MADRE Statements

Iraq: MADRE Partner Discusses the Withdrawal of US Troops

Posted on: Monday, August 23, 2010

Keywords: Iraq, Middle East, Peace Building, US Foreign Policy, Obama Administration

MADRE Partner Yanar Mohammed of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) was on Democracy Now! earlier this week to discuss the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and what that means for the Iraqi people.

A note from Yanar:

There is a lot of mending to be done after seven years of occupation in Iraq.

The withdrawal of US troops is always good. Nevertheless, the oppressive measures which stand in the way of freedom of speech and freedom to organize have been already established. Corruption levels are one of the highest in the world. Laws allowing women's enslavement are protected by our "democratic" religious\nationalist rulers.

In the interview, Yanar explains:

You don’t see the US troops on the streets anymore. They are in their bases. They are running the politics totally on their own terms, for their own interests. But they don’t have—they don’t need to have their troops on the ground. They have trained the Iraqi army to do the same oppressive acts that they do to the people on the ground. The number of detainments, the oppression against people everywhere, the Iraqi army is doing a very good job at that. They are representing the same tactics, so the US troops don’t need to be there, as long as the US politics have been put in place.

So, what do we feel about that? Well, we have heard in the report earlier that it was called Operation Iraqi Liberation or Iraq Freedom. In our opinion, we are back to point zero now.

Read or watch the full interview »

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