Last year more than 8,000 people died in Iraq in violent attacks and so far 2014 is proving deadlier almost every single day, with almost no control able to be found with new elections right around the corner
By Curt Cramer
Iraq is in the grip of the largest amount of bloodshed seen in the country since 2008. In 2013 more than 8,000 people were killed across the country, with 2014 already showing the biggest boost in monthly deaths in some time. In just the past 6 days, over 70 people have been killed in attacks preceding parliamentary elections being held Thursday.
It has become a footnote that with displacement of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship by NATO forces, sectarian violence between the rivaling Sunni and Shiite Islamic factions vying for government seats in Iraq has resulted in utter civil war for close to a decade. Now, with every election, Iraqi citizens must deal with impending death whenever they attempt to have their political voice heard. Though the threat of violence is being seen in several Middle Eastern countries attempting to change over to democratic systems since the “Arab Spring” of 2011, a difference in Iraq is the major foothold that Al-Qaida inspiration has gained with the Sunni Islamic State (ISIL) in violence against the Shiite majority. This has resulted in practically daily suicide bombings, which security forces seem powerless in halting.
In an early election being held for police and security forces Monday, just to get into one polling building in Baghdad, it was required to pass through 4 ID checkpoints and search areas, not counting bomb sniffing dogs inside as well, cars being banned from the streets until after the election, and all of Iraq’s airspace being closed until Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. Most police also went out dressed in civilian clothes. The country’s 1 million police and other state security forces are voting early in a move made to allow them to protect the polling stations on the actual day of voting for Iraq’s 22 million registered voters. Most chilling about all of this security, is that it has done little to stop bombings from occurring, with many occurring at the checkpoints themselves.
The most disheartening factor in all of this, is that it reflects what little has been established in Iraq since 2011 when US forces finally left the region. The US alone spent billions in dollars and thousands in lives in attempts to help mold the skeletal democratic system existing in the country, which has made practically zero progress both in security and economic terms since the 2003 occupation. Basically the US and NATO forces left a humongous mess as they left the country – a mess that has begun to boil over for some time now. So much so, that Iraq’s economy cannot even be ranked on a global scale due to volatility, despite major growth in the oil sector.
Previous elections have proved that citizens are indeed being swayed to not vote, not because of the violence itself since Iraqi’s have grown accustomed to it, but because they believe that voting in the country is meaningless. The violence is a big part of this, however the violence stems from the fact that even in elections, the same political faces remain in the landscape even with opposing results.
Over 9,000 politicians are running for 328 seats in the parliament on Thursday under several different inter-party coalitions and it is expected that no majority will win, however experts believe the incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Shi’a State of Law coalition will once again remain in power taking the largest number of seats. Post election voter turnout results will be crucial in estimating whether any real progress can be made across the entire nation in the near future. In interviews in the Northern Iraq melting pot area of Kirkuk, Al-Jazeera displayed a sampling of who some voters want to vote for, and also, what they wish to happen when they do.
-Curt Cramer (@CurtisRemarc)
