The Stockholm International Compact on Iraq (ICI) Conference is over.
My feelings are confused. Did the ICI Conference reach anything?
There were big expectations to the Conference. International Community wants to end the Iraq war.
But before any problem can be solved it must be defined what is the problem. When listening the speeches of various foreign ministers in Stockholm about the economical improvements in Iraq one could think that the biggest problem in Iraq is economy. Does any one in Iraq agree with this?
Almost no one of the speakers mentioned the Kurdish autonomous area. Iraq was described in the speeches as one area where the chaos is similar every where.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan spoke in the conference about Turkey's efforts to assist Iraq during difficult times. Some hours after Babacan's speech Turkish air forces bombed North Iraq.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki spoke about peace and stability in the entire region.
"It is necessary to use opportunity provided by this conference to help stabilize the situation in Iraq, improve the living conditions there and contribute to the reconstruction of this country in a more responsible manner", Minister Mottaki said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke also in this conference about how the weapons of mass destruction were the cause of the American military intervention.
Rice used several times words "the Iraqi people" despite there does not exist such a nation. Peter W. Galbraith has critized in his book “The End of Iraq” the American way to see Iraqi people as an unity despite there are three very different groups.
Several speakers spoke about the importance about national reconciliation in Iraq. The target can be achieved only by seeing the real facts, not speaking about one’s own dreams about one Iraqi nation. In reality such attitudes fuel the partition of Iraq despite the speakers claim they are against it.
Many speakers in the conference expressed their wish that refugees would return to Iraq. Also here reality is opposite: bombings to North Iraq by Iran and Turkey force more people to become refugees.
I believe that the international community really wants to find a solution to the Iraqi war. It is too expensive both in the economical cost and in the lost of lives of American and other foreign soldiers. The first thing to end this war is to see the real situation. If the peace is reached by some miraculous way under these false ideas there is a seed for the next conflict.
The speeches in the conference were polite and optimistic but they show how weak and helpless the international community is in front of this war.
One of the decisions of the ICI Stockholm Conference was to arrange a follow up conference next year in Bagdad. This in an ambitious decision. It is a good test for United Nations and the international community to show what they can do for this situation. Iraqi citizens will remember this decision.
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