“The victims of cruelty and injustice are not any better than their tormentors. Their position usually amounts to nothing more than waiting to swap roles with them.”
This is how Iraqi academic and professor Kanan Makiya describes the relationship between victim and oppressor in his book, Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq.
When I first read those words around 2003, it did not occur to me that the sentiments would still resonate for the country over two decades later.
Now, they are finding new echoes in how some politicians in Iraq are trying to deflect attention from their own corruption by smearing journalists, bloggers, and social media activists who try to expose the truth.
In one case, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid was irritated by Iraqi journalist Hameed Abdullah's report on his YouTube channel Hathihi Al-Ayyam, where he criticised leasing the president’s residence to the Kuwaiti embassy in Iraq. This led to a series of complaints being filed against Abdullah's channel, which led to its closure.
Then, a blogger on the X social media platform, formerly Twitter, was targeted. Yasser Al-Jubouri had published documents indicating suspicions of corruption. He was arrested at Baghdad International Airport after Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani filed a lawsuit, which was eventually withdrawn.
