By Hatem Abunimeh:

So is it safe to suggest that the current Iraq situation is a clash of civilization like Huntington suggested? Or is it Orientalism like Edward Said theorized?Perhaps it might be Occidentalism like Osama Bin laden implemented?What is it?Each side be that Iraqi or American is mutually demonizing and vilifying the other side.Mistrust and misgiving is the only governing denominator between them.Where do we go from here?Who is misconstruing what?To simply suggest that the Americans are there because they are enthralled with the idea of colonization and the expansion of their imperialist ideals is a very naive suggestion.To suggest that the Iraqis are fighting back because they want to expel the Americans out of their country is more naive than to say that the Americans went to Iraq because they are parched for some oil.Some people suggest that the internationalization of the Iraqi issue will put a pluralistic face on it and l! end it more legitimacy than leaving it purely American.Meanwhile,the Iraqis can't stand on their own even if the Americans pack up and leave right this moment,each faction in Iraq will hurry up to grab a piece of the pie and since there is no attendant to divide the pie in an equal fashion,chaos and anarchy will erupt during the process and the pie will end up unequally divvied.In other words civil war will become the ultimate result in the absence of strong military leadership.The whole Iraq issue in my opinion is a huge case of misunderstanding between the occupying powers and the Iraqi governing council.Neither one of them is spending the sufficient time to explain the true problems to the other.The Americans are trying their best to say that they are there to install freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people,but the way the are saying it is not sinking in any ones head.The provisional governing council on the other hand is trying to convince the Americans to hand them the pow! er of sovereignty even in a hap hazardous way and also allow them to take full charge of the situation and not worry about the consequences since they will be in charged of installing law and order in a lawless provinces.The Americans in turn are not convinced and they feel that the governing council needs more time to prove its ability to govern since thus far their performance leaves something to be desired.Finally,the Iraqi people are lost between the over confident occupying forces,and the under achiever governing council.A year has gone by and when things appeared to be worse than what it was under the dictatorship of the former regime of Saddam Hussein they decided to take matters into their own hands.It started with the Shia worried about being swept under the rug after the Sunni and Kurds proved that they still have the stamina to deal with the Americans be that in a diplomatic fashion or through the gun barrel.Noticing that the Shia has awakened from their deep moribund,! the Sunni expanded their already operational eruption and spread it further into other Iraqi provinces.The Kurds while they still standing on the side for now,they know deep down by confirmed assurances from the occupying powers that their rights will not be swept under the rug.Will the Iraq situation turn into a religious war?Will Jihad rather than nationalism become the driving force behind motivating the Iraqis to resist.Will the latest wave of killings and counter killings prove to be nothing more than a tempest in a tea pot?And before long stability will prevail and the insurgents will be crushed and the sovereignty will indeed be handed back to the governing council of Iraq?Will Iraq plunge into long term internecine that only God know when and how will it end?Will the Iraqis on one hand and the occupying force on the other reconcile their differences and come to term with one another by concluding that no party will be able to defeat the other party by military means and the o! nly available solution is the negotiating table?Will the differences be patched and couple of years from now we see free,prosperous,democratic Iraq?Only time will tell.