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description= 4 posts published by Reidar Visser during December 2006;
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iraq, and, for, the, gulf, analysis, archive, december, 2006, archives, categories, meta, my, latest, book, on, amazon, com, twitter, updates, subscribe, recent, posts, timetabled, conditional, surge, strategy, dealing, with, sadrists, study, group, regionalisation, not, balkanisation, federalism, from, below, in, some, historical, comparative, reflections,
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the (697), and (205), for (116), that (114), iraq (100), iraqi (85), with (75), this (65), from (59), would (58), #federalism (45), but (42), was (39), their (38), iqlim (37), some (32), are (32), 2006 (31), has (30), referendum (29), have (28), two (28), not (28), one (27), more (26), may (26), process (24), spain (24), which (24), new (24), regions (24), there (23), had (23), etherington (23), federal (22), regional (22), should (22), politicians (22), level (21), about (21), all (21), even (21), december (21), also (20), such (20), region (20), governorates (20), been (20), any (20), janub (20), united (20), shiite (19), could (19), constitution (18), local (18), political (18), government (18), states (18), surge (18), national (17), sadrists (17), law (16), autonomy (16), into (16), pre (16), governorate (16), were (16), policy (16), other (15), point (15), can (15), many (15), initiative (15), basra (15), poll (15), october (15), its (15), initiatives (15), what (15), they (15), sadrist (15), below (14), will (14), federalisation (14), wasat (14), might (14), issues (13), 2005 (13), today (13), june (13), time (13), 2008 (13), 2010 (13), 2013 (13), these (12), areas (12), current (12), scale (12), most (12), april (12), only (12), forces (12), washington (12), january (12), 2014 (12), 2007 (12), 2009 (12), 2011 (12), 2012 (12), like (11), constitutional (11), under (11), majority (11), than (11), middle (11), najaf (11), baghdad (11), between (11), september (11), kind (11), february (11), situation (11), november (11), august (11), report (10), without (10), administrative (10), politics (10), 2004 (10), state (10), spanish (10), well (10), rafidayn (10), case (10), perhaps (10), south (10), march (10), support (10), same (10), make (10), pro (10), wasit (10), general (10), security (10), reconciliation (10), war (10), control (9), small (9), through (9), whereas (9), far (9), how (9), very (9), those (9), international (9), particular (9), iraqis (9), turn 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essure on iraqi politicians through their own electorates if presented with a credible plan for national reconciliation and the eventual withdrawal of us troops iraqi politicians would find it hard to persist in their current squabbling this would enable the united states to tap into a most remarkable factor in iraqi politics the seemingly unshakeable belief in the concept of national unity that has persisted among ordinary iraqis even in today s violent climate posted in us policy in iraq leverage issues comments off on a timetabled conditional surge a strategy for dealing with the sadrists posted by reidar visser on thursday 21 december 2006 15 18 book review of mark etherington revolt on the tigris the al sadr uprising and the governing of iraq london hurst 2005 252 pages including index the book review was first published in the international journal of contemporary iraqi studies vol 1 no 1 december 2006 and is reproduced here with some additional remarks on a recently proposed shift of us policy towards a security surge and greater isolation of the sadrists mark etherington s revolt on the tigris the al sadr uprising and the governing of iraq recounts the author s experiences as chief civilian coalition official in the province of wasit in iraq from october 2003 to june 2004 three features make this book especially interesting its level headed consideration of the complexities of post war reconstruction as a multi national effort its unique geographical focus on a peripheral province of iraq that does not receive much media coverage and its insightful discussion of the early rise of the sadrist phenomenon in iraqi politics mark etherington is especially well positioned to discuss the intricacies of joint anglo american and wider multi national reconstruction projects in iraq of british origin but brought up in the gulf in an expatriate environment with many american influences etherington straddles the trans atlantic cultural divide and is able to take a detached view of anglo american relations also his particular assignment in iraq gave him insights into several camps at once as a british official etherington was appointed as supreme coalition provisional authority cpa official in wasit province to the south east of baghdad an area that was militarily under polish command and with a degree of civilian oversight and coordination from a regional cpa headquarters under us control in hilla the author makes no bones about the shortcomings of the colourful carnival that was the coalition of the willing in iraq in 2003 2004 troops had been mustered from small and inexperienced countries to create the image of a strong international coalition behind the war effort under what some americans bluntly referred to as a rent an army scheme a republican ideological preference for using subcontractors wherever possible led to a maze of private companies even in fields normally reserved for the state such as nation building and democratisation the result was a byzantine patchwork of organisations each with their own values and idiosyncrasies and each with their own motives for being present in iraq a number of difficulties arose from this particular constellation of participants private us subcontractors were not turned on to do certain security tasks that would normally have been provided in a traditional military mission at one point they were unable to fortify etherington s headquarters because the process of fortifying them was deemed to be too dangerous nation building experts that had been hired in were knowledgeable about water management agricultural issues and women s rights but included no personnel capable of attending to what etherington describes as more immediate concerns in the fields of justice and general administration ukrainian military forces in the region were robust but hopelessly wedded to their tanks and essentially incapable of performing any meaningful security functions at the micro level in kut the provincial capital of wasit us marines had been in control over kut for several months immediately following the occupation but had left no intelligence records and thereby forced etherington s team to start from scratch etherington succeeds in describing all these complexities in a frank and convincing manner he is merciless in detailing errors and that includes those committed by himself personally he also manages to bring attention to a very basic point that is lost in many other accounts of this period the watershed that was felt by cpa staff as a result of the 15 november 2003 agreement on handover to iraqi civilian authorities by june 2004 etherington and others with him had foreseen a much slower and gradualist process towards the restoration of iraqi sovereignty but due to the sharp handover deadline in the new agreement any aspirations about a thorough and systematic process were effectively crushed the original geographical focus is another strength of the book wasit is a mainly shiite province on the tigris south east of baghdad with little claim to fame it has neither holy sites nor copious amounts of oil etherington describes in considerable detail how he worked to set up the rudiments of political and administrative structures in this region and provides rich information about the politics of a largely unknown iraqi periphery during a crucial period of a transition particularly interesting is the portrayal of wasit society as divided between a minority of politically active political opportunists some party apparatchiks some tribal leaders and a large mass of silent middle classes who at first were passive in politics anecdotal information from other parts of iraq suggests that such patterns were widespread beyond kut but in other books this important point often drowns in accounts that focus exclusively on the formal political stage etherington provides an illuminating description of attempts to interact with and engage the silent majority and also discusses the dangers involved in the perhaps more convenient solution of surrendering to the loud cries from professional and tribal politicians by staying focused on kut etherington manages to produce an insightful account of local politics that doubtless is of relevance to iraq more generally and indeed to post war democratisation in a wider global perspective the third important theme in the book is contained in the title the sadr uprising of april 2004 us accounts of this episode are often focused on the military modalities of the crisis and tend to be characterised by an uncompromising view of the sadrists etherington seems to have had an open mind at the outset and is clearly aware of the dangers of facile essentialisms as regards religion at one point he accuses american officials of harbouring an almost visceral suspicion of islam he is also conscious of other problems involved in post war operations in foreign cultures declaring that he mistrusted his own cargo of western values and speaking of unease about inflicting more turbulence on a society i did not yet understand so how did etherington interact with what was perhaps the most native of post war iraqi political movements the sadrist phenomenon even to etherington the sadrist uprising seems to have come as a surprise he describes a situation in late 2003 in which two currents vied for local domination the pro sistani faction which was numerically dominant and the sadrist group which was smaller but louder he recounts his own tentative policies in dealing with the sadrists sometimes allowing them access to the local television station sometimes refusing it inviting them to join a local council but without obtaining their actual participation refraining from personally meeting their leader this on account of their anti state attitude as seen in their separate militia and legal court structures but at the same time allowing for contacts between sadrists and subordinate cpa staff in the end it appears he was as exhausted with the sadrists as the americans were an act of collusion between a local police commander and the sadrists prompted etherington to take action against this alliance shortly before open unrest began in april 2004 and in a subsequent private crisis meeting with the top sadrist representative in kut the gap between the two sides appeared to be just as unbridgeable as that between the americans and muqtada al sadr s supporters in najaf etherington found the sadrist cleric to be impossibly young and implacably opposed to the foreign forces thus ended the dialogue days later following the arrest of several sadrists in najaf and elsewhere in iraq kut was in armed rebellion and the cpa were forced to temporarily withdraw how could this happen to some extent etherington explains the revolt as a failure to engage the middle classes something which in turn left the opportunists to dominate the scene in his words the jaysh al mahdi danced briefly on a largely empty stage etherington then goes on to describe how in a final push before the june 2004 handover a new provincial governor was selected caucus style to ensure a more meaningful involvement of that important silent majority he carefully details the dilemmas involved in choosing between unrestrained democracy which would always be tempered by the fact that the political parties including the sadrists mostly had militias at their disposal and paternalist efforts to circumvent the opportunists by promoting selected independent candidates outside the parties and without tribal affiliations the outcome of this sort of process could smack of neo imperialism whether intended or not a local representative of the supreme council for the islamic revolution in iraq sciri was sidelined in the wasit council allegedly because the council chairman had indicated that the candidature of this person would be unacceptable to etherington an independent candidate was selected instead apparently to the cpa s satisfaction they had been wary of the influence of the sciri militia to what extent this effort to engage the educated middle classes was truly successful in kut remains a moot point though later in the january 2005 local elections a coalition in which sciri participated would receive around 75 per cent of the vote in wasit whereas the december 2005 parliamentary elections returned a sadrist candidate prominently placed as number two candidate on the united iraqi alliance list in the province on top of this from january to december 2005 the absolute number of secularist voters in wasit was reduced by some 50 per cent even if the cpa may have succeeded in ensuring a head start for those elements they believed to represent the true centre in iraqi politics it seems clear that other forces prevailed in the subsequent period towards the end of 2006 many of the problems discussed by etherington assumed renewed importance today rumours from washington suggest that once more the united states is headed for confrontation with the sadrists leaked policy papers from the national security council indicate us ambitions about some kind of reconfigured iraqi coalition government supposedly a moderate one where the sadrists would be excluded from office this in turn would facilitate a move by the iraqi government possibly aided by a surge of us forces or by what is apparently seen as good militia by washington the pro iranian badr brigades to rein in sadrist paramilitaries which are now considered one of the greatest threats to security in and around baghdad even on the surface such a new coalition would have obvious problems although the parliamentary arithmetic might support it it would be a huge gamble to isolate one of the few blocs inside the iraqi parliament that can claim to have a degree of support on the iraqi streets rumours suggest that the other sadrist grouping the fadila would also remain outside government also it could cause a dramatic reduction of grassroots shiite support for the government without any appreciable strengthening of its sunni level of support reportedly only the iraqi islamic party would be involved in this case a perpetuation of the sunni insurgency along with increased sadrist violence might be expected and this on top of problems already underway in basra with the fadila and above all this would be just another deal among the cadres of the green zone many of them returnees from exile without any substantial links to the millions of ordinary iraqis who care less about ideological bickering and the finer points of federalism than about security and services to a non us observer it really is difficult to grasp the logic of the policy now being proposed still it has to be remembered that to many americans muqtada al sadr means war whereas the rest of the world tended to view the sadrist uprising in spring 2004 as yet another facet of general iraqi discontent about the occupation us media reported it much in terms of a d day operation there were phone ins with agitated citizens on the pros and cons of an advance on najaf and muqtada al sadr was soon portrayed as a demon and arch enemy of the united states ironically muqtada al sadr who is easily the shiite islamist with the most long standing iraqi nationalist credentials is frequently described in such publications as the new york times as pro iranian is there an alternative to the confrontationist position the evidence from the south of iraq is not too promising with another interesting and recent british account that of rory stewart the prince of the marshes and other occupational hazards of a year in iraq clearly demonstrating that a more reconciliatory approach to the sadrists in maysan and dhi qar ultimately did not pay off but there are other cases that can be of interest in basra for instance the fadila party which shares much of the sadrist ideology has at least periodically demonstrated a more businesslike attitude than could be expected on the basis of the anti western rhetoric of their spiritual leader muhammad al yaqubi early in 2006 they claimed to have rejected any oil dealings with the british on account of the occupation but at the same time were happy to publicise their alleged oil contacts with the russians and whereas the increasing involvement of sadrists in government in baghdad has mostly been portrayed as an appropriation of government property for the sake of party and militia interests there is also a different aspect to this last summer western media made much of the resignation from government service by a leading christian iraqi archaeologist it was alleged that iraq s cultural heritage was coming under threat from sadrists who now had come in control via the ministry of tourism on closer inspection however it emerged that the main complaint concerned a shift of emphasis from classical mesopotamian to islamic archaeology surely in the bigger scheme of things a temporary decline in babylonian archaeology in favour of a focus on islamic med...
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