Packed away in its box high on a shelf, sits my “Iraq Reconstruction Medal”. I am not as proud as Tony Blair appears to be about my initial interventions in Iraq and have been trying to make amends since. Besides, Iraq won’t let me forget her. A country written off as post-post-post conflict and no longer of interest is screaming bloody headlines once more: Iraq is “disintegrating, falling apart” (Washington Post), it is “imploding” (Dawn), and “collapsing” (Fox News) - as ISIS take control of Mosul, Tikrit and some claim have their sights set on Baghdad.
The media hysterically count the displaced from Mosul, pundits offer their “reckons” on the viability of ISIS, and leaders and former leaders call press conferences. War correspondents gather like flies around dung to prepare for the next instalment of “Iraq War III”.
For the journalists, with so many fronts to chose from it’s difficult to know where “the worst place in the world” actually is these days. And alongside all this, the international community scrabble again for this ancient land.
The Afghans say they are learning lessons, the US warships are coming, Iran has promised help, and US allies in the Gulf are allegedlyfunding ISIS. It is a feasting on “failed states” we are all quite familiar with by now.
Those that have read my words before will know that I am often compelled to search beneath the loudest of headlines. An article I wrote a few years ago “there are no terrorists in Pakistan” (renamed by the World Bank as “Simulated Realities, Manipulated Perceptions”) proved very popular and caught the eye of a Dawn editor, bringing me to these pages. The piece was inspired by Jean Baudrillard’s The Gulf War Did Not Take Place and refers to the (then new) 24/7 media coverage of the Gulf War.
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The fact that Foreign Policy Magazine is likening parts of Iraq to a “Zombie Movie” pricked up my ears. If in Baudrillard’s time the news media were simulating reality, today he might have seen an even keener blurring of reality and fiction. It’s as if the next Iraq movie script is already written. Baudrillard warned we have a problem if societies' imagination is fuelled by catastrophe instead of progress. In “Welcome to the desert of the real”, philosopher, Slavoj Zizek takes it further when he writes that America got what it wanted because it is pre-occupied with the fantasy of terrorist attacks.
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But fantasy should remain just that, and I am not immune to the happenings in Iraq as presented in the news media. Nor am I saying that ISIS are a fantasy. My heart hurts. I speak to my Iraqi friends to check what is happening in their media, in their heads, in their reality. The first thing that veteran journalist and author of Iraqi Media, Dr Haider Al-Safi says is, “I don’t think things are going to collapse in Iraq”.
I sigh cautious relief, but as usual the security and political situation Iraq is complex and cannot be summed up by a headline, despite the attempts of many. The biggest issue, Al-Safi says is the nine years of marginalising the Sunni population in Iraq. “We can’t blame them all for Saddam being a Sunni”, he says. From experience it appears that once marginalised, identities grow stronger, and with no chance of empathising with a Maliki-lead government the Sunnis look for alternatives. The problem is the alternative is a distasteful one, a drastic one – one born out of desperation.
Al-Safi goes on to explain that the news media in Iraq is predictably divided along sectarian lines. This has been the curse of media development in Iraq (my words, not his). Yet despite the divides, the Iraqi newspaper headlines are almost universal in condemning the actions of ISIS. I asked Al-Safi whether in some bizarre way, having a common enemy had bought Iraqis closer. He conceded it might, but noted that whilst many Sunni-backed publications may be nervous about printing pro-ISIS headlines, the text of many articles are rife with anti-Maliki sentiment. Another demonstration of reading more than 140 characters into any situation. And considering the thousands of Shiites allegedly taking up arms to oust ISIS, further demonisation of Sunnis looks likely.
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Al-Safi considers however, that whoever has the “psychological advantage” in this battle will win. In western-speak that’s “hearts and minds”. The weapons of mass persuasion seem to be in the hands of ISIS – they have no newspapers I know of, but have a sophisticated media machine at their disposal – not unlike the Free Syrian Army at the outset, ISIS run Facebook groups, Twitter and Youtube sites to their advantage.
Reports that the Iraqi government is beginning to “shut down” the internet seem a likely response, but Al-Safi thinks this is a mistake. “There was a void online and these guys filled it”. He suggests that instead of closing it, the government should “fill these channels with credible information instead”.
The credibility of ISIS has been boosted by its divorce from Al Qaeda and in teaming up with remnants of the Baath Party (Saddam’s former Vice-President, Al-Duri) and the likes of The Naqshbandi Army – many of whom are former soldiers of Saddam.
I’m fascinated by how Saddam’s face has begun to appear on posters in ISIS controlled areas. This may seem distasteful to those following the simple narrative of why the west invaded Iraq: “Saddam bad, Saddam go,” but I have heard many Iraqis claim of late that Iraq was better under Saddam, this might be the Achilles heal from which ISIS can spear Maliki.
Yet, despite the horrific headlines, Al-Safi believes the Iraqi government will survive this crisis. It won’t be easy, but they will win through he thinks. My “Iraq Reconstruction Medal” remains in its box for now. Maybe as Bush and Blair think, the 2003 invasion of Iraq was ultimately for the better, but I’m not about to pin my medal on my shirt just yet, at least not until this latest Zombie Movie is over.