Second Roundtable/ From Solving the Roots of Conflict to the Empowerment of National Unity

In times of war and its aftermath, the challenge is to find surviving structures and buildings among the ashes. In the second roundtable of the Iraqi National Dialogue, we have found what is even better: immortal spirits that can never be defeated.

We have found a generation of young people who are too alive to die in a war like that of ISIS. They are the granters of life, hope, and ideas.

In the second roundtable on September 26th, 2021, a group of young males and females have attended the discussion, loaded with long years of past destitute and future prosperity. They were of different ethnicities, races, and ideologies: Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, Christians, Shias, Sunnis, Ezadis. Six other European experts were present there to display their social and political experiences of Europe. The roundtable was held on the right bank of the city, in Baituna NGO, next to Al-Noori mosque, the place from which Al-Baghdadi declared the start of his caliphate in 2014.

These young people had a better comprehension of the current Iraqi political and social challenges than many Iraqi politicians. They had a realistic view of the surrounding pressures because they are living with them, breathing them, and fitting into them. Their assessment of the Iraqi condition is beyond the reach of many Iraqi and international political analysts.

After listening to the Iraqi anthem, and after a short introduction presented by the executive director of the Iraqi National Dialogue Initiative Mr. Alaa Al-Bahadli, heated debates stormed the tables over various issues including displaced people, children during the times of war, terrorism, female issues, political change, and the Iraqi constitution.

The most insisting topic was that of the issue of the displaced people. During the times of war with ISIS, millions of people have been displaced from their homes. They still are scattered around different cities and countries and waiting for the proper time to return home. This problem has not been taken into consideration by Iraqi politicians. The attendants have proposed many solutions to this issue, including financial support, which plays the primary role in facilitating the return of the displaced to their homes.

On a related ground, the participants have highlighted a forgotten but crucial issue, that of children and their suffering during times of war. Children are like time bombs once they survive the war and at any time in the future, their suffering might turn into violence or any other form of destruction unless these bombs are defused by psychological treatment. Iraq is in crucial need of psychiatric clinics to dissolve the remnants of war in the mind and unconscious of the surviving children.

One of the major problems of Iraq which from time to time leads to the eruption of violence is the absence of women from the social arena, as the attendants mentioned. Women are the safety valve that prevents violence and chaos in society because they are experienced enough to deal with the members of the society as if they are their families and children.

Later, the discussion shifted to dive deeper into political issues. The participants believed that political change can never be achieved by boycotting the election: the first condition of change is to become part of the political system and changing the conditions from within the political arena. On the other hand, other participants believed that there is no benefit from taking part in the election because the previous attempts resulted in nothing but further chaos and destruction.

At the end of the discussion, they claimed that one of the main issues that caused such disastrous chaos and disorder, mainly that of ISIS was the absence of roundtables like this one. They declared that as long as there are no discussions like this one, we should always expect further destructions and mass genocide. Such events, as they have mentioned, are the vaccines to future probable terrorist movements, because these events are the stage to unheard stories and when they are narrated, others will make an understanding of the problems of the society and will strive to solve them.

They left the table with the hope of further meetings and a brighter future.


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