Hope for Iraq?

by John Thompson

December 6, 2003

For some 15 years now, I have had occasional contacts with the community of Iraqi expatriates in Canada. By and large, they are good people, better than many others who have come here to flee dictatorship and war at home — and they often combine the best of Arabic culture, the cosmopolitan nature of their homeland, and the Western-style education system that Iraq used to support.

We met again recently, at the invitation of a newly forming Canadian Iraqi Congress. Judging by the meeting, I would think that the future of Iraq looks promising. The meeting included Shi’ites, Sunnis, Kurds, and Iraqi Christians, but an enthusiastic and warm welcome was reserved for an Iraqi Jew (a tiny community now, but a truly ancient one). They were honestly pleased to see him and hoped he would attend in future.

There were some unusual and very welcome trends in the evening’s discussion. For decades, Arab leaders and demagogues have used the issue of Israel as a distraction from serious discussions about anything else in the Middle East. For example, one of the reasons why Arafat triggered the 2000 Intifada was as a distraction from troubling questions about personal corruption and mismanagement. The Iraqi community here seems adamant about refusing to let the Israeli-Palestinian issue surface as a red herring for their own issues.

The American invasion and current occupation in Iraq was criticized; but only for some aspects of their execution rather than for their existence. The community had been apprehensive about the war before it began, out of fear for their neighbors and relatives, but this fear has vanished.

There is a recognition of some critical American weaknesses — particularly that most Army units are too cautious, and a bit trigger happy when it comes to their own security. The British troops in Basra, by contrast, were highly regarded for their approach to local security and involvement in the community. One Iraqi had also seen the American Marines at work in his old home town and had observed that there was a mutual respect operating between the leathernecks and his old Shi’ia neighbors.

When American officials describe the guerrillas dogging their forces as former Saddam Militia and criminals, this was the consensus among the Iraqi expatriates. They remembered very clearly that Saddam had emptied the prisons of criminals in the days before the war began; but had also cleared out the political prisons in a more ominous manner. There are a lot more mass graves to be explored in Iraq, and the Canadian forensic experience from the Balkan wars in these matters would be welcomed.

The rapid American disbandment of the Iraqi Army was seen by some to be a mistake — as the majority of Army conscripts (as opposed to the Republican Guard) would have had no love for Saddam Hussein and his policies. The Iraqi community here is also worried about the well-being of the emerging Iraqi police and town councils, but recognize that there is little more that the US can do to help protect them, except to expedite the creation of more police and troops. It must also be said that the Iraqis here are not alone in thinking that the US might have been better prepared for the occupation.

Many of the Iraqis at the meeting had visited old friends and relatives since last May; and were stunned at what they had found. One professor had visited his former colleagues in the University at Baghdad and was stunned to find out that the advances in computer science since the early 1980s had passed them all by — professors of engineering and chemistry had no idea that e-mail even existed. Before Saddam Hussein took over, Iraq had a fairly advanced infrastructure, and one engineer was dismayed to see ankle deep sewage running through some Baghdad’s streets. The Iraqis know who is to blame for these faults, and pin that blame squarely on Saddam and his minions.

There were a couple of other items that irritated members of the Iraqi community. They have no love for the CBC and Canada’s more liberal media, primarily for letting non-Iraqi Arabs purport to speak on the Iraqis’ behalf during the war and afterwards. Moreover, a few complained that their rejoicing at the toppling of Saddam was also not seen as newsworthy.

These Iraqi Canadians have high hopes for the future of Iraq, and are prepared to lend a lot of help themselves; but they would like to see Canada pitch in where possible. And so we should.

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: mackenzieinstitute@bellnet.ca