For four years, former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi has been a voice of reason in Iraq. He always stood out against religiously driven Shi'ite hegemony over Iraqi politics, although he himself is Shi'ite (but a secular one) and has refused the partitioning of Iraq and the sidelining of Iraqi Sunnis after the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Sunnis need to be given a bigger and more realistic and proportionate role in the new Iraq, he argues. An autonomous Shi'ite district in the south, something coveted by many fellow Shi'ites, is non-negotiable. He is in favor of strengthening Iraq's ties to the Arab world, has strong friendships with numerous Arab heads of state, and categorically opposes militia rule, which has become widespread during the reign of the two prime ministers who succeeded him in office, Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Nuri al-Maliki.
Allawi makes no secret his ties to the United States, unlike Maliki, who speaks anti-Americanism at home, but cuddles up to the Americans at every opportunity. For some time now, Allawi has been silent, seeing a slim chance in making a comeback to the premiership, given the unconditional support Maliki has received from the US.
Maliki's good days, however, are nearly finished, as his relationship with the US administration strains. Sources at Maliki's office said last week that officials at the US Embassy in Baghdad had given him an early-June deadline to get his act together, or be ejected from office if he does not bring substantial security to Iraq.
Not only has Maliki's era given the Americans a bad name, he has repeatedly backed out on his promises, and refused to disarm the militias, either because they were allied to him (as is the case with the Mehdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr) or to Iran (such as the Badr Brigade of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, SCIRI).
An Iraq with Shi'ite militias is safer as far as Maliki is concerned than an Iraq with no Shi'ite militias and only Sunni ones. Allawi sees only one future for Iraq: an Iraq with no militias. Period. He does not tolerate armed violence and believes that the US occupation will not end through armed resistance.
There was talk last April of a US-backed coup in Baghdad, to oust then-prime minister Jaafari and the Iran-backed Shi'ite team that supported him (the United Iraqi Alliance that still backs his successor Maliki). Allawi, who holds 25 of the 275 seats in Parliament, would return as prime minister.
This coup, it was believed back then, was the product of a conviction that Iraq was not ready for democracy in 2003. The new system only led to chaos and sectarianism. The only solution was to replace the existing regime with a strong central government, one that cared more so for security and the rule of law than such trappings of democracy as a free press and parliamentary elections. The rumored coup of 2006 was a military one, to be carried out by pro-US elements in Iraq.
That ambitions idea was dismissed as nonsense back then. It resurfaces today as not a military coup, but a political one, chaired by none other than Allawi. He recently returned from a trip to regional Arab countries, all allies of the US, headed by Sunni regimes that are opposed to Iraq becoming a puppet state for the Iranians. They included Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and Jordan. He sold them his vision for a new Iraq.
His fans argue that although a coup is undemocratic, Allawi's motto, when returning to office, would be "security first, democracy second".
Allawi has several serious obstacles at making a comeback to office. Prime on the list is that he does not have a parliamentary majority, and in a country torn apart by sectarianism, he does not enjoy a wide power base because of his secular views. His constant criticism of the new government, describing it as a thinly disguised theocracy, almost like the one in Iran, has created many enemies for him in Baghdad, especially within the Shi'ite community.
The Sunnis support him, however, and so do the Kurds. Last week, he spoke to the Associated Press and heated up his campaign against Maliki, saying that the Baghdad Security Plan of February had not been successful. "It seems to me even the surge, unfortunately, is not working efficiently yet," Allawi said. He added, "Security, as you can see, is still deteriorating in the country and sectarianism is unfortunately prevailing. We are witnessing wide-scale atrocities throughout the country."
The reasons for Iraq's plight, he said, can be found in its current prime minister. He criticized Maliki for refusing, despite rhetoric, to conduct serious talks with Iraqi Sunnis. Precisely because of Maliki's hostility to the Sunnis, whom he blames for the wrongdoings of Saddam's era, the Baghdad Security Plan "is not going to succeed", said Allawi.
He described the Shi'ite-dominated government and Parliament as "biased and sectarian-based", claiming they were damaging the country. He explained his future vision this way: "I'm definitely trying to pull together an alliance of moderates in Iraq. I strongly believe that sectarianism and terrorism are both signs of extremism. And really what we need in Iraq, as well as the region, is the creation of moderate camps."
The solutions for Allawi are, simply, the fall of the government and the resignation of Parliament. This would have to be done on orders from the United States, and Maliki's team would be replaced with a cabinet of national unity (headed by Allawi) that would restore order and disarm the militias. Last year, speaking to the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Allawi said a US-style democracy was not applicable to Iraq.
He said: "One cannot bring American democracy to a country that is occupied like Iraq, and whose infrastructure, as well as military and governmental institutions, have been destroyed." He added, "I warned the Americans repeatedly [against] trying to model Iraq on the social and administrative system in the United States."
Allawi was saying that a military coup was not desirable, but neither was the chaos existing in Iraq today. The chaos under Jaafari, he said, "where the government turned a blind eye to the militias ... has led Iraq to a disaster". This week he elaborated, saying: "I always thought that the first steps toward democracy were not to have elections. The first steps are [to create] the rule of law and a bill of rights for the people. That would pave the way for full-blown democracy."
Taking action
Following his words up with actions, Allawi secured the resignation over the weekend of one of his ministers from the Maliki cabinet, Hashem al-Shibli, the minister of justice. This is the first sign of rupture in the cabinet of Prime Minister Maliki since it assumed office last May.
Contradictory signs are coming out of Baghdad regarding the reasons for his resignation. Some claim it is a preemptive move, since Shibli knew that Maliki was planning a reshuffle and would not include him in the new cabinet. He stepped down before being retired from his job.
Others, however, attribute his resignation to disagreements between Maliki and Allawi, who heads Shibli's political party, the Iraqi List. Still others claim that the disagreement was personal, between Maliki and Shibli. The two men came to blows last December during the execution of Saddam Hussein. Shibli, who is a Sunni Arab, had many reservations about the execution.
First, being minister of justice, he had doubts about its legality, since it was not approved by the president. Not only did it embarrass him within the Sunni community, for failing to protect their leader, but it also strained his relationship with the Shi'ite majority in power. Shibli, like most Sunni Arabs, claimed that the execution was carried out in a gangster-like manner, with masked men and chants in favor of Muqtada al-Sadr, both of which represented anything but officialdom.
A better explanation to the sudden resignation would be a combination of above. It certainly could not have been done, however, without Allawi's blessing.
Coinciding with Allawi's coup were increasing signs of discontent within the Sunni community of Iraq, which is allied to the former prime minister. Last week, members of the police, being militiamen under cover, went on a homicidal rampage in the Sunni neighborhood of Tal Afar, killing more than 70 civilians. For two hours they roamed the streets of the city, arresting Sunnis, handcuffing them, and shooting them through the head. Angry Sunnis have demanded a trial of the police officers, and the resignation of Maliki.
The sectarian attacks were in response to car bombs last Tuesday that killed more than 60 Shi'ites and wounded more than 300, also in Tal Afar. Investigations identified 18 police officers as architects of the massacre. After arresting them, government authorities surprisingly had them released. That could not have been done without the blessing of Maliki.
The government claimed that the police officers had been released to attend the funeral of their relatives who had been killed in the car bombs against the Shi'ite districts on March 27. To calm down anger, Maliki ordered their arrest once again. On Thursday, suicide bombers responded to the Tal Afar bombing by attacking a Shi'ite district in the Iraqi capital, killing 130 people. Most of the victims were women and children, since the bombing took place in a shopping area.
The Ministry of Health, run by Sadrists loyal to the government, commented saying: "It is impossible to tell the exact number of dead because we are basically counting body parts." While the government was "counting the dead", three suicide bombs went off within minutes of one another at Khalis, 80 kilometers north of Baghdad, killing 53 and wounding more than 100.
Sad as these events may be, they fit nicely into Allawi's campaign, which will concentrate, in the upcoming two months, on discrediting Maliki in every possible way.
One way is to remind the world of Allawi's virtues, without directly comparing them with Maliki's but letting facts speak for themselves. While the Iraqis watch in horror what is taking place in Tal Afar today, they are asked to remember what happened in Fallujah and Najaf in 2004, when the Allawi cabinet cracked down on the Mehdi Army. Allawi personally supervised the military operations and hit them with force, regardless of sect or objective, saying they were disrupting peace in Iraq.
In many ways, Allawi resembles Michel Aoun, the Lebanese Christian leader who is striving to become president. Both Allawi and Aoun are obsessed with returning to power and have grand, non-sectarian agendas for their countrymen. Allawi, wanting to prove his credentials as an Iraqi nationalist, and not just a Shi'ite leader, was the first to strike the Iraqi Shi'ites in 2004. Likewise, Aoun did the same with Lebanon's Christians in the late 1980s during the civil war. Both men are striving to become leaders not of their respective communities, but rather of their respective countries.
True, Aoun has lost support from onetime loyal and radical Christians, and so has Allawi among Shi'ites. But they don't want to be remembered as a Shi'ite leader, or a Christian leader. What is amazing is the amount of support these two men enjoy within their constituency, giving them great room for political maneuvering.
Aoun and Allawi do not come from traditional political families - they have not inherited their leadership roles. They are not directly supported by a certain country, whether Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia or the United States. And yet their supporters love them and want to help them reach their leadership roles in Baghdad and Beirut. No alliance is taboo to achieving that.
Aoun allied himself with unimaginable allies, the Iran-backed Hezbollah, while Allawi has cuddled up to numerous figures, including the Tawafok parliamentary bloc, which holds 44 seats, and is flirting with the Fadila Party, which was a member of the United Iraqi Alliance but broke away last month to oppose the UIA's sectarianism. He has made goodwill visits to numerous Sunni politicians and, more recently, started to court the Kurds as well. One way was to support their claims for Kirkuk becoming part of Iraqi Kurdistan. That is a price Allawi is willing to pay to strengthen his power base at home.
A short while ago, the former prime minister visited Kurdistan and met with its president, Masoud al-Barazani. He asked that Barazani join the anti-Maliki team, but the latter refused to commit himself, in fear of embarrassing his friend and ally Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, who is also a Kurd. With his bloc, topped with Kurdish support, and al-Fadila, Allawi hopes he can secure 140 seats in Parliament - enough to bring down Maliki constitutionally.
PostGlobal panelist Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst and the managing editor of Forward magazine. This article first appeared in Asia Times (April 2, 2007).
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Comments (14)
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((((((((( B R E A K I N G N.E.W.S. )))))))))
Afew minutes ago An F15 was deliberately smashed into the AL AQSA "Golden Dome of the Rock" in Jerusalem, Israel.
The death toll is rising and ewe will report on further coverage as it comes in. AND,
"The unHoly "KABBA" in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, was just destroyed by "Exiles" of the "SHAH" PALAHVIs secret Army who smashed a hijacked Saudi Commercial Airline into it and killing around 3,000 people.
Its as though every muslim has gotten a dagger shot in their hearts and or minds. This means that ISLAM is now Dead! People are yelling: Death to Iran!
please Stay tuned for further developments as the reports come in. Thank You. AND BE WELL!
Well, at the end of the day Its all going to be
the same SHIATT any way we all look at it. And
there will be nothing SUNNI about it!
Its POOF-TIME Ayatollah and all your Mullah!
Ya Ya
April 4, 2007 1:17 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 4, 2007 01:17
You say "there is a conviction' that Iraq is not ready for democracy." A conviction by whom, and where? Has a newer poll been taken in Iraq? Or is this conviction just in Riyadh, Cairo and Amman? And perhaps among the Ba'athists and those who benefited from them? Allawi's problem is that he has been campaigning more among the Arab despots, all unelected, than among his own people. He has tried to preach to the converted, selling a coup to the oil monarchs, instead of trying to sell it to his people....80% of whom will surely reject it.
Cheers
April 4, 2007 12:23 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 4, 2007 00:23
say Good bye to todays ancient Religions. Ya Ya.! :=).
About time!!!
April 3, 2007 11:38 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 3, 2007 23:38
They don't kill one another for it? Gimme a break! No more so than the southern and northern Irish!
April 3, 2007 11:32 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 3, 2007 23:32
Having been Sadaam's eyes and ears in London, Allawi shouldn't be shy about being Bush's in Baghdad!
April 3, 2007 11:30 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 3, 2007 23:30
Ever heard of Ngo Dihn Diem? We shot him in the head.
April 3, 2007 11:29 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 3, 2007 23:29
Allawi? He is the embodiment of the silk-suited opportunist politician with a foreign passport, an irrelevance to practical Iraqi political life. He is hardly a symbol of unity, rather was a symptom of early mismanaged US king-making.
Iraq is in the midst of a civil war. It needs to regain its roots as a nation of many faces, built on home-grown politicians, good or bad. At least such leaders would not be plastic symbols to please an occupying force.
It is Allawi's very lack of genuine integrity, with the smile of a man waiting for his imperial masters to push him forward that marks him as unfortunate. He really should get on a plane back to the south of France, but he's greedy and will wait until he gets some more of the economic spoils.
April 3, 2007 8:57 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 3, 2007 20:57
PARTIAL LIST OF ISLAMIC TERRORIST ACTIVITIES
1968 Robert Kennedy assassinated
1972 Munich Olympics Sep-5,1972 (Black September)
1976 Entebbe Hostage Crisis, June 27, 1976
1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, Nov. 4, 1979 444 days
1979 Grand Mosque Seizure, Nov 20,1979
1981 Assassination of Egyptian President, Oct 6,1981
1982 Assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister, Sept 14, 1982
1983 Bombing of US Embassy in Beirut6, April 18,1983
1983 Bombing of Maring Barricks, Beruit, Oct 23,1983
1984 Hizballah Restaurant Bombing, April 12,1984
1985 Egyptian Airliner Hijacking, Nov 23,1985
1985 Rome Airport murders
1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacked, U.S. Navy diver murdered
1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, Homacidal maniac lived in saddams Iraq
1986 Aircraft Bombing in Greece, March 30, 1986
1988 Pan Am 747 Flight 103 Bombing, Lockerbie, 100's murdered
1988 Berlin Discoteque Bombing, Dec 21,1988
1992 Bombing in Israeli Embassy in Argentina, March 17,1992
1993 Attempted Assassination of Pres. Bush Sr., April 14,1993
1993 First World Trade Center bombing, February 26th, 7 Killed, Hundreds injured, Billions
1994 Air France Hijacking, Dec 24,1994
1995 Attack on US Diplomats in Pakistan, Mar 8,1995
1995 Military Installation Attack, Nov 13, 1995
1995 Kashmiri Hostage taking, July 4,1995
1996 Khobar Towers attack
1996 Sudanese Missionarys Kidnapping, Aug 17,1996
1996 Paris Subway Explosion, Dec 3,1996
1997 Israeli Shopping Mall Bombing, Sept 4, 1997
1997 Yemeni Kidnappings, Oct 30,1997
1998 Somali Hostage taking crisis, April 15,1998
1998 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Peru, Jan 15, 1998
1998 U.S. Kenya Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1998 U.S. Tanzania Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1999 Plot to blow up Space Needle (thwarted) 2000 USS Cole attacked, many U.S. Navy sailors murdered
2000-2003 Intifada against Israel - 100's dead and injured
2000 Manila Bombing, Dec 30,2000
2001 4 Commercial airliners hijacked, 250+ murdered
2001 World Trade Center attacked, 2800+ murdered
2001 Flight 93 murders
2001 Pentagon attacked, 180+ murdered
2002 Reporter Daniel Pearl, kidnapped and murdered
2002 Philippines American missionary, Filipino nurse killed
2002 July 4, El Al attack Los Angeles LAX, several murdered
2002 Bali bombing - 200 dead, 300 injured
2002 Yemen, French Oil Tanker attacked
2002 Marines attacked / murdered in Kuwait
2002 Washington D.C. sniper
2002 Russian Theater attacked, 100+ dead
2002 Nigerian riots against Miss World Pageant, 200 dead, dozens injured
2002 Mombasa Hotel Attacked, 12 dead, dozens injured
2002 Israeli Boeing 757 attacked by missiles, fortunately no one injured
2002 August Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia. 12 dead, dozens injured.
2003 Rusian concert bombing
2003 Phillipines airport and market bombing
2003 Foiled SAM plot in the USA
2003 UN Baghdad HQ Bombing
on and on and on and on their terrorism has gone .........
Qur’an 8:12 “I shall terrorize the infidels.
So wound their bodies and incapacitate them
because they oppose Allah and His Apostle.”
Qur’an 8:57 “If you gain mastery over them in battle,
inflict such a defeat as would terrorize them,
so that they would learn a lesson and be warned.”
These radical Muslims dogs have gone too far. Reminds me a bit of 1979 when these devils took our 52 hostages and held them for 444 days under weak and wimpy liberal Democrat President Jimmy Carter.
You can't negotiate with these terrorists. All they understand is violence and death. It's sickening that the world is standing still and letting these barbaric animals develop and atomic weapon. Then Iran will hol the whole Middle East hostage and give a nuke to a terrorist group that will hit the United States or Israel.
April 3, 2007 8:37 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 3, 2007 20:37
Sami, if I didn't know you from AUB years, I would have said that you are talking on behalf of the Syrian regime. The Allawi formula that you recommend -- Security First, Democracy Second -- brings to mind the formula of most Arab autocrats, on top of them the Damascus rulers.
Basically, what these autocrats, among them Bashar Assad, try to promote, is that the situation in the Arab world is an either or scenario: Either dictatorship and security, or democracy and civil war.
Your fascination with the military and militia figures further substantiates the dictatorship scenario. Allawi was a Baathist. Aoun was the Lebanese Army Commander. They both command a slim parliamentary representation with Allawi's 25/275 parliamentary bloc and Aoun's 15/128 bloc in Lebanese parliament. The short-lived experience of both in rulership of their respective countries should also be questioned. Under Allawi, violence ran high in Iraq despite his crackdown on insurgents in Falluja and Najaf. Under Michel Aoun between 1988 and 1990, Lebanon was divided and saw the bloodiest years of its civil war.
This said, I propose we think of other scenarios to remedy the Iraqi -- and the Lebanese -- situations: Why not topple the Syrian dictatorship? This will break the backbone of the Iraq insurgency and will end Lebanon's troubles. Maybe the troubled democracies of both Iraq and Lebanon stem from the fact that they live among a sea of dictatorships, like roses among thorns.
Granted the Bush democracy domino scenrio in the Middle East did not happen. But perhaps Bush should have leveled down all dictatorships and started building democracies on a comprehensive scale.
April 3, 2007 11:35 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 3, 2007 11:35
Sami, if I didn't know you from AUB years, I would have said that you are talking on behalf of the Syrian regime. The Allawi formula that you recommend -- Security First, Democracy Second -- brings to mind the formula of most Arab autocrats, on top of them the Damascus rulers.
Basically, what these autocrats, among them Bashar Assad, try to promote, is that the situation in the Arab world is an either or scenario: Either dictatorship and security, or democracy and civil war.
Your fascination with the military and militia figures further substantiates the dictatorship scenario. Allawi was a Baathist. Aoun was the Lebanese Army Commander. They both command a slim parliamentary representation with Allawi's 25/275 parliamentary bloc and Aoun's 15/128 bloc in Lebanese parliament. The short-lived experience of both in rulership of their respective countries should also be questioned. Under Allawi, violence ran high in Iraq despite his crackdown on insurgents in Falluja and Najaf. Under Michel Aoun between 1988 and 1990, Lebanon was divided and saw the bloodiest years of its civil war.
This said, I propose we think of other scenarios to remedy the Iraqi -- and the Lebanese -- situations: Why not topple the Syrian dictatorship? This will break the backbone of the Iraq insurgency and will end Lebanon's troubles. Maybe the troubled democracies of both Iraq and Lebanon stem from the fact that they live among a sea of dictatorships, like roses among thorns.
Granted the Bush democracy domino scenrio in the Middle East did not happen. But perhaps Bush should have leveled down all dictatorships and started building democracies on a comprehensive scale.
April 3, 2007 11:23 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 3, 2007 11:23
I really hope the people of Iraq will find peace in their country one day. That they will see an end to the violence and misery. But in reality I think Peace will be a long time in coming to war torn Iraq. Its sad that the people of Iraq had to endure a brutal dictator for years. It looks like Saddams twisted legacy to his people and country is another never ending war in that region.
April 3, 2007 10:33 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 3, 2007 10:33
Iraqi Nationalists, better known as the silent majority, are yearning for a secular leader to salvage their beloved Iraq, and restore its territorial integrity on the basis of the status quo ante July 1990. Such leader must take on the separatist proclivities of the thuggish Kurdish Mafia families, and the Iranian or Wahabbi supported Mullahs.
If Allawi has indeed acquiesced that Kirkuk can be usurped by al Barazani & al Talabani, then his claim of Iraqi nationalism, is an oxymoron indeed.
Even the Baker-Hamilton Iraq study group recommended that so called Kirkuk referendum, scheduled for December of this year, be postponed.
The group was also squarely against giving so called regions control over future oil fields, which directly flies in the face of the criminal designs of the Kurdish warlords.
Allawi must make it clear to the Kurdish Mafia bosses in the three northern Iraqi provinces that Kirkuk is a red line that shall not be crossed. Only then, Allawi may regain his credibility with the Iraqi Nationalists.
Therefore, a visit to Turkey would have been even more apt than his visit to the Arab countries. It might have helped put some pressure on the Kurdish warlords to jettison their goal dismembering Iraq (a loose confederacy).
Instead of appeasing al Barazani on Kirkuk, Allawi should tell the "Sultan of Irbil" to start flying the Iraqi flag in his fief. Anyone who refuses to fly the Iraqi flag, a symbol of nationalism and patriotism, is not worthy of the support of any Iraqi nationalist.
The Iraqi Christians, and Turkmen, who are fiercely nationalistic, have been the victims of Kurdish racism and terrorism. The Iraqi Christians in particular have been, through out history, subjected to heinous atrocities by the Kurds. The 1933 pogrom against the Christian Assyrians, and 1959 pogrom against the Turkmen are just two examples of barbarism by a rather influential minority of Kurdish thugs against other Iraqis.
Instead of gifting Kirkuk to the despicable warlords, Allwai should, perhaps, encourage them to apologize for their crimes against other Iraqis.
By taking on the Kurdish warlords, Allawi will probably face yet a second front with the Ayatollahs in Tehran, as they will come to the aid of their historic puppets al Barazani & al Talabani.
Allawi has already once failed the Iraqi nationalists by associating himself with the quislings who brought about this calamity upon Iraq.
Ayad,
You may be the last hope. Please don't fail the Iraqi nationalists again, and stand up for Kirkuk.
April 2, 2007 11:55 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 2, 2007 23:55
The comparison of Allawi with Aoun is unfair to Allawi. Michel Aoun is far more opportunistic, and Allawi's bid to return to power has a greater chance of success than Michel Aoun's bid to become President of Lebanon. Allawi's position and strategy bears similarity not with Aoun but with Benazir Bhutto's bid to come back to power. The strategy also suffers from the same tragic flaw --- reliance on an imperialist US to force their opponent out by portraying him as duplicitous while they themselves (Allawi and Benazir) cultivate a symmetrical duplicity by arguing at home that they want the bullies/invaders out while currying favour with the same bullies/invaders to come to power.
Of course, their hands will subsequently be tied and the peoples they purport to want to serve will be as badly off as they are now, but with different figureheads.
I am not surpised that the article makes no mention of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the real kingmaker. Sistani will no doubt refuse to contenance any partitioning of Iraq or a federalism that weakens the centre; he will squash any talk of making Kirkuk part of Iraqi Kurdistan; he will want the Sunnis to have their righful place in Iraq and feel comfortable while recognising for Shias the rightful weight in power that has so long been denied to them. In sum, he holds the key to the ideal solution of Iraq's problems. That's why, in the prevailing chaos, he is silent and nobody evokes the crucial role he will inevitably have to play in a stable solution for Iraq.
April 2, 2007 10:37 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 2, 2007 22:37
This whole issue of "IRAQUI GOVERNMENT" is a joke, perpetrated by American politics. The Government has no power outside the Green Zone, moreover, the Government does not see how it can enact the USA's FIRST PRIORITY: the new OIL LAW, and finally it is not subservient enough for USA tastes [eg. protects Shia militias].
As a Final insult to the USA, this government tries to keep in contact with IRan, encourages Irani investments [banks] encourages Irani input into politics, encourages Irani trade, Irani tourism, etc.
The Masters of the Universe have decided that they need a better puppet. Lo and behold, they will arrange with bribes etc that they can yet again have reliable puppet.
The Hypocricity of the USA's explanation for the possible rise of Alawi is his care for the Sunnis. Of course, the USA is in the process of drivng the Sunnies to extinction within Iraq [whether by armaments or by lack of protection].
April 2, 2007 7:16 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 2, 2007 19:16