OPINION:
In 2003, the United States stormed into Saddam Hussein’s Iraq at the head of an international coalition that quickly toppled Hussein and took control. By mid-December 2003, after a short period in hiding, Hussein himself was captured. He was tried in Iraqi court, found guilty of crimes against humanity, sentenced to death and then executed in late December 2006.
The United States maintained as many as 170,000 troops in Iraq for years thereafter in an effort to provide security and stability until they were officially withdrawn in 2011. In more recent years, America has maintained a small contingent of roughly 2,500 troops in Iraq, to ensure an ongoing comfortable relationship with a key Middle East partner.
Nearly 20 years since Iraq created a new Constitution assuring that people of all religions and ethnicities would be represented in their national government and treated equally, how is this important Middle East state faring? How is America perceived?
During a recent trip to Baghdad, I sat down with President Abdul Latif Rashid to discuss the current state of his country and its current relationship with the United States. Mr. Rashid started with a brief lesson on Iraq’s troubled history from the 1960s through the insurgency by Daesh, better known as the Islamic State. He then contrasted that with where things stand today.
Below is a transcript of our conversation, which has been trimmed for length but is otherwise verbatim:
Tim Constantine: Mr. President, thank you for sitting down with me. I did a roundtable discussion last night with your Supreme Court chief justice. I talked in terms of the court system isn’t perfect. But I pointed out if you took a snapshot of the court system in 2000, when Saddam was still there, and you took a snapshot of what’s now, it’s amazing.
President Abdul Latif Rashid: There’s no comparison. No comparison. Not only that. OK, we still have a lot of problems in Iraq, but the freedom, the speech, the human rights, the national rights, the nationality rights, the religious rights are all really now, I think, in Iraq, are better than many, many countries.
Mr. Constantine, Iraq went through a difficult time. It wasn’t only Saddam Hussein’s period. From, I would say, I remember from the ’60s Iraq has been almost always in conflict. First, inside conflicts between Kurds and central government. and different functions.
Then regime change. Then, really, the peak of dictatorship came when Saddam took power. We suffered from dictatorship for a long period of time. No elections; no freedom of speech; no freedom of articles; no freedom of even movement in Iraq. Then we suffered from a long period of war between Iraq and Iran. And everybody suffered. Human life, destruction of infrastructures, destruction of military power. That went on for eight years. It’s a very long period of time to live under attacks and war. After that, as you know, then it was invasion of Kuwait.
And again, we challenged the international community. Iraq challenged the international community. And again, it resulted in the suffering of the Iraqi population. After that, we challenged the international community because of having weapons of mass destruction and ignoring United Nations resolutions and ignoring inspections.
Then the allied forces, I call them allied forces, came to Iraq. We thought that will be the end of it. But unfortunately, after that, we suffered from the worst kind of crimes, terrorism. I was there.
I came back in 2003. We were experiencing sometimes 20, 25, 30 car bombs, with casualties sometimes reaching 500 victims. Obviously, this has an effect on the society. Then after internal terrorism, we suffered from the invasion of Daesh. And Daesh not only attacked individuals, attacked communities, religions, our history, our archaeology, our national interest, and our national trust. And they were choosing qualified people to assassinate. They were choosing religious people to assassinate.
I’m glad to say, for the last five or six years, we live in some sort of peaceful situation. And our emphasis and our concentration is to keep peace and stability in Iraq. That’s very important.
Second, our independence. I know occasionally we are accused of being under this influence or that influence. That’s far from the truth. We respect all our neighbors and we have good relations with our neighbors and with all regional countries. On a daily basis, we exchange visits, delegations from European countries, from far, further than European countries — from Asian countries, from Arab countries, from Middle Eastern countries. All they come to Iraq and we are sending delegations to these countries.
The time of conflicts, the time for us to be challenging the rights of other countries is finished.
We have taken good actions inside Iraq. For instance, the relationship between the Kurdistan regional government and the central government is good. There are almost on a daily basis exchange of views, exchange of delegations, and visits.
Furthermore, we have concentrated on the services. We have improved, but it will take some time to improve all the services. Most of our schools were destroyed. Not only during the war, but as an effect of sanctions. If you leave schools, hospitals without maintenance for a long period of time, it’s like being ruined. So we have taken actions for improving our services. And we have taken actions for improving our infrastructure and repairing infrastructure.
I don’t deny we have big problems. Our population, in our recent census, we have reached 46 million people in Iraq. And out of that 46, 60% are born after 2003. We have a large number of graduates, probably more than any other country because of the number of universities and the academic life we have.
We still haven’t improved agriculture as it should be. And we haven’t really involved private enterprise in the country as we should. We haven’t built factories or places of work so it can accommodate a large number of people. These are all being considered. They have been thought out but you can’t tackle everything at once.
Now, I think all Iraqi individuals, I mean, if they’ve got a job or if they can have a decent life, they are extremely happy. They travel. They eat well. They are not short of even luxury goods.
Q: The relationship with the West, particularly the United States, for quite a while has been focused on security. How do you transition that into investment, into economy? How do you go about letting them know what opportunities exist?
A: Well, we have told them, and they are involved in investments. Certain large companies, energy and others, they are involved here — in petrochemicals, in oil. They are here. I don’t think we have conflict with the United States. On the contrary, we welcome all the help which we can get from the United States. And we want to have a really good, friendly relationship with the United States.
That’s not my only saying it, but that’s genuine I know. I know, I’m in touch with people. Nobody in Iraq is against the United States.
We have a parliament which is in charge of laws and institutions. We have a Cabinet which is in charge of implementations. We have a judicial system which is totally independent, and we have a presidential office to protect the constitution and protect freedom.
Q: Let me shift gears for a minute. Iraq has developed a pretty good reputation as a mediator. The Saudis and Iran have had conversations here and Jordan has had Iran-related conversations in Iraq. How viable is it for Iraq to serve as mediator and host discussions between the United States and Iran?
A: Well, we would like to and I think we could be playing an important part because we are continuously in touch with Iranian politics. We aren’t shy of asking them any questions. Very often, we have their political, security or trade delegations. We don’t have any reservations about meeting their high-ranking government officials.
I think it would probably be good. We are really, as you said, we have played a part in bringing Iran and Saudi Arabia to understand, to reestablish diplomatic service, which has benefited everybody. And we have made some suggestions for Jordan and other countries.
Q: What should Iraq’s role be as Syria tries to determine what they want to do?
A: Well, obviously Syria is an independent country and they have a new administration or new rulers. We want the government of Syria to reflect the will of the Syrian people, either through election or through democratic steps to be taken. Secondly, I think there are a number of nationalities, a number of groups, political groups, religious groups in Syria. I think they should try to accommodate all the sections of the society, so no one feels they have been left out or not treated as ordinary citizens.
Furthermore, there is one point which is extremely important for us. There are large populations of terrorists or families of terrorists on the Syrian border and we are worried about it. We have to make some arrangements, so our border does not get out of control.
We hope that the new regime of Syria will respect the will and the demand and the rights of all Syrian people. And to be all treated the same and all should have certain rules in the new administration.
Q: How confident are you with that?
A: Well, I think we have heard a lot of talk by the new leaders but as most of the European countries and most of our neighbors say, we are waiting for action rather than just talk. What we are hoping to see is to accommodate everybody in Syria. I don’t hide it. Some of the reactions of the Kurdish groups so far regarding the new regime haven’t been very positive. They are not asking for independence. They are not asking for separations. All they want is to recognize their rights. That’s all.
Q: Should the West have a role in it?
A: Well, we have a role. The United States is involved in northern Syria. The British are involved. Russia needs to be involved. So you have a role. I hope the United States plays this role to bring all sides together. I think all the regional countries, if they come, they should discuss it, and they should come to a platform of agreement.
Q: You are historically rich. 100 years from now, 500 years from now, will that history still be maintained?
A: Richest. Not rich. I’m glad you mentioned that. This has been one of our weaknesses. This has been because of imposing the will of dictatorship on Iraqi population. Our history is rich. And it goes back to 6 or 7,000 years ago. The first law was in Iraq. The first irrigation system, as we were talking about, was in Iraq. The first agriculture was in Iraq. The first building of palaces or huge buildings was in Iraq. Then coming to science and technology, mathematics, and written letters. It all started in Iraq. In addition to that, Iraq has been the center of all religions. We used to call it Hikmah. Hikmah House was the first center for science, technology, mathematics and biology. European delegations used to come and copy the research from Hikmah and take it back.
I’m glad you mentioned our history. I think it’s our task to educate our people to keep it. It’s very important to put it in our school, university syllabus. At the same time, it’s very important to recognize the leadership during those periods. The ones who were involved or created or thinkers or philosophers during that period.
Q: Last question, and that is, what’s the current state of the relationship between Iraq and the United States? And how can it improve?
A: Well, I think it should improve if a strong delegation from the United States comes to us, or if you invite delegations to the United States to explain the reality of Iraq. I personally will be quiet. I’m waiting for the new administration to be set up and then clear, because they are very busy with Ukraine, with Palestine.
I hope to really explain our position and our future policy and our relationship between our neighboring countries. We have no hesitation. We have nothing to hide. We are very open and if we have problems, how we are going to tackle it and how we are going to deal with it.
We are a democratic country. We have no hesitation to discuss it in Parliament, to discuss it in the …
Q: Do you feel confident that you will get that invitation, or that you will get that visit?
A: I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. I sent Mr. President, Mr. [Donald] Trump, I sent him a letter of congratulations and I encouraged him to implement what he promised to keep peace in the world. To end conflicts, which is really without ending wars and conflicts, life is not going to be very easy — especially in our region. If you look at it, we have conflicts in Syria. We have conflicts in Palestine and part of Palestine is in Jordan. We have problems in Lebanon. We have problems in Yemen. There are problems in Sudan, problems in Somalia. So that really covers all of it. You’re welcome. I hope it was OK for you.
Q: That was great. Thank you for taking the time.
A: No, it’s very important really for us. Because hopefully we are opening a new chapter. And this chapter should be based on understanding.
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