Iraq Press Roundup

The Association of Muslim Scholars' Al Baser newspaper said in an editorial Friday that the conflict in Iraq pitted the occupation against the Iraqi resistance.

The editorial, titled "Iraq is lost among the occupier, its agents, the players and propagandists," said U.S. studies, research and statements allow us to understand how greed is affecting Iraq.

"The occupation forces continue to divide Iraq through settling the concepts of federations and setting up a state of incomplete sovereignty, weak central government with an ethnic and sectarian basis," the paper said.

It said U.S.-led operations, in which it is helped by neighboring, regional and international countries, ensures U.S. goals.

The Saudi-based newspaper called the Iraqi government a "toy" government that is broken and lacks political independence and sovereignty.

"The Iraqi government's sovereignty on the ground is absent where armed chaos is a way of either life or death," it said.

It said the U.S. goal was to dominate the oil in Iraq as it is the key to the oil in the Gulf, as well as to continue the domination of the military-industrial complex.

The paper said the United States also wanted to dominate the region by reform through ideological, economical, political and social means as a way to achieve U.S. interests. It said these goals include guaranteeing a stable Israel and activating its role as a strategic "player."

"One of the most important U.S. goals is to establish a big military base that would float on a sea of oil that will enable the U.S. to control oil," it said.

The paper also said the U.S. occupation was carried out in stages: The first stage was shock and awe, which resulted in Iraq's institutions and society being destroyed. The second stage, the paper said, was setting up a broken and false government; the third stage, it said, was to create a civil war; and the fourth stage is the "national project," which gathers Iraqi forces inside and outside Iraq to establish a weak and fragile federal government.

"The occupier's cooperative agenda with the outside forces is represented by the existence of Israel as a strategic player and part of the American-British military ring," it said.

It said the other outside force is Turkey, coordinating with the U.S. administration to perform its projects in Iraq.

"The third outside forces are Saudi, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain, the Emirates, Qatar and the European Union, and others," it said.

The paper said U.S. policy lacks logic and relies on political illusions and ideologies that don't exist on the ground.

"The U.S. strategy failed in bringing the Iraqi resistance into a political compromise," it said.

The U.S. failure, the paper said, strengthened the Iraqi resistance.

The paper said the political solution would still be important to the United States as there is a need to guarantee a secure path for it to leave Iraq through Basra to Kuwait. It also said the war in the Middle East is against an unknown enemy.

The paper said the other U.S. concern was that Israel would be harmed if the chaos in the region continued.