Many cast doubts that the lung through which Tunisia breathed freedom could give birth to kindred lungs in Arab lands to the east or west. Even after Egypt shook the earth to dethrone its last Pharaoh, doubts were cast again as to the mobility of the phenomenon. Then came Libya, which is on the verge of casting away its dangerously delusional and brutal despot. Tunisia is everywhere. The spirit of the mythical bird, al-Bouazizi, hovers, together with those of other martyrs, in every Arab sky, from Bahrain to Morocco and from Oman to Amman.
They said that the flood would not reach Iraq. Its complex history and disastrous past and present kept it at a significant distance from what took place in Tunisia and Egypt. After all, its people were saddled with the effects of decades of tyranny, three wars and a mercurial occupation that has yet to end. Moreover, most of its middle class had fled to exile and its social fabric was severely torn by sectarian violence and terrorism. There were no potent social forces to engender and sustain a revolt. It would be impossible for Iraq’s youth, the primary engine of these Arab revolts, to agree on any issue beyond and outside the narrow framework and new fragmented identities produced in the last decade. Iraq was thought to be outside the equation.
But like their peers elsewhere in the Arab world, Iraq’s youth proved that the old maps and prisms were, simply put, old and inaccurate. The youth were determined to formulate a new equation for Iraq. They proved to be far more courageous and creative than a political regime (hailing from a previous generation) that has destroyed Iraq and failed to deliver the minimum. A regime which has spent eight years distinguishing itself in record-breaking corruption and inefficiency. The regime and its allies thought they could extend the post-2003 sectarian game forever.
Inspired by Tunisia and Egypt, Iraqi youth initiated calls to organize peaceful protests on the 25th of February in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square and all over Iraq. A number of pages sprouted on Facebook with various names (The Great Iraqi Revolution, The Iraqi Uprising, The Uprising of Anger, to name just a few). Within days, tens of thousands of Iraqis, mostly youth, but of all generations and backgrounds, joined. These pages coordinated and shared information and were crowded with zealous comments and genuine support for action. The intensity and tenor of the comments reflected the massive anger, determination and thirst for a new Iraq. These movements and initiatives vary in the extent of their demands and their political horizons, from reform and an end to corruption, to toppling the regime and writing a new constitution. However, there is a consensus on transcending sectarianism, shunning partisan politics and rallying around a unified Iraqi identity. The organizers and admins were keen on steering the discourse away from distractions and were vigilant. The Iraqi people was being constituted again.
In a familiar scenario, the regime used the same tactics deployed by other confused Arab regimes. Cuts in the politician’s astronomical salaries were announced and there were promises to study citizens’ demands and improve services. These belated gestures and hollow promises were coupled with typical scare tactics. The regime’s media outlets began to demonize the demonstrations by suggesting that Ba`thists and other anti-Iraqi elements were involved and would exploit the protests for their own ends. Al-Maliki delivered a televised speech the day before the planned protests asking people to stay home. Notwithstanding a few dissident Shi`i clerics who came out in full support of the protests, not unlike Egypt during its revolution, the religious establishment (Shi`i, Sunni and Christian) advised citizens not to protest. Despite the regime’s efforts to abort the protests by banning vehicles from approaching al-Tahrir Sq the day before to prevent protesters from arriving and the media from covering the event and despite blocking masses from Baghdad’s suburbs and outskirts from reaching its heart, thousands made their way. And not only in Baghdad, but throughout Iraq, including its major cities, Mosul, and Basra, where the protesters forced the governor to resign. Even Iraqi Kurdistan, which is usually hailed by mainstream western media as a success story, there were protests against the corruption of the ruling parties.
Just as the organizers had planned and stressed, there were no sectarian or partisan slogans, nor any images of any politician. The political referent was Iraq. “Iraq is our guide” read one sign in Nasiriyya. The only Ba`thists were in the regime’s imagination, and those among its own ranks who reinvented themselves after 2003. The regime, which failed in protecting Iraqis from the lethal violence visited on them for years, responded with its own violence. Almost thirty civilians were killed throughout Iraq. Some of the journalist and writers who participated in the Baghdad protests were assaulted a few hours later and detained for a few hours inside the Green Zone. Al-Maliki thanked his security forces for a job well done. All of this angered the protesters even more and they declared that the protests will continue and that this Friday, the 4th of March, would be the Friday of Dignity. Protests continued throughout Iraq and many cities enforced curfews in attempts to control the situation.
It is impossible to predict what course events will take, but it is obvious that Iraq is not outside the equation. Its angry youth yearn for a life of dignity and want a new Iraq and a new political system that isn’t governed by a class of professional thieves (the latest scandal is the disappearance of $40 billion from the treasury). Many will doubt that a revolt like that of Tunisia and Egypt is possible in Iraq for many reasons. Nevertheless, those of us who stood against the war and the occupation back in 2003 had warned that a sectarian regime midwifed by military occupation and a constitution written by an American orientalist could only bring catastrophes to Iraq and its people. It is worth repeating today that a regime of thieves with fake diplomas and dubious careers and contractors for sectarian and foreign powers cannot go on fooling the people forever. The brutality of Saddam’s reign, together with wars, genocidal sanctions, and sectarian violence have burdened Iraqis with trauma. However, a new generation is rising now to carry Iraq on its shoulders and arms.
It was natural for Iraqis to make Baghdad’s al-Tahrir Square the focal point of their protests. It is home to the country’s most beautiful monument, the Liberty Monument, made by Jawad Salim (1920-1961) to celebrate the struggle of the Iraqi people culminating in the July 14 revolution of 1958, which ended the monarchy and the presence of its British sponsors. Whatever criticism is lodged against the then nascent republican regime, no one can deny its achievements in augmenting secularism and legislating and implementing laws supporting social justice and equality. Abd al-Karim Qasim (1914-1963), who had commissioned the Liberty Monument, was assassinated in the Ba`this coup of 1963. Saddam’s regime tried to marginalize al-Tahrir square by commissioning new monuments and building a parade ground to house the infamous Victory Arch. The parade ground became the new center of Baghdad and the focal point of regime-choreographed protests, always in support of the Leader. Being home to two of Baghdad’s biggest hotels where foreign journalists were stationed and where Saddam’s statue was toppled by Marines in a camera-ready moment in 2003, al-Firdaws Square had its share for a few months. Since then, the Green Zone came to symbolize the center of the new American-authored political system. Today, for most Iraqis, it represents the gigantic black hole of the country’s wealth and its future, where one of the most corrupt political elites in the world resides. Across the river in al-Rusafa, Iraqis will stand again today under the Liberty Monument, which crystallizes and narrates a more inclusive and representative narrative of Iraq’s history, its culture and the struggle against tyranny, foreign and homegrown. A struggle for universal values: Liberty, justice, and dignity.
It is the moment of truth and the beginning of the end of the occupation, its political regime and sectarian nightmares.
Good Morning Iraq!
* A slightly different version of this article appeared in Arabic in al-Akhbar, 4 March, 2011.