Editorial: The Iraqi people

By the end of 2011, western media had largely withdrawn from Iraq.

No one forced them to.

They can't even claim that costs forced them too because they've spent a fortune on covering and miscovering Syria.  Or advocating for war on Syria.  That was, after all, the point of Christiane Amanpour's on air September 12th meltdown on AC360 Later (CNN).


She exploded at the panel, shouting for war on Syria, insisting, ""There is no moral equivalence! [. . .] The president of the United States and the most moral country in the world based on the most moral principles in the world, at least that's the fundamental principle that the United States rests on, cannot allow this to go unchecked, cannot allow this to go unchecked."



 When Andrew Sullivan, of all people, observed, "This is not reason, this is emotion," Amanpour snapped back, "It's not emotion! This is history coming out!" Through Saturday, 698 violent deaths so far this month according to Iraq Body Count?

The war did not end.

And in all this time, the western press still can't find Iraqi people.  



They're in Iraq right now but, though they can quote Nouri and his minions, they can't quote the Iraq people or report on the ongoing protests.






That's Samarra on Friday  -- Iraqi Spring MC posted the video here.  December 21, 2012, a wave of protests kicked off in Iraq and they continued today. Protests also took place Friday in Amiriya, Rawa, Falluja,  Tikrit, Baiji, and Baquba.  They just, apparently, were invisible to the western press.


And when Iraqis come to the US, they're invisible as well.




MP Nada al-Juburi: It is very important when we talk about violence and sectarianism and corruption, I think there is a relationship between the three.  And these three topics came together in Iraq and effected the work of these institutions. I'm not here pointing at one certain institution but all the institutions.  At the end of the day, the citizen is not satisfied generally speaking.  And this is a very important issue especially at this stage.  And what is going on right now, during the two terms of Parliament and the political blocs that are inside the Parliament played many roles and played important roles.  I think there are two terms of the Parliament are considered to be very important to the history of Iraq when we talk about democracy because it established and worked in a very difficult time, there is no doubt about it.  But, on the other hand, when we look into the political divisions and differences impeded the stability.  And some of the political elements, I say a few, they might have a direct link to the violence.  Bu they are not representing a huge sector.  But when you look into the discourse that sometimes comes out that could also lead to violence in the street.  So I say it is very important the quality of the political discourse.  The message inside the political discourse will direct the street to a certain direction.  And also the terrorists will exploit these occasions when there is inflamatory political speech, these terrorists will exploit the chance to conduct terrorist actions everywhere and it increases.  When we talk in Mosul but in Mosul suffering a lot oof killing of people and journalists.  So when we look into 2012 it was a tragedy compared to any place in the world. So, again, the political blocs will play an indirect role to increase the violence through its political discourse.  So if we have a rash now -- political discourse -- and supporting national reconciliation, especially after the withdrawal and where all the politicians were all elected.  And so I think again that national reconciliation, if it took place clearly and transparently and will give high assurance to the people -- especially at this time where we are witnessing new elections parallel to combating terrorism.


Nada al-Juburi is an Iraqi Member of Parliament.  Search LexisNexis for any mention of her.  She was here in DC.  She made those remarks publicly at the US Institute of Peace.  Press attended.  They reported on Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq's remarks.  One even noted al-Mutlaq's remarks and a male MP's remarks.

Really?

That's where the news value is?  When you've got two Iraqi MPs and one's a man and one's a woman, the news value, the uniqueness is the male MP?

It was just further proof that the American press doesn't give a damn about Iraq.

The US government led the attack on Iraq and the press wasn't interested in introducing the Iraqi people before the war, they've been uninterested throughout the illegal war.  It's kind of like Vietnam.  It wasn't until years and decades after the American government's assault on Vietnam, when the country's economic value was becoming apparent and it was becoming a major tourist destination that the western press showed any significant interest in telling any stories about the Vietnamese people.


Maybe that moment will arrive some day for the Iraqi people?

Possibly.  But at present, they are still rendered invisible as Iraq is a story the press chooses to tell only through western voices and officials DC imposed upon the country.










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Nada al-Juburi was quoted in the January 16th "Iraq snapshot."