A look to the Iraq issue from a westerner's eyes...

Slm to all...
I just wanted to post this commentary which i took from www.zaman.com from the english version.I think sometimes it is good to read others' opinions and views,especially from different backgrounds and perceptions,on our global issues just to have a wider perspective..wassalam


NICOLE POPE n.pope@todayszaman.com Columnists
Remember Iraq?



The war in Iraq dominated the headlines for so long that many readers were relieved when the daily diet of devastating car bombs in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities dropped off the front pages.

These days, US-related news tends to reflect the excitement generated by the presidential race. Will the Democrats back Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? Which of the Republican presidential wannabes stand the best chance to bid for the White House?

The war in Iraq features in the campaign, naturally, but not as the main issue. Although their takes on the conflict differ, most of the candidates promise to bring the troops home, sooner or later.

In Turkey, Washington is talked about these days mainly in the context of the struggle against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq and President Abdullah Gül's visit to Washington. Most commentators welcome the apparent thaw in relations between Turkey and the US.

The feeble attempt at peace mediation between Israelis and Palestinians launched by George Bush, now a lame duck president, should not obscure the mess his administration has caused in the wider Middle East and the poisoned legacy his successor will inherit.

Recent figures provide a sobering glimpse at the reality of Iraq. Fewer shocking headlines had created the impression that the surge launched by Gen. David Petraeus last year had returned Iraq to normality. While violence has indeed declined in recent months after US troop numbers were boosted, figures show that 2007 was overall still the deadliest year since the 2003 invasion of Iraq -- with the highest number of US troops, British troops and civilians killed.

Now a new extensive survey, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and carried out in cooperation with the World Health Organization, estimates 151,000 people died violently between March 2003 and June 2006.

Higher than the figures provided by the Iraq Body Count, which collected data from published sources and came up with a total of 47,668, and lower than estimates of over 600,000 dead published in The Lancet in 2006, these latest conclusions give an inkling of the trauma Iraqi civilians have experienced.

If you converted these anonymous figures and transferred them proportionally from Iraq's population of 26 million to the more familiar environment of Turkey's 73 million, you could try and imagine how much impact 420,000 deaths and an average daily blood count of 350 would have here. The deep social wounds caused by violence on this scale do not bear thinking about.

To the Iraqi death toll, add countless civilians wounded, physically or mentally, 2 million who sought refuge abroad and 2.4 million displaced internally. Although 30,000 Iraqi refugees are known to have returned in recent months, many did so for lack of money and options and found they had little to come back to.

The drop in violence provides room for rebuilding and for political initiatives, but the fragility of the situation hardly warrants excessive optimism. This has implications for Iraq's neighbors, too. Turkey rightly believes that the US administration has lately been more responsive to its demands, but this does not mean Washington will, in the long term, be able to control the situation on the ground -- let alone guarantee Iraq's national unity to satisfy Turkey's wishes.

We would all like to believe Iraq faces a brighter future, but how stable can a country riddled with internal divisions, traumatized by violence and in the grip of a large-scale humanitarian disaster realistically be? It may take a while until we know the answer.

11.01.2008