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The Bush-Maliki Agreement Binding to Nobody
Except Them
By Abdul Ilah Al-Bayaty
ccun.org, July 25, 2008
The Bush - Maliki agreement to be signed is not binding to
anyone except to its own signatories.
It is illegal and contradicts the principles of international law
regulating relations between an occupation and the occupied country.
It is also non-binding because of the ineligibility of those who
will sign it. Neither the US nor the Iraqi State are bound by it. It
is non binding for the US as it will not be presented to the
American Congress so as to become an obligatory treaty. And, in
addition, the current US president will soon leave the presidency
taking away with him his policies. It is non binding for the Iraqi
State because the Iraqis who will sign it are non-representative of
the people of Iraq, neither legally, nor in terms of national
legitimacy nor politically. They are a government installed by and
for the occupier following its invasion of Iraq.
Everyone wonders why President Bush resorted to continue his
policies contrary to the interests of the United States. The
interests of the US in Iraq can only be realized through friendship
with the people of Iraq. After six years, did he not learn that the
people of Iraq will not be subjugated not only by such treaties but
even will not and cannot be subjugated by all the American military
power? In reality, the insistence on signing this agreement is proof
of US defeat in Iraq, not evidence of victory. How can the Bush
administration achieve a functioning legitimate state accepted by
the Iraqis, while it leaves in a few months, when it failed to
achieve this throughout six years in power? Would it not be
better for Bush to answer the wishes of the American people,
tired of a war which weakened the U.S. economically, politically and
led it to its own moral suicide, because it made them a people of a
state which committed the crime of genocide, and which is the first
violator of human rights and of international laws, particularly the
United Nations' Charter, so that it became a state of aggression,
terrorism and banditry?
We Iraqis hope to have the American people and all peoples of the
world as allies in our struggle for the values of progress,
democracy and human civilization embodied in international laws and
conventions.
Our first right is to manage our own affairs in a civilized and
peaceful manner. What gives the United States the right to use its
military strength to defend the government that it installed to
destroy Iraq as a people and as a state?
And, our first right is to live in a unified state based on
citizenship, equality and justice. What gives the U.S. the right to
pledge to defend a Constitution based on the division of Iraq and
the promotion of religious fascism and Kurdish chauvinism?
The first of our rights is to be able to establish a democratic
state that respects human rights, integrity and public service. What
gives the United States the right to pledge to destroy the Arab
civil currents and the progressive educated middle-class' thought
and organizations, and actively promote religious fascism by allying
itself with warlords and war bandits?
The first of our rights is to our own property of our land and
resources, particularly our oil, so we can use it to develop our
lives by selling it onto the global market. What gives the US the
right to undertake the protection of thieves and brokers in the name
of the free market economy?
The political and economical adventurers and gamblers in the
administration of President Bush, in agreement with the two Kurdish
party leaderships and the retarded and fascist Islamist adventurers,
dragged the United States into a failed adventure. Its only result
is destroying Iraq as a people and state, as well as rendering the
American super power no longer capable of leading the world, as it
is discredited morally, politically and economically.
Why does the Bush administration insist on signing an agreement that
has no value politically or legally? After six years of armed,
civil and popular resistance to the occupation the Iraqi people has
proven that it will never accept it.
The mere news of negotiations to sign a Convention which gives the
US the right to keep forces in Iraq, has united all the Iraqi
National Movement against it. In addition, how can the government
installed by the occupation sign this Convention without disclosing
its content to anyone? What will be the reaction of the
people? I just want to remind them, as I reminded Mr Khalilzaid on
the Internet ahead of the invasion, of the uprisings and
demonstrations which took place in the years 1948, 1952, 1956 and
1958 against binding Iraq to military treaties with foreign powers.
As the Iraqi popular proverb goes: "they should put the paper they
will sign in water, and then drink the water". It means that what is
written on the paper is of no use or value. It will not prevent the
people of Iraq from the struggle to liberate their country and
establish real democracy. It is better for the next U.S.
administration to abandon this convention along with its
signatories, as did the U.S. administration with Barzani in the year
1975.
The people of Iraq will continue its resistance and struggle for its
cause, as its cause is a just one, and for them it is a cause for
life or death and it is certain of its own victory. Iraqis know that
all the peoples of the world turn their eyes toward them to learn
the road towards emancipation and progress.
We know what will be the panic of those who came with the American
tanks if the American tanks leave. It is they themselves who insist
on signing this agreement. They ask for American guarantees against
the people of Iraq, so that — they believe — they could continue
their crimes against Iraq and the people of Iraq.
Iraq could not be divided or occupied or subjugated.
Iraq has the moral and material civilized strength and developed
national forces to win all the challenges, the first of all being
its unity and integrity, its liberation and its sovereignty over its
land and wealth.
As to the foam, it will vanish
Abdul Ilah Al-Bayaty, France.
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