Describing the division and anarchy in Iraq, publications were pessimistic to an extreme, writes Doaa El-Bey The latest series of explosions and the spiralling violence have prompted many writers to describe Iraq as a hopeless case. They agree that building a wall around the Azamiya district in Baghdad would further exacerbate the situation rather than ease the tension. When it became clear that the killing and slaughtering would become a daily affair in Iraq, the US came up with the idea of building a wall around Azamiya to protect its Sunni inhabitants from Shia attacks. But the wall, according to Zoheir Kusaibati, turns the civilian population into hostages, existing as they are in one huge prison cell. It also creates an example of how to divide the capital into ghettos, thus paving the way for dividing the whole of Iraq in the same way. "The separation wall is an Israeli commodity imported by the US to Baghdad. Israel invented the wall to protect itself from what it called Palestinian terrorism. Now, US President George Bush claims that the Azamiya wall will protect the Sunnis from the Shia or the Shia from the Sunnis," Kusaibati wrote in the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat. Kusaibati expressed hope that the Azamiya shock would incite Arab leaders to stand up against the extremist scenarios being drawn up to segment Iraq. However, he did not pin any hope on change at the present time. Eighteen years after the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, Kusaibati said Middle East history was going in the wrong direction in which more than one wall is being erected either in the name of sects, ethnic groups or extremism. And they all aim to change the map of the Middle East. Mazen Hammad wrote that Iraq has already submerged into a dark tunnel, and that no one can tell whether it will ever safely re-emerge. However, Hammad added that the recent political and security developments could open a window of opportunity for a breakthrough. He named as an example the clearest and strictest warning the US has yet to issue to the present Iraqi government, indeed it is an ultimatum, to work towards national reconciliation. Although Iraqi Prime Minster Nuri Al-Maliki did not officially declare that he would abide by the ultimatum, his office stated that it would take some steps towards reconciliation this year. Hammad said he did not regard Baghdad's pledge to Washington as being enough in the wake of the Iraqi parliament becoming so powerful it could prevent Al-Maliki from meeting his commitment to the US administration. This is true especially after members loyal to Al-Sadr withdrew from parliament coupled with a threat by Kurdish MPs to move out as well if the future of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk is not seriously discussed. Hammad expressed fear that the Azamiya wall would turn into a symbol of sectarian or ethnic division rather than a means to ease the tension between Sunnis and Shia. "The state of mutual vendetta that was created between the Shias and Sunnis throughout the last four years is difficult to contain even by building 'the Great Wall of Azamiya' as some people satirically call it," Hammad wrote in the Jordanian daily Al-Dostour. The situation in Iraq, according to Uqail Al-Azraqi, is very grim as it is actually heading towards an abyss. The Iraqi opposition does not target foreign troops any longer. Instead it aims for the innocent Iraqi citizen whom it sometimes describes as an atheist and at other times an agent. "Iraq has become an arena for terrorist groups and neighbouring states to settle their differences on its territory. Although it hosts the strongest foreign troops and the fiercest opposition, they fail to protect anybody, not even schoolchildren," Al-Azraqi wrote in the Iraqi daily Al-Sabah. At a time when many voices call for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq, Al-Azraqi questioned who would protect Iraq if they do. He disagreed with those who claim that peace and security would reign after any troop pullout, arguing that innocent Iraqis would be in a catastrophic situation since Al-Qaeda and other militant groups would be in charge of security in Iraq. That would necessarily mean that to ensure his security, the last Iraqi citizen would leave Iraq with the last US soldier. Fouad Dabbour wrote in Al-Dostour that the war in Iraq had thrown the region into a whirlpool of instability and had left the US in a huge dilemma. In his analysis of the situation in Iraq since the 2003 American invasion, he said the war had subjected the region and the world to immense political, economic and security dangers. Dabbour said the only realistic way out of the current crisis in Iraq was to pull out all foreign troops after which the Iraqis would work to achieve national reconciliation away from any and all external influences. In other words, he said, the Iraqi people should build their state on the basis of citizenship, the unity of the land and people, in addition to setting up the institutions of an independent sovereign state that has the power to control its wealth and invest it in the interest of its people while uprooting all forms of corruption. "People who defend their land, independence, rights and freedom always achieve victory, as history shows," Dabbour wrote. "The resistance and only the resistance can draw the political map of the region."
