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Wilson Center event: Looking ahead five years in Iraq
April 9, 2008
By Christina Caspersen
At a Wilson Center event Wednesday, Iraqi Ambassador to the United States Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaida’ie, discussed where Iraq is headed in the next five years and what the future will entail for his war-torn nation.
The event, held on the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, was designed to look at the Iraqi situation from several different angles. Sumaida’ie began by stating that Iraq surprised the U.S. because many assumptions held by Americans were very wrong. Iraq is more than three distinct tribes of Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds, he said, adding that there is a great deal of overlap and intermingling among the tribes and they lack distinct borders. With respect to the Kurds, the ambassador believes they deserve the right to run their own affairs and is proud of President Jalal Talabani, who he said “unifies Iraq well.”
Recent events within Iraq have surprised many. The biggest surprise, according to Sumaida’ie, was when Sunnis moved against extremists and drove them out of their towns. The Shias followed suit. Because of this, the extremists failed to start a civil war in Iraq, he said.
According to the ambassador, even though Iraq is overrun with plagues of extremism, it is like a “non stick pan” – extremism will not stick. Iraqis are survivors of centuries full of war and conflict and they will recover again, he argued, comparing Iraqis to a phoenix rising.
In terms of what Americans can do now, the ambassador stressed that the U.S. needs to stop being so obsessed with numbers, saying, “Numbers don’t work if they are the wrong numbers,” and adding that he fears a “death by PowerPoint.”
He cited the new police forces established by Americans to help turn over power to the Iraqis. He said that within those forces, over half of the men were corrupt with criminal records. Sumaida’ie believes this was a waste of money and the U.S. should be aiming for “quality over quantity.”
Still, Sumaida’ie was optimistic about the future. There is now an upward spiral, not a steep one but progress nonetheless, he argued. He also maintained that Americans will see the underlying nature of Iraqi people: they want to stay united and they want reconciliation, and not sectarian division. Sumaida’ie added that Iraq needs to reach out to other Arab nations to be with Iraq, instead of in isolation. The ambassador expressed his disappointment in the attitudes of these countries.
In closing, the ambassador said that in five years he sees his country as on its way to recovery, but not recovered.
In the question and answer session, the threat that Iran poses was discussed. The ambassador said that Iran has many scores to settle with the U.S. and is happy to have the U.S. in an uncomfortable situation. He noted that this has impeded progress in Iraq – something Sumaida’ie said he has expressed to the Iranian government. The ambassador is in favor of dialogue between Iran and the U.S., but stressed that the tensions between the two parties should not be played out in Iraq. And while in Iraq, the ambassador called on the U.S. to “focus on Iraq, not Iran.” |
