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description= 2 posts published by Reidar Visser during March 2007;
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2007 march iraq and gulf analysis iraq and gulf analysis home about archives august 2015 january 2015 december 2014 october 2014 september 2014 august 2014 july 2014 june 2014 may 2014 april 2014 march 2014 february 2014 january 2014 december 2013 november 2013 october 2013 september 2013 august 2013 july 2013 june 2013 may 2013 april 2013 march 2013 february 2013 january 2013 december 2012 november 2012 october 2012 september 2012 august 2012 july 2012 june 2012 may 2012 april 2012 march 2012 february 2012 january 2012 december 2011 november 2011 october 2011 september 2011 august 2011 july 2011 june 2011 may 2011 april 2011 march 2011 february 2011 january 2011 december 2010 november 2010 october 2010 september 2010 august 2010 july 2010 june 2010 may 2010 april 2010 march 2010 february 2010 january 2010 december 2009 november 2009 october 2009 september 2009 august 2009 july 2009 june 2009 may 2009 april 2009 march 2009 february 2009 january 2009 december 2008 november 2008 october 2008 september 2008 august 2008 july 2008 june 2008 may 2008 april 2008 march 2008 february 2008 january 2008 december 2007 november 2007 october 2007 september 2007 august 2007 july 2007 june 2007 may 2007 april 2007 march 2007 february 2007 january 2007 december 2006 november 2006 october 2006 september 2006 august 2006 july 2006 june 2006 may 2006 april 2006 march 2006 february 2006 january 2006 december 2005 november 2005 october 2005 august 2005 categories basra and southern regionalism 34 de baathification 11 federalism in sunni majority areas of iraq 14 federalism in the middle east 6 iranian influence in iraq 55 iraq regionalism general 27 iraq and soft partition 39 iraq international relations 5 iraq local elections 2013 21 iraq parliament membership 13 iraq parliamentary elections 2014 26 iraq s 2010 parliamentary election 175 iraqi constitutional issues 280 iraqi nationalism 95 kirkuk and disputed territories 47 oil in iraq 46 rule of law 2 sectarian master narrative 55 shiite sectarian federalism 16 uia dynamics 133 uncategorized 59 us policy in iraq leverage issues 67 meta create account log in entries feed comments feed wordpress com my latest book on amazon com from just world books available on amazon com twitter updates tweets by reidarvisser march 2007 m t w t f s s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 feb apr subscribe entries rss comments rss recent posts legality and constitutionality questions in iraq s reform push the federalism dimension in yemen s draft constitution federalism and decentralization in libya s constitutional proposals groundbreaking iraq supreme court ruling on the law on mp replacement after the rise of isis will iraq s shiites secede additional ministers approved for the iraq cabinet the controversial kurdish ministers in the new iraqi cabinet the iraqi parliament fails to approve new security ministers the iraqi parliament approves the abbadi cabinet haydar al abbadi is the new iraq pm candidate maliki the presidency and parliament in the iraq pm nomination battle pm nomination trouble in iraq iraq elects fuad masum as new president for the first time in iraq a large field of presidential candidates the iraqi parliament elects its new speakership archive for march 2007 democratic alternatives for iraq posted by reidar visser on tuesday 20 march 2007 23 59 with the four year anniversary for the start of the iraq war and in the context of fresh legislative efforts by the democratic party to challenge george w bush s iraq policy the democrats attempts to establish their own alternative discourse on iraq warrant some closer scrutiny ever since 2003 a major problem for the democratic party has been to formulate criticism of the conduct of the iraq war without being accused of harbouring unpatriotic attitudes they now appear to have found a solution the gist of the new democratic initiative in the legislative arena a bill titled the supporting our troops and veterans health care act is to construe the american military as the primary victim of the iraq conflict by putting the welfare of american troops centre stage in their bill and the accompanying rhetoric focusing for instance on such issues as recovery from posttraumatic stress the democrats may be on their way to a position on iraq which their opponents may find far more difficult to challenge however in order to embellish and amplify this new message democratic party politicians and a growing number of their allies among republican defectors employ rhetorical strategies that are likely to make life worse for the most important victim of the iraq conflict the iraqi people to justify the focus on the welfare of the troops and that of the american military more generally it is necessary for democrats to portray most aspects of the us presence in iraq as utterly meaningless hence the need to define the iraq situation as primarily an irremediable civil war with a small contingent of al qaida fighters holed up in remote anbar province the sole military target worthy of us military expenditure the rest of the conflict is supposedly the iraqis own fault it is all convoluted internal affairs where any attempt by the international community to offer assistance is likely to be of limited value on the basis of this core assumption a number of fallacies are being nurtured john kerry has found it useful to evoke the fact that divisions between shiites and sunnis are more than a thousand years old surely divisions between protestants and catholics in a number of european countries also go back several centuries and generally have a bloodier history what is kerry s point in an astonishing statement chuck hagel a republican defector and war critic has openly suggested that killings without a sectarian motive are somehow worse than sectarian killings and joseph biden is still unrelenting in his calls for a three partite ethno religious federation a scheme that suffers from the major defect that a majority of iraqis are not asking for it biden et al should be challenged to present evidence of support for this particular tripartite scheme as opposed to federalism as a general principle among iraqi shiites outside sciri and their closest friends who together make up perhaps 30 of the united iraqi alliance in this way the iraqis are branded as a people incapable of living together and the small segment of iraqis who have truly destructive agendas are being rewarded for their efforts all of this is calculated to take away attention from the fact that ever since 2003 al qaida s goal has been to provoke civil war in iraq but to isolate the sectarian killings of baghdad from al qaida s activities in anbar where they may be better entrenched would be a flagrant disregard of cause and effect similarly to dismiss iraq s civil strife as chronic as democratic commentators increasingly do requires blind ignorance of centuries of iraqi coexistence as seen for instance during the monarchy 1921 1958 during ottoman rule in the nineteenth century when shiites and sunnis coexisted in the two mixed provinces of basra and baghdad and during the reign of the baghdad based georgian mamluks who ruled from mosul to the gulf between 1747 and 1831 and to diagnose a state of irreconcilable sectarian conflict in contemporary iraq would be to overlook the fact that it is the post 2003 iraqi elites of returned exiles rather than the iraqi population at large that are behind many of today s most outrageous sectarian maximalist demands in historical perspective it is the current heightened sectarian tension particularly acute since 2006 that is the artificial aspect of the iraq situation and it should be an american responsibility to try to reverse this situation as part of a withdrawal strategy the problem with the new democratic legislation is that it provides iraq s incumbent elites with few incentives to change their behaviour perform according to our benchmarks and you shall be rewarded with a slight extension of the us military presence fail to meet the benchmarks and we shall start our withdrawal right away in all probability if a us withdrawal is to commence as early as in july this year the iraqi elites that are now in power can be expected to start stockpiling for a more universal civil war true more responsible withdrawal plans come with a transition element and a multilateral framework for handling the post withdrawal situation instead of leaving it to the iraqis to slug it out within a sealed arena as seems to be the democratic recommendation but also in the proposals for increased multilateralism there are certain problems regarding the underlying assumptions about iraqi elites the kurds and many shiites will probably be happy to participate in multilateral talks as long as this means just talks and conferences but any attempt by other arab states at exercising real power would probably be dismissed as foreign interference iraqi shiites may not be terribly enthusiastic about their elected politicians but they do seem quite determined not to have their future controlled by jordanians or saudis or egyptians if such an attempt to regionalise the iraq question should end with an impasse this would lead to a situation in which sectarian elites propelled to power after 2003 would have a head start on everyone else the problem with the bush administration s current policy is the opposite but it has a similar effect with a seemingly programmatic focus on the military as opposed to the political track the push on the iraqi elites to behave in a reconciliatory fashion appears to be limited and ineffective most iraqis critical of the current situation think revision of the iraqi constitution is the key to progress but while the constitutional revision committee does a lot of travelling abroad and has very few business meetings in baghdad these days us officials seem happy to describe even very modest achievements as progress on the national reconciliation front bringing criminals to justice and moving more iraqi troops into baghdad were highlighted by bush spokesman gordon johndroe in february and more recently much has been made of a short visit by iraqi premier nuri al maliki to ramadi by dismissing early progress on the national reconciliation front as unrealistic washington is effectively sending the signal that they do not intend to push very hard on those forces that are most bitterly opposed to constitutional revision the kurds and sciri this may be consonant with new ideas of piecemeal approach to national reconciliation but it will not look good if the sole measure that actually comes out of this is an oil law that guarantees access to iraq for foreign companies recalibrating the iraqi polity requires profound institutional change not scattered meetings and conferences ironically a more workable policy could be crafted on basis of the very template currently being used by democratic leaders to challenge the republicans in the us congress during the initial debate on the supporting our troops act john murtha complained that nuri al maliki had been arrogant in his request for more guns to iraqi forces maliki had said that if guns were not provided by the us iraq would get them from elsewhere what murtha and indeed bush could do would be to follow exactly the same course as that adopted by the democrats towards the request from the administration for an emergency war supplemental they added more money and attached riders to it in order to bring it closer to their own ideas about troop welfare why not attach some realistic riders to us military and aid packages to iraq why not make the provision of guns conditional on progress towards constitutional reform and the holding of local elections in this way it would be possible to create a package that would be so attractive to the iraqi electorate that iraqi politicians would stultify themselves by opposing it security military hardware and development yes but also timetables for both national reconciliation and the withdrawal of us forces most ordinary iraqis would happily forsake sectarian pet projects if progress could be achieved in these areas strangely however washington seems to focus on the imagined threat of some sort of popular uprising if a few of the holy cows herded by iraq s green zone politicians were to be slaughtered a more balanced mix of sticks and carrots will be required if the goal is to rouse iraqi leaders from their current inertia and help them act according to national rather than sectarian ideals this is also where the democratic party could make a constructive contribution instead of getting locked in a simplistic and ahistorical civil war discourse which overlooks the complexity of today s iraq situation posted in sectarian master narrative us policy in iraq leverage issues comments off on democratic alternatives for iraq basra the reluctant seat of shiastan posted by reidar visser on monday 12 march 2007 15 31 on december 24 2005 an iraqi writing under the signature hammad published a remarkable message on a website devoted to southern iraqi affairs in the name of god the merciful and compassionate to the activists of the world to the united nations look at the south look at the richest area in the world in terms of oil agriculture culture and science but look at us and you will find cities destroyed as if they were sumerian ruins the age of the tyrant saddam came to an end and everything was going to change but nothing changed the people of the south are marginalized and have no representation in government when we turn to the government they tell us the iraqi government is a spoils system and the south will obtain its share through the shi i parties sir the majority of the leaders of the shi i parties are from the middle euphrates area and baghdad they give all the positions to people from those areas and don t give a fig about the south full story here posted in basra and southern regionalism shiite sectarian federalism comments off on basra the reluctant seat of shiastan create a free website or blog at wordpress com subscribe subscribed iraq and gulf analysis join 203 other subscribers sign me up already have a wordpress com account log in now privacy iraq and gulf analysis subscribe subscribed sign up log in report this content view site in reader manage subscriptions collapse this bar design a site like this with wordpress com get started
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