IRAQ'S UNCERTAIN FUTURE: WHERE HAS ALL THE PRESS COVERAGE GONE?

 

The press has packed their bags and moved on. No one, it seems, reports much from Iraq these days. If they do, it is usually in small paragraphs, detailing the latest car bomb or massacre. 

This week, however, the terrorists have upped the ante.  In just a few days, there were 15 car bombs, with dozens of victims. 

Since the beginning of Ramadan, there has been an intensifying of the violent activity.  And yet, there are no programs, little coverage, no documentaries.

The truth is, no one wants to talk about the fact that Iraq, after being invaded with little more than a lie, has been left to its own devise.  No one wants to deal with the shame that Iraq's destiny has become.  The west has failed Iraq, in almost every way.

As a billion dollar American Embassy in Baghdad is slowly becoming emptier of people and things, there is a feeling that Iraq has become the 'unnamable', the problem that everyone wishes would go away. 

The violence is widespread. It is not just in the larger cities, it's in all the cities. Most of the attacks are against Shiites.  If there was any doubt as to who is causing the violence and why, the sectarian nature of the acts speaks for itself. 

Iraq, in fact, is in the throes of an explosive wave of violence, which it seems impotent to quell.  There are checkpoints all over Baghdad, with long lines, to no avail. The breakout of hundreds of Al Qaeda terrorists from Abu Ghraib just last week is another symptom of a general malaise, in which the Iraqi forces seem to be unable to contain even those who have been relegated to prison cells.

All this does not bode well.  Where are the International Agencies, the U.N., the peacekeepers in general?

The U.N. is keeping tally, but seemingly little else. In fact, it recorded the killing of 44 civilians and more security forces in April in what was a crackdown on Sunni protest camps in the town of Hawija.  

The truth is that no one seems to be able to help Iraq from falling into sectarian violence.  The more time passes, the less the feeble fabric of postwar Iraq seems to be holding up.  To add to sectarian tensions,  issues that divide Arabs and Kurds are now adding more fuel to the fire.  

Two years after the U.S. has left the country, peace and normalcy have all but evaporated from reality and everyone's hope. As the world looks away, what path will Iraq follow?

Op-Ed

Source : ABC news/ 7.29.13