Iraq Press Roundup

The Baghdad-based Al Mada newspaper carried an editorial Tuesday with the headline: "The U.S. occupation and dealing with sectarianism."

"Every logical study of the state of Iraq's future and its political system is conditional upon the occupation and its effects on the 'national and social competition' that would help build the state and develop its democratic system," it said.

The paper listed the "social base" that has the goal of ensuring the Iraqi leadership fails: social classes that supported the dictatorship; the sectarian and tribal tendencies of the middle class; a bureaucratic system loyal to tribal power; and security-intelligence systems that defend dictatorship.

"Ending the state of dictatorship and its bureaucratic institutions has created a security and social gap that the opposition can't fill because of an absence of a united national democratic agenda," it said.

The editorial said the absence of a national democratic program has created chaos leading to "the birth" of many social powers and random political movements though the United States has tried to help build "a new basis of authority" and tried to frame the political process away from the "complicated format" of the Iraqi society.

It said the result of the political process was that Iraqi political movements and powers focused on two goals: building the Iraqi state and challenging the occupiers by monopolizing power and re-establishing tyranny.

The paper also said the U.S. administration's policy of using military force helped to transfer the Iraqi disputes to the rest of the region, leading to spats.

"The U.S. turning Iraq into a main base to solve the international and regional disputes is the main reason of the tangled disputes between Iraq and the regional countries," it said.

The editorial said the U.S. forces' failure to achieve their strategic goals made them consider a new policy based on rebuilding a "sectarian balance."

The paper discussed the cases entangled with U.S. policy that affect the situation in Iraq.

"The U.S. administration tries to diminish Iran's nuclear power because it might affect U.S. strategic interests; it intends to build permanent military bases in Iraq and Lebanon for strategic goals that allow the U.S. to keep its domination on oil sources; it tries to take part in internal disputes as it supports the Lebanese social powers to lessen the opposition attempts trying to change the sectarian basis; in addition it tries to strike an internal balance among Iraq's social components to guarantee the call to divide Iraq," the paper said.

It said the fact the United States is arming tribesmen is against the power of electoral legitimacy and will affect negatively the building of an Iraqi state.

"The U.S. has succeeded in shredding the social powers that carried out the national democratic project by spreading this power to tribal and sectarian components, which will lead to the destruction of Iraq," it said.