his party. The easiest thing to do was the handover the security command to Iraqi government. So this is a policy for domestic market while nothing important has been achieved. I think the US administration has a lot to do from now on to achieve its goal in Iraq as the US vice president, Joe Biden, during the “change of command ceremony” in Iraq said “ US engagement will continue in Iraq” and he announced that “operation Iraqi freedom is over but operation New Dawn has begun”. He did not mention what kind of policy it is but we can assume that the US government alongside its military presence desires to deepen its economic ties with Iraq in different area of reconstructions, oil sector etc. so it’s not a real withdrawal but changing in US role in Iraq. We should know that this is not a strategic change in US policy. There are many challenges on the way ahead for Iraqi people and the US policies in Iraq still regarded with great doubt. Suffice it to say that Iraq issue from the US viewpoint has several subjects from high politics to low one which cannot be solved easily and because of existence of lots of domestic, regional and international variables declaring the end of war does not have any sense. 

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