Daily Inspiration Quote by Iyad Allawi

The line is built to flip a familiar script: occupation is supposed to be the story of foreign imposition, yet Allawi insists the most immediate oppression is internal, delivered through sabotage. By centering “our people” “sitting in the dark,” he translates geopolitics into the blunt domestic reality of a dead power grid: no lights, no refrigeration, no hospitals running smoothly. It’s a sensory image that makes insecurity measurable.

“Allawi’s” real target isn’t just the attackers; it’s the moral economy of blame. “Cowardly and treacherous” isn’t decorative anger, it’s a bid to strip insurgents of the romance of resistance. The subtext is: these aren’t patriots fighting occupiers, they’re criminals punishing Iraqis. In one sentence he tries to detach public sympathy from militants by framing their violence as anti-civilian, not anti-colonial.

The kicker is “not our occupiers.” He names the occupiers without naming them, then pointedly exempts them from responsibility for the blackout. That’s rhetorical judo in the context of post-2003 Iraq, where electricity failures were both a daily grievance and a symbol of state collapse. Allawi, governing in the shadow of coalition power and insurgent messaging, is staking out legitimacy by promising order and services. He’s also signaling to foreign backers: the bottleneck is security, not governance. It’s an argument for a harder line, dressed as compassion for households trying to live a normal night.