Iraqi troops on a U.S. Air Force plane, probably a C-130, headed to a

deployment in Basra, Iraq, Apr.3. But will they remain loyal to Iraq's

government after they arrive, and battle their feuding Shiite brethren?

Azzaman, Iraq

In Iraq, Patriotism is a 'Relic from a Prior Age'

"The word patriotism is just a relic from a prior age or Saddam's toppled regime. Being a collaborator with a foreign power is accepted as the surest way to achieve strategic advantage."

By Fatih Abdulsalam

Translated By Ahmed Naoual and Nicolas Dagher

March 30, 2008

Iraq - Azzaman - Original Article (Arabic)

In Iraq, everything is relative. What the official political parties see as lawlessness, others inside and outside Iraq see as the most legitimate activity under the law, linked as they are to spiritual and humanitarian beliefs … and patriotism.

With the country ablaze and with more fire coming from ever direction, usually well-understood concepts are jumbled together and serve to further inflame. Terms in use in Iraq's political life don't have the same meaning as their equivalents in the outside world. For example here, sovereignty has a different meaning. In Iraq, the ruling parties use the term merely as a way to conceal their own failures and extend the cover-up of their misdeeds.

The word patriotism is just a relic from a prior age or Saddam's toppled regime. Being a collaborator with a foreign power is accepted as the surest way to achieve strategic advantage. Freedom means simply being able to stand in Baghdad's Liberation Square under the Memorial to the Unknown Soldier cursing and accusing all other Arab capitals of treason against the Iraqi nation for refusing to show respect to our own lame politicians - who are nothing but influence peddlers, mercenaries, thieves and charlatans who rely on F16s to maintain their power and legitimacy over the people.

Because if Arab rulers ever acknowledged our so-called leaders, they might invite the spread of the "Iraqi experience” to their own countries. They fear that if the democracy that a mere million Iraqis sacrificed their lives for ever broke out, they would lose their crowns.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

For Iraq's politicians, who have remained silent for the past five years while people, parties and factions have openly amassed both heavy and light weapons that the new Iraqi Army could only dream of … this is how one plays the democratic game. As far as Iraqi leaders are concerned, this is how one builds alliances and acts in the interests of the country, the people, the faction, the party or the sect. Recent events in Basra are merely a reflection of this WATCH .

Average Iraqis aren't permitted the right to make use of the concepts listed herein the way that politicians are. When the followers of politicians die they are considered martyrs, but when ordinary people die, they are mere casualties. When their own people are hungry, politicians consider them oppressed, but when average people are hungry they are considered a mob and they are oppressed.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

These are times where success is measured by generous kickbacks, no-bid contracts and oil pipelines with broken meters.

Muqtadr al-Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters raise weapons and chant slogans

at the al-Iraqiya TV network in Basra, Mar. 30. The building, guarded by

government soldiers, was overrun by Mehdi army fighters after clashes

with U.S. troops and Shiite Badr Brigade factions.

CLICK HERE FOR ARABIC VERSION

[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US April 5, 10:17am]