That is the question I was most asked since I’ve been here in the U.S.: what should be done?

I’ve been thinking about an answer for such a question for more than a year now. Since May 2005, when Ibrahim al-Jafari, leader of the Dawa party, was seated as the first “elected” Prime Minister in Iraq after the invasion in 2003. If you go back to the archives, you will find that it is then when the civil war started in Iraq.

Jafari permitted the criminal militias in Iraq to merge into the security forces, mainly to disguise in Iraqi police uniforms. Without going into his intentions or who was behind convincing or forcing him to issue it, the decision was the turnaround in Iraq’s future.

What should be done now?

Well, first lets see what is going on now: More than a 100 Iraqis get killed everyday. The cause of their death mainly is a direct shot in the head or the chest. Hundreds of Iraqis are being kidnapped weekly; men in black and men in police uniforms break into houses and arrest people. No one knows who they are. They just take their victims and disappear. The police or Iraqi army stand just a few blocks away from the kidnapping scene, either to point out the houses they “unknown” attackers should break into, or to basically do nothing but watch the whole play.

Also, Iraq lacks the basic needs of normal life: More than 600,000 Iraqis have died since 2003,most of whom were killed by violent actions; in more than half of the country there is no electricity, no water, no medicines in hospitals and clinics, no educational system; professors left Iraq; the youth fled and are fleeing the country fearing for their life; parents don’t send their children to schools fearing kidnappings and retaliatory killings; Iraqis wait for each other to make a mistake to have an excuse to kill each other; they started to hate each other and cant even accept living with each other; more than 9000 Iraqis have been displaced weekly since February, when a revered Shiite mosque was bombed down in Samarra north of Baghdad; people are in house-arrest because if they left their houses they could be killed; more than 1.5 million Iraqis are sheltering in neighboring countries plus 4 million already left during the 1990s; Iraq now is a three-province Kurdish semi-state, four-province Sunni semi-state, and a nine-province Shiite semi-state and a sectarian-ravaged Baghdad; no reconstruction is going in Iraq now whatsoever [except for Kurdistan, which is reconstructing since 1991!]; a five-year-old now knows if he/she is a Sunni or a Shiite, a Kurd or Arab and a Muslim or a Christian and knows that if they are one, they should hate all the others; the U.S. forces and Iraqi government always announced arresting “terrorists” but what happened to those who were arrested afterwards? No one knows. Any justice applied? I have no idea!

The government is doing nothing but fuel the violence!

We have given the Iraqi politicians more than enough time to resolve the problem, if they wanted to, but they’ve failed. And the current politicians leading the government will always fail. We have given each political groups enough power to Vito and decision made by others, which has made it impossible for any decision to be made AT ALL. Sine this government was seated earlier this year, have you ever heard of an Iraqi government’s decision that was made and the Iraqis actually benefited from? How could they decide if the Shiites Vito any Sunni proposal and vise versa? How could they when the Kurds cannot accept any Arab decision? We have given everyone enough power to destroy the country, and actually not allowing any repairs to be made. All this came under the umbrella of “Democracy.”

The Iraqis have been asking the government to rid the country off the militias that are killing Iraqis everywhere. Just when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tiptoed in that way and actually started to press the militias to stop the killings, under the U.S. pressure that he would be replaced if not, Bush calls Maliki and tells him that the U.S. has no deadline for quelling the violence!!!! The next day, Maliki had a press conference in which he announced that he would slow down on pressing militias to stop killing and might deal with the issue “end of this year or early next year.” Also, he postponed to “further notice” the meeting of Iraq prominent figures, tribal leaders, politicians, religious leaders and other people who were supposed to sit down and have a treaty to prevent and Iraqi bloodshed to show the Iraqis a model they should follow.

With all of this happening, I still hear people stupidly calling Ahmed Chalabi a “thief” and Iyad Allawi a “Baathist.” Now, all the Iraqi politicians were breastfed by angels, but those two?

Now, what should be done?

The answer is:

TAKE Abdul Aziz al-Hakim [leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic revolution in Iraq], his son, Ammar, Hadi al-Amiri [leader of Badr troops], Muqtada al-Sadr[you know him], Ibrahim al-Jafari [leader of Dawa party] Nouri al-Maliki [PM], Muwaffaq al-Rubaie [he hold the title National security Advisor, but in fact he is no one] Masoud Barzani[leader of the Kurdish Kurdistan Democratic Party], Harith al-Dhari [leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, a Sunni group that has very suspicious links to the insurgents], his son, Muthanna Harith al-Dhari, Khalaf al-Elayan[leader of the National Dialogue Council, a Sunni group], Adnan al-Dulaimi [leader of the Iraqi Accordance Front, the biggest Sunni group in the parliament] and put them all in house arrest for further notice.

Those people I mentioned above are the reason why Iraq is the way it is now. They are the reason why the civil war started in Iraq. They are the ones that should be tried with Saddam Hussein for crimes against the Iraqis!

THEN, very carefully select ONE man to be the leader of Iraq for one year ONLY. And very carefully select the elite of the Iraqi educated people to head the ministries during that year. With no mention of sectarian backgrounds at all.

THEN, announce that this is the new government, like it or not! Because that is the way Iraqis understand for now.

THEN, sit with Iraq’s tribal leaders. Iraq is a tribal community. Everyone undermined this fact for a long time. All tribal leaders should sit on one table with the government and be told that “here is the money you are after. Take it and protect your areas against violence. Any violence.” Iraq will be stabilized when its tribal leaders were given enough money [because they are greedy] and if they were convinced that they are important and have a big role to play!

THEN, bring those “terrorists” who wee arrested in the past three years and execute them publicly in al-Tahreer square in central Baghdad. This way, Iraqis will see that fate of those who dare to insult the Iraqi blood and dare to kill and commit crimes of Iraq’s soil.

THEN, start reconstructing the country, first thing should be infrastructure, something that Iraqis could see and feel the progress with.

THEN, which is a year later; remember those we put in house arrest? Execute them in public. They are responsible for more than 600,000 Iraqi deaths. At least let the Iraqis witness justice in some of the country’s leaders, who spent decades planning its destruction.

THEN, tell the Iraqis that there will be elections to choose a new government. I bet they will choose the same government that led them through the last year!

Feeh!

One of Iraq’s former ministers was sentenced to two years in prison after he was tried for corruption while on duty.

Ayham al-Samarraie, the minister of electricity in Iyad Allawi’s cabinet, was convicted yesterday in an Iraqi court and by an Iraqi judge. Just before he was taken to prison, American soldiers broke into the courtroom, took Samarraie and left. No one knows where he is now.

It turned out that Samarraie has dual Iraqi-American citizenship.

I have been thinking about writing an entry about the judicial system in Iraq for awhile now. We always heard Iraqi officials calling for an “independent judicial system” that should not be affected by the government or political parties. But I never heard any sentence issued by this “justice” system in Iraq.

Since the war, thousands of insurgents have been captured, or so the U.S. and Iraqi officials claimed. What happened to those insurgents afterwards? No one knows.

Dozens of Iraqi officials were accused of corruption. Dozens of arrest warrants were issued against officials, who the government said had documented evidences that they stole the “Iraqis money.” No one of them was arrested, until Samarraie’s case came to my surprise.

American officials, including Bush and Condi, have complained about corruption in Iraq and how it is considered one of the main problems that stands in the way to a “new, democratic and free Iraq.” in fact, the U.S. administration went far at one point to announce Iraq and its government as one of the most corrupt in the world. They encouraged the Iraqis to deal with the problem and bring “justice” to its people. But it depends, apparently, on who the accused is!

Samarraie told reporters that the case against him was related to “one power generator” that was bought “for less than the real price” in the market under his supervision and installed in Amara, a city some 230 miles south of Baghdad. Officials accused Samarraie of spending money on less important things “while the country suffered other major problems.”

For once since the invasion I felt relieved. Finally, the Iraqi government started to mention and mind the real problems ravaging my country. Here they start, although there are dozens of officials who committed even bigger corruption crimes and still free, it’s a good start.

Another minister, who is accused of stealing some million dollars, is the former minister of Defense Hazim al-Shaalan_ also in Allawi’s cabinet. He has a British citizenship, I believe, and is living in a huge mansion in the capital of Jordan, Amman. Arrest warrants were issued against him, but what the hell. He is British.

What the Americans did when they took Samarraie from the courtroom yesterday showed nothing but how double standard the American administration is. It is a shame. They’ve been calling for “democracy and justice” in Iraq and they kill the very essence of that.

How would Iraqis feel now when the “savior” does such a foolish action?

Why would Samarraie be free after stealing the Iraqis’ money? Because he is an American? Bullshit.

So, the Americans are allowed to steal our money and we should be silent? When the Iraqis do the same, they should be punished in the name of “democracy and justice?”

I don’t understand how would the Americans justify what they’ve done. It is so racist, discrimination-based action that made me sick. Shame on you Bush. You make me feel sick. Just imagining how the soldiers entered a holy place like a courtroom with total disrespect to the judges and the audience, barked at whoever was there, took the defendant and left with no explanation. That is sick.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed since the invasion and I am among those who always said “it’s totally worth it.” Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed and millions others are suffering every moment of their life now just to see this scene of “justice and freedom of the people” when a minister is accused, tried and sentenced to prison for disrespecting Iraq and stealing its money. The Americans killed that moment of the Iraqis’ victor against all those who opposed the war on Iraq and against all those who are trying to make Iraq look like a total failure.

The Iraqis had a chance to change the taste of bitterness with some achievement. I consider Samarraie’s _ although I admire him very much because he is one of the most outspoken officials in Iraq and had very good ideas to help quell the violence _ as the first positive result of post-war Iraq. Justice. But they’ve ruined it.

No wonder why the civilian contractors, who are storming Iraqi streets killing and injuring Iraqis, don’t care. They have American and British citizenships.

If you came and did not bring peace_ instead brought terrorists to the country, did not find WMDs_ instead you concluded that saddam Hussein had notning to do with 9/11 attacks and was enemies with Usama Bin Laden, did not bring prosperity_ instead brought unemployment, did not bring construction_ instead brought cement and sand barriers and blocked 80% of the streets in Baghdad, did not bring Justice_ instead you encouraged your people and others to insult, kill, humiliate and shit allover the place, WHAT DID SADDAM HUSSEIN DO WRONG? And why are the Iraqis suffering and will suffer for decades because of you mistakes? How can I convince people and the next generations that we lost hundreds of thousands of Iraqis for a noble reason?

It’s been months, if not years, since the American and Iraqi forces started their campaign to hunt down the militias in Iraq. we have been hearing about raids in Sadr city to arrest Sadr militia members, allegedly responsible for killings and assassinations around the country. we also heard about clashes between the Iraqi forces and the Mehdi army, the official name of the Sadr militias, in different cities like Diwaniya, Najaf, Hilla, Basra and Nasiriya.

Today, we hear that American and Iraqi forces killed, again, 30 militiamen in Diwaniya, a Shiite city some 120 miles south of Baghdad. A “high value” target was captured in the bloodbath, the U.S. military happily announced.

A few weeks ago there was another bloodbath in Diwaniya. Iraqi forces clashed with members of the Mehdi army and people were killed from both sides.

I worked in the news field when I was in Baghdad and I always mentioned to colleagues how quick and organized the shift from Sunni insurgents to the Shiite Mehdi army in the news and feature stories. I noticed that suddenly, as if the green light was given by someone, newspapers started to follow the Mehdi army. In almost any news story written over the last year, you will find the Mehdi army blamed or at least mentioned in suspicion of the possibility for involvement in killing Iraqis. Amazing. Even when storied talked about something entirely far from where the Mehdi army operates, the story would say something like: on the other hand, the Mehdi army, a Shiite militia linked t firebrand anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, operates death squads just across the river. OR SOMETIMES SOMETNING MORE FUNNY.

Do you know how many militias operate in Iraq now? How many groups are killing Iraqis now? I don’t know, and the Americans in Iraq don’t know as long as those militias are not involved in killing Americans. They know exactly how many insurgents groups in Iraq, because those attack American soldiers. But when it comes to militias, they are amazingly blind!

Ok, I know there is the Badr troops, which is the military wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI. And there is the Iraqi Islamic Party militias, which I don’t know any official names for them. There is the neighborhoods armed groups who are taking revenge of each other in turn_ those are Sunni groups and Shiite groups. And there is the Mehdi army.

Now, PM Nouri Kamil al-Maliki [and I don’t know why the NY Times insist to wrongly spell his middle name as Kamal, which is a totally different name] announced his campaign to disarm the militias the same day he was seated, and a week after and then a week after and then a month after and the month after. He always said that the government is working to “solve the problem of militias.” He is still saying that! And every time he says that, there is an attack on the Mehdi army offices somewhere in Iraq.

Badr troops are more dangerous than Mehdi army. The Mehdi army members are thugs and uneducated, hungry and unemployed young men from Sadr city. While the Badr troops members are organized, numbered, Iranian-raised and educated young monsters, who are trained to kill, ONLY. And they are playing the biggest role in the sectarian and civil war Iraq nowadays.

Why isn’t the “smart” Americans paying attention to Badr troops? Why every raid should target the Mehdi army and never Badr troops offices? What? Badr criminals can operate and kill my people and the Mehdi army can’t? Why?

I cant tell you why: because if Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of SCIRI and Badr troops, is pissed off, that means Iran will be angry. And when Iran is angry, that’s not good. It is because if the Badr troops people are asked to take off Baghdad, they will. And the Americans cannot risk that.

American and Iraqi officials and military commanders know very well that Muqtada al-Sadr has no support from Iran anymore. He used to, but not anymore. He only has people, who support him when what he says fits what they want, or when they are hungry and have no jobs. They only take to the streets and get it out of their system. They know that the only side they can blame the civil war—going in Iraq for more than a year now—is Muqtada al-Sadr, because he is not a threat. Otherwise, why only Sadr? Is he the only one killing Iraqis now? Where is Badr troops thousands and thousands of armed thugs? Where are they?

Iraq is done. Next please!