Iraqis united in hatred of US
Make sure to read the spin in that second paragraph.
Yeah, that is good news.
Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of "occupying forces" as the key to national reconciliation, according to focus groups conducted for the U.S. military last month.
Yeah, that is good news.
posted by mikevotes at
1:49 PM
2 Comments:
Also from the article:
Warshaw added: "In Iraq, I just don't hear statements that come from any of the Sunni, Shiite or Kurdish groups that say 'We recognize that we need to share power with the others, that we can't truly dominate.' "
This is the bottom line when it comes to 'reconciliation'. The major reconciliation benchmarks are pretty hollow, and we seem to be pinning all of our hopes on them.
Provincial elections have little impact when most of the 'governing' is done by militias and 'Awakening Councils' that are unelected. The Hydrocarbon Law gives the Iraqi gov't a small slice of the oil revenue, which it then filters through several levels of corruption, where a fraction of a pittance ends up in the average Iraqis' hands - and the oil companies get to keep the books that determine how much they have to give to the Iraqi gov't in the first place. This is supposed to turn things around?
De-Baathification is a moot point in a collapsed economy, and being able to get a job in a government that is irrelevant compared to the militias and Councils is hardly going to produce any kind of dramatic change. Nothing prevents a Baathist from joining, commanding, or supporting a militia or Council now.
Until the Kurds, Shia, and Sunnis accept that they will all have to get along and create a nation, you will have nothing but each party struggling for dominance at the expence of the others. The article seems to point to this situation as being distant. Very few people in Iraq seem to think of themselves as an Iraqi first, and the member of a sectarian faction second.
The article also points out the military's ability and inclination to turn any bad news into positive spin. Need we wonder who inspired that policy?
By
Todd Dugdale , at 2:50 PM
Right. There are limited incentives for the factions to reconcile, and every one of those incentives is selfish.
And, the US's posted "reconcilation measures" don't deal with any of them.
I might argue a little on the provincial elections. I think if they were held, they would have some impact because they would likely deliver more political power to the militia groups. They get a lot right now by threatening and pulling on sympathetic officials, but if they held the offices more directly, it would blow out any pretense of an independent government.
Plus, the more offices the factions hold, the even less likely reconciliation will be.
But, overall, the spin is overwhelming.
By
mikevotes, at 3:41 PM
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