Mid East Daily

After the United States of America occupied Iraq, it allied with the leaders of the Shiite Iraqis who form the majority of the Iraqi population, to help them form government. Despite of belonging to the minority Sunni community, the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in spite of supporting a coterie of Sunni loyalists, in all honesty did not allow any kind of Sunni dominance in the country. After the 1968, Baath coup that brought Saddam Hussein to power the Sunni Iraqi Islamic party vehemently opposed the secular Baath Party. The Sunni activists were arrested by Saddam’s administration, they were tortured, killed and a large number of them fled Iraq. After Saddam’s fall both the Shia as well the Sunnis stand to gain but traditional rivalry between both the groups have produced severe civil strives between them.

In an effort to reduce violence in the country, US military allied with former Sunni insurgents who have turned against Sunni extremists led by Al-Qaeda to act as volunteers to guard troubled posts. However, the Sunni volunteer forces have become disgruntled with the US army and the Shiite administration for not keeping their promises. The members of what the US military calls the Sons of Iraq or Concerned Local Citizens are working on low salaries with late payments. Very few Sunni men are allowed to join the Iraqi army and the police. To add to their woes the US forces have not given up their battle against the Sunni fighters killing many of them. The disgruntled leaders of the Sons of Iraq have warned the USA military that they will disband soon and will stop fighting the Al-Qaeda insurgents if their demands are not met.

Situation in Iraq is definitely grim and the paradox of US occupation seems to be that it helped to reignite a religious war in the country by overthrowing a secular administration. It is hard to foresee the emergence of a secular Shiite administration that is not influenced by Shiite clerics and is ready to work with Sunni cooperation.

Source: MSNBC

The battle lines between Hamas in Gaza and Israel are being drawn. Israel had made the first move by enforcing a blockade on the Gaza strip. Later, the squeeze was tightened. But Israel was wrong if it thought that Gaza would throw out its Hamas rulers. Instead what occurred was a breakout into Egypt. Gaza got its much needed supplies and Hamas won a major public relations battle against Israel.

Lebanon is a country without a standing Parliament, and a President at the moment and yet regional players are having a go at each other making it immensely difficult for the international community to find a solution in installing a legitimate government in Beirut. Although international pressure has made Syria reduce its influence on Lebanese politics over the past few years but Damascus finds a way to influence its volatile neighbour through the Shiite militant organisation Hezbollah.

When any kind of politics fail, whether democracy, autocracy or military, the end results in the politics of humanity. This is a situation where it is a jungle rule or the rule of the might in which the power in the hand is what matters in exerting control over another. Power becomes a means to an end and this is what the present situation in Baghdad has reduced to.

Commuting from home to work and vice versa is a daily affair for all of us but a normal routine like this is becoming nightmarish for people in Baghdad. Assassinations, assaults, ambushes, kidnappings and beheadings have become a prominent feature of Baghdadi life. Even with the peace process and negotiations by the US and other countries, the normalcy of the daily life of an Iraqi seems to be turned upside down.

Today, it is not about the question of terrorists that only bothers the country, but the fear pertaining to this extends itself to the civil society also which can be seen submerging into the politics of the day. Keeping guns and other armed weapons for protection has now taken another perspective, that of for threatening and assaulting when there is a disagreement.

Nearly two million Iraqis who fled to Syria and Jordan are not willing to return to their homes. Recently the Iraqi government has arranged a bus from Damascus to Baghdad to to bring Iraqis back. But most of the people who returned to Baghdad, not because it was safer but because they didn’t had other place to move. They had no money in Syria or their visas had expired. The exiled Iraqi know it well that it’s hard to find job, build their homes and mixing in the community. To be very sure, the misery of the refugees is social and economic in nature. The Iraqis who have came back to Iraq are normally left with no permanent housing, no reliable livelihood, no community support, and no government aid.

Mohammed Salman al-Dlaimi, Sunni man had been tortured by National Guards in 2007, only because he is a Sunni. There are plenty of stories of violence, sorrow, death threats, suicide bombings and tortures against the Sunni Muslims who dared to come back in Iraq. The most tragic part of this story is that the refugees who have left Iraq now face a miserable life, as Syria and other neighboring countries are exhausted to manage them and seek to expel many of them. And for those who are seeking shelter within Iraq can face rejection from the host communities whose residents may themselves be threatened with displacement.

Via

The long running violence in Iraq has affected the civilian population most with children and women bearing the brunt of the cycle of sectarian rife. What is most concerning is the fact that innocent Iraqi children who are considered as the future generations of the Middle Eastern country live unbearable lives unimaginable in the so called ‘civilized world’. According to a grim United Nations report, millions of Iraqi children face the threats of suicide bombings, sectarian attacks, diseases, malnutrition, poor sanitation, etc. Iraq’s grim economic state does not allow an immediate relief to the poor souls.

According to health officials inside the country, the daily hardships are taking an increasing toll on the mental and physical developments of the children. Although violence has somewhat subsided over the past few months, the overall economic and security situation in the country remains in a vulnerable state. While hundreds and thousands of children do not attend school due to fear of sectarian and extremist attacks, others have been forced to live in temporary camps and shelters with inadequate basic needs and many have fled the country to neighbouring states.

Iran fears that the US will launch a sudden air strike on its nuclear facilities. In the last few days a lot of statements have emanated from Iran about longer range missiles and submarines being developed by it. These are a sort of sabre rattling by the Iranians. ‘Keep off us or we can do a lot of harm”, seems to be the message from Iranian leaders to the US.

The rocket attacks, the violent reprisals against civilians, the bombings, and the capture of soldiers could only persuade war. But, can you imagine some who works as helicopter pilot patrolling daily in Gaza and also saves the lives of Palestinian children as an Israeli pediatrician? Yes! I am talking about a pilot and a pediatrician named Yuval who has killed many Palestinians while bombing at different Palestinians occupied places but saved lives of Palestinian children as a resident doctor at a nearby civilian hospital.

Karl Marx had long ago pointed out how there is nothing called idealism. Everything runs on the cogs of money. Every struggle is between those who have money and those who don’t. At one level, Bush is in Iraq because he does not have oil. Now it has been revealed by MSNBC that al-Qaeda soldiers in Iraq are in battle not for any ideologies against the US but simply for the greatest motivator of all, cash.

Abu Nawall, a captured Osama-operative confesses to be in it all just for the money. The Americans are gushing over this fact. They are fighting for their nation whereas these Eastern barbarians are fighting for money. The US has a cause whereas al-Qaeda mercenaries have nothing, so to say. Over time, thus, this great battle will fizzle out. Nothing can be more far from the truth.

During Saddam Hussein’s reign in Iraq, Sunni community has enjoyed a lot at the political and social levels. But now the time has changed, Iraq has governed by Shiite leaders who have support of US government. In their recent move, Iraqi authorities have shut down the country’s most influential Sunni clerical group.