The US and Saudi Arabia do naturally want to use the current
revolution to try to push through their own agenda. America and Israel
are engaged in a total war in the region against all areas under Iranian
influence. America does not really have control over the hundreds of
thousands of demonstrators, but it exploits every event and every
political development when it serves its interests. We only read
anti-Iranian rhetoric in Western media. However, what we do not read in
the press is that the protests are equally directed against the American
presence and against the interference of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and
Israel.
Fortunately, there are social media that bring powerful stories and a
human face to the struggle, in a way that has never been done before.
There have been desperate attempts by the government to stop the spread
of eyewitness accounts on social media by shutting down the internet.
However, that did not work.
Banners on Tahrir Square read: “No to America, No to Erdogan, No to Iran, No to Barzani, No to Israeli NGOs”.
Iraqi poet, novelist, translator and scholar Sinan Antoon was born
and raised in Baghdad and his most recent novel is entitled “The Book of
Collateral Damage”. He said on November 26, “What is really important
is the restoration of Iraqi identity and a new sense of Iraqi
nationalism that transcends sectarian discourse institutionalized by the
United States in 2003”.
“Iran has a lot of influence in Iraq and has infiltrated many of the
institutions and supported many of the Iraqi militias, but all of that
is a product of the US occupation and invasion of Iraq. While Iran is
one of the targets of these demonstrators, it’s important to remember
that many of the banners and posters on the Tahrir square say “no” to
any foreign intervention. So they say no to Iran, no to Turkey, no to
Israel, no to the United States.
But of course the mass media in the United States, because of their
geopolitical interests and their continued interference in the region,
write only about Iran, and no one denies that Iran supports many of the
parties in Iraq financially and otherwise and infiltrates Iraqi society
in so many ways. But there are all those other dimensions and,
unfortunately, the regular media in the US and also in Europe are very
short-sighted and only focus on the influence that Iran exerts on the
Iraqi regime.
And that’s correct. But Iraqis want their country back and they want
sovereignty and they are against all kinds of interventions. And the
Iraqi state, since 2003, is very weak. We have Turkish troops in Iraq,
in the north, we have American troops. The demonstrators are really
aware of all this and they understand very well – at least based on what
they say when they appear in the media – that the interests of Iraq and
Iraqis come first and that sovereignty is very important. Of course it
will not be taken back in one day, but they realize that the Iranian
regime is not the only threat and not the only sponsor of certain forces
in Iraq. ”
The Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who became famous after
throwing two shoes at Bush while shouting, “This is a farewell kiss from
the Iraqi people, you dog”, told Euronews that protesters are calling
for the fall of the political regime. He also said that they do not want
other countries to interfere in Iraq. “The government of the American
occupation is rejected. This government has brought disaster to the
country … today we want the fall of this political regime and the end of
this government”, he explained. “We don’t hate Iran, we don’t hate
Saudi Arabia, we don’t hate Turkey. But our message is simple: they must
stop interfering with our country. The Iraqi people are a free people”,
he said.
-- Dirk Adriaensens, "Iraq: The October Revolution of 2019 and the Iran-US Conflict" (GLOBAL RESEARCH).