There are still Iraqis in Iraq. This has been proven by the recent parliamentary elections, which saw all of the political leaders forced to form broadly-based candidate lists, representing the spectrum of sectarian and religious groupings. The senior Shiite religious authorities were notable for taking a neutral stance, which allowed secular voters to vote in Najaf and Karbala, despite their being branded as Baathists.

Prior to this, Sunni leaders had abandoned al-Qaida and resorted to the Iraqi nation instead of holding to the politics of the metaphysical, which justifies killing, and sees the entire world as a battlefield.

There are still Iraqis in Iraq, and they went to the polls with great enthusiasm. They were undeterred by promises or threats. No obstacles prevented them from exercising their natural rights. However, these voters are in store for many challenges if they are to overcome the sectarianism enshrined in the Constitution, as many people are trying to make a custom stronger than the legal text, in Lebanese fashion. The Iraqis face obstacles, headed by the Kurds’ hunkering down in their region, putting their conditions on the central government, and issuing a direct challenge to this government by conducting oil deals with foreign companies without resorting to Baghdad. The Iraqis also face the calls by the Supreme Shiite Council and its leader Ammar al-Hakim, for the establishment of a southern region and turning it into an oil company that will trade with Sunni areas for water.

Iraqis proved their patriotism. However, they need a political authority that can cement this patriotism, and one that can review the Constitution, which stresses out-of-control federalism, with no constraints or central oversight from Baghdad, as in the case of the federal status of Kurdistan in the north, where the local government has its own army, police and policy, and enjoys independence. It takes decisions that the central government cannot take without resorting to Parliament, and reaching accord with partners.

These challenges for Iraqis come on the eve of the formation of a government that represents their aspirations, and opposes all of the attempts to dismantle their country and turn it into cantons at war with each other, managed by foreign states that do not hide their ambitions to expand their influence in Iraq, under the slogan of protecting its interests in the Gulf and confronting this or that state. The countries most concerned with what is going on are naturally the United States and Iran, as the Arabs remain absent and divided between these two influential powers in Mesopotamia.

Iraqi patriots fear most of all, following the elections (and their fears are likely justified) that the negotiations over the formation of a government will lead to enshrining sectarian and religious quotas, through concessions by this or that side in order to arrive in office. They have nothing in common except the preservation and boosting of their interests, and those of a weak state that cannot take any major decision, and the transition to a state that goes beyond the warring, murderous identities. We do not dare say to a state that goes beyond Arab politics, as it does not exist in the first place.