Iraq Press Roundup

The conspiracy theory is a concept that has been argued over in the politics and ideologies of Middle Eastern countries for more than 50 years.

Countries around the Arab world build their analyses and treat realities on the conspiracy theory that "outsiders" have "cooked" in the kitchen of the imperialists and the Zionists, the Kurdish al-Ittihad newspaper of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party said Wednesday.

The Arabs in the West and the conspiracy theory

Arab thinkers and analysts refuse to relate Arab people or their governments to what had and what is occurring in the region. Instead, they accuse the foreign powers of conspiring against them.

The will of the Arabs is not absent in what is happening. Democracy and human rights are being taken away and the economy and development have collapsed, while Arabs stood still and blamed Western powers.

Arab thinkers escalate and encourage anger against imperialism rather than use logic, learn from local and regional factors or use examples from the experience of non-Western countries such as Japan, China and other Asian countries.

The Arab governments would serve better by fighting the West with knowledge, technology and successful management. Arab analysts who are against democracy focus on globalization as one of the faces of U.S. imperialism.

Many blame foreign powers for the backwardness of their countries instead of fixing their own weaknesses, changing the reasons for their incompetent governments or trying to find ways to strengthen those systems.

Many intellectuals and analysts accuse the West of carrying out conspiracies against Arabs simply because they oppose the West. The Iraq-Iran War and the invasion of Kuwait by the regime of Saddam Hussein in 1990 were both justified as conspiracies established by the West against Iraq.

The postponed provincial elections are still discussed in the streets of Iraq. Most parties and individuals express their disappointment over the failure to carry them out.

The provincial elections will be held at the beginning of next year. Whether there is disapproval or an unwillingness to participate, they will be carried out as a constitutional right and as one of the tools to achieve democracy, al-Bayyna of the Iraqi Hezbollah party said Wednesday.

The three options

Refusing to participate in the provincial elections because of either the encouragement of some political parties or because of the incompetence of the current provincial councils is not a solution. Refusal to take part in the elections could result in putting people who are dishonest and incompetent in power.

Refusing to vote in the elections could have a negative impact on the interests of the people. It deserves mention that the current provincial council has achieved little improvement in many provinces, so it is important to participate in voting for new representatives.

The coming elections are the path toward change. The coming elections portray three options.

First, appointing the right people in the right place to achieve the ambitions of the people is an ideal situation but hard to obtain under the current circumstances.

Second, electing figures who could perform in a way that brings some of the simple dreams of the people to reality, which is something all Iraqis want.

And third, electing incompetent figures who will take control of the provinces and their wealth, which nobody wants but will take place if people refuse to participate in the coming provincial elections.

The long-term strategic agreement between the United States and Iraq is a major topic of concern not only in the United States and Iraq, but also in many other states and countries that fear the results and implications of the "agreement."

Out of the 25 articles that form the agreement, several points are being argued over between the two parties. There is no point in discussing the disputed points in the public forum, since very few steps can be taken anyhow. People, however, must be aware of the provisions that are already in the agreement, the London-based Azzaman daily newspaper said.

The Iraqi-U.S. agreement

Both parties have their own interests in the agreement that allows the United States to keep several permanent military bases in Iraq. The United States didn't invade Iraq and remove the dictatorship for the sake of the Iraqi people, it called for democratization of Iraq for its own benefit, the newspaper said.

After demolishing the Soviet Union and with the appearance of terrorism, the call for democracy has become a strategic priority in U.S. national security, yet the United States still supports governments that violate human rights and oppress their people.

Invading Iraq in 2003 and pursuing its interests, the United States has removed dictatorship but also destroyed an entire state system.

U.S. interests are represented by long-term projects in Iraq, the oil and the goal to dominate Iraq's neighboring countries, especially Iran and countries that deal with states like Russia and China.

All of the above reasons encourage the United States to change the occupation of Iraq to a long-term agreement to organize and control their interests in a more direct way.