Beirut-based journalist Esteban Carrillo joined Sputnik’s The Final Countdown on Wednesday to discuss what’s changed in the Middle East over the last decades, and what’s remained the same.
In a flashback to the 2003 illegal invasion of Iraq the US announced Tuesday they’d launched airstrikes in Baghdad. The strikes were targeted against fighters affiliated with Kataib Hezbollah as the US accused the group of using the Iraqi capital as a base of “aerial drone activities.”
Opponents of Israel’s Western-backed war in Gaza have been launching drone attacks on US bases in the region daily over the past months in a show of defiance.
“These factions in Iraq are attacking US bases because of the support the US is giving to Israel to [commit] atrocities on a daily basis against the Palestinians,” said Carrillo.
Carrillo noted that “the Iranian-backed organization was instrumental in defeating ISIS in Iraq. We often hear that the US drove ISIS out of Iraq. It’s not really the case. It was these groups that really led the battle, that really led the fight to liberate Iraq from the grip of ISIS.”
“These groups are also represented in [Iraqi] parliament, which is something very important to understand,” reminded Carrillo. Iraq’s government has consistently opposed the continuing US military presence in the country – to no avail – as American troops have remained stationed there despite multiple resolutions from the Iraqi legislature calling for their withdrawal.
“The response from the Iraqi government has been very strong,” said Carrillo regarding the US airstrikes. “They have said ‘this is unacceptable, this endangers bilateral relationships between Iraq and the US, you can’t do this, Iraq is not your country.’”
“Without coordinating with the government you cannot be dropping bombs inside the capital city,” the journalist stressed.
But Carrillo noted the act is typical of America’s treatment of countries in the region that the US has moved to dominate for decades.
Meanwhile, the hosts noted reports that China is building 8,000 schools in Iraq while the United States has constructed less than 30 since its 2003 invasion, which wrought devastation of the country’s infrastructure. At the time Iraqis were already suffering from a severe US-led economic embargo of the country, which killed an estimated 500,000 children. Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright famously remarked that she thought the deaths were “worth it” in order to punish the country’s leaders for the invasion of Kuwait.
“The breakdown in [the international] order has been happening for a while now,” remarked Carrillo, agreeing that such actions would be viewed as acts of war if undertaken by most other countries.
“We just need to look at how the conflict in Ukraine was portrayed as opposed to what’s happening in Gaza,” said the analyst, noting the double-standard. “When it’s the bad guys, you can bomb them as much as you can. When it’s the Western allies, you can’t.”
But Carrillo noted the “unprecedented” nature of Hamas’ resistance on October 7, saying it demonstrated that “the world has changed,” and there “won’t be such an uneven playing field anymore” between US allies and opposition forces.
Finally hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discussed Israel’s announcement that the country would deny visas to United Nations employees in the future, accusing them of facilitating “Hamas propaganda.” Carrillo claimed the move would prove to be “detrimental for the Palestinian people who rely on aid from the UN” as Israel has enforced a blockade on the Gaza Strip for years.
The journalist noted Israel’s poor reputation among UN member nations, which is likely to continue to worsen after accusations the country is harvesting organs from Palestinians killed in Gaza.
“Maybe the problem isn’t with them, maybe the problem is with you,” Carrillo said of Israel, which consistently accuses the UN of harboring an anti-Israel bias.
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