Meta tags:
description= 6 posts published by Reidar Visser during November 2008;
Headings (most frequently used words):
the, of, iraq, and, on, is, in, basra, gulf, analysis, archive, for, november, 2008, archives, categories, meta, my, latest, book, amazon, com, twitter, updates, subscribe, recent, posts, withdrawal, treaty, passed, shiite, leaders, disagree, integration, sons, into, army, signs, competition, struggle, about, federalism, an, initiative, to, create, federal, region, launched, obama, administration, question, leverage, iraqi, minorities, get, special, representation, provincial, elections, law,
Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (466), and (148), that (93), for (80), iraq (72), iraqi (63), with (51), this (43), basra (41), more (33), has (32), maliki (31), federal (30), have (29), been (29), are (28), one (27), government (27), from (24), 2008 (24), but (23), would (22), forces (20), their (20), #region (20), kurdish (19), they (19), november (19), 2006 (19), elections (18), was (18), isci (18), than (18), parliament (18), law (17), october (17), which (17), reform (17), support (16), not (16), political (16), 2007 (16), other (15), kurds (15), july (15), shabak (15), some (15), may (15), federalism (15), 2009 (15), who (14), about (14), leverage (14), were (13), there (13), any (13), its (13), obama (13), will (13), august (13), 2010 (13), 2013 (13), posted (12), representation (12), still (12), september (12), seems (12), sectarian (12), such (12), shiite (12), withdrawal (12), iqlim (12), 2014 (12), 2011 (12), 2012 (12), issues (11), position (11), also (11), governorate (11), should (11), could (11), minorities (10), new (10), far (10), today (10), first (10), all (10), seats (10), many (10), what (10), his (10), security (10), june (10), april (10), december (10), january (10), create (9), special (9), constitutional (9), had (9), christians (9), baghdad (9), parties (9), where (9), south (9), between (9), kurdistan (9), much (9), referendum (9), janub (9), february (9), march (9), comments (8), provincial (8), nationalism (8), minority (8), representatives (8), mistura (8), decision (8), over (8), these (8), pro (8), local (8), against (8), kind (8), two (8), since (8), off (7), those (7), seat (7), however (7), next (7), likely (7), among (7), process (7), adopted (7), most (7), framework (7), administration (7), policy (7), itself (7), can (7), nuri (7), biden (7), iran (7), oil (7), surge (7), army (7), iranian (7), leaders (7), 2005 (7), less (7), demands (7), like (6), com (6), report (6), version (6), time (6), quotas (6), only (6), both (6), united (6), least (6), council (6), even (6), might (6), plan (6), number (6), call (6), supreme (6), idea (6), groups (6), case (6), system (6), constitution (6), towards (6), reidar (6), visser (6), states (6), scheme (6), without (6), american (6), initiative (6), petition (6), project (6), integration (6), gulf (5), now (5), alternative (5), example (5), proposal (5), uia (5), expressed (5), arab (5), struggle (5), small (5), them (5), challenge (5), question (5), identity (5), kirkuk (5), yazidis (5), islamic (5), ethno (5), national (5), very (5), regard (5), certain (5), out (5), parliamentary (5), well (5), turn (5), because (5), into (5), him (5), strong (5), sofa (5), year (5), legal (5), competing (5), governorates (5), fadila (5), opposition (5), get (4), wordpress (4), analysis (4), already (4), join (4), instead (4), members (4), nationalist (4), through (4), called (4), attempt (4), councils (4), mosul (4), context (4), terms (4), different (4), representative (4), independent (4), religious (4), iraqis (4), within (4), similar (4), article (4), regional (4), hence (4), passed (4), electoral (4), received (4), attention (4), quite (4), offer (4), resistance (4), bush (4), schemes (4), force (4), reconciliation (4), increasingly (4), work (4), southern (4), regionalism (4), popular (4), additional (4), general (4), entity (4), dhi (4), qar (4), votes (4), past (4), parts (4), log (3), sign (3), subscribe (3), account (3), wanted (3), whether (3), last (3), limited (3), yesterday (3), although (3), clear (3), cut (3), iraqiyya (3), perhaps (3), qaddo (3), critical (3), exclude (3), especially (3), brigades (3), presidential (3), whereas (3), supporters (3), above (3), total (3), formation (3), area (3), home (3), sense (3), motives (3), nationalists (3), want (3), focus (3), wider (3), christian (3), during (3), latest (3), creation (3), sabaeans (3), group (3), another (3), thereby (3), issue (3), politics (3), shiites (3), when (3), same (3), become (3), majority (3), specified (3), radical (3), see (3), too (3), krg (3), does (3), make (3), powers (3), something (3), rather (3), leadership (3), consider (3), under (3), areas (3), long (3), involving (3), questions (3), key (3), democratic (3), then (3), making (3), earlier (3), status (3), needed (3), agenda (3), greater (3), degree (3), conditional (3), engagement (3), stronger (3), few (3), interested (3), desire (3), influence (3), control (3), scale (3), better (3), kahl (3), compromises (3), need (3), after (3), enough (3), coalition (3), result (3), based (3), ago (3), emergence (3), partners (3), centralism (3), large (3), residual (3), military (3), believe (3), future (3), means (3), recent (3), further (3), separate (3), maysan (3), around (3), prominent (3), regions (3), commission (3), give (3), required (3), population (3), signs (3), important (3), media (3), growing (3), generally (3), vote (3), sons (3), dynamics (3), debate (3), awakening (3), full (3), treaty (3), islamist (3), managed (3), held (3), deal (3), direction (3), return (3), sunni (3), sahwat (3), cabinet (3), ministers (3), site (2), view (2), subscribed (2), free (2), overall (2), voted (2), joined (2), late (2), seen (2), daawa (2), community (2), did (2), battle (2), sadrists (2), expressing (2), themselves (2), best (2), indicated (2), times (2), assimilate (2), highlighted (2), designation (2), satisfaction (2), got (2), foremost (2), nineveh (2), numbers (2), major (2), conversely (2), almost (2), third (2), yazidi (2), member (2), done (2), nominally (2), turkmen (2), eventually (2), prevailed (2), divided (2), becoming (2), non (2), calculating (2), ethnic (2), others (2), prefer (2), thus (2), bill (2), press (2), reports (2), suggested (2), rest (2), final (2), clauses (2), envisaged (2), described (2), wifaq (2), said (2), focused (2), whole (2), followed (2), entire (2), sunnis (2), always (2), compete (2), objectionable (2), tradition (2), back (2), language (2), claims (2), muhasasa (2), stake (2), revisit (2), half (2), three (2), objections (2), power (2), sharing (2), place (2), internal (2), affairs (2), explicitly (2), specific (2), often (2), agreement (2), changes (2), basic (2), state (2), constituencies (2), alternatives (2), current (2), possible (2), immune (2), autonomy (2), along (2), politicians (2), enjoy (2), directed (2), simply (2), reject (2), involve (2), real (2), think (2), exploit (2), contrast (2), line (2), opposite (2), role (2), ever (2), use (2), suggestions (2), early (2), side (2), feel (2), ranging (2), comes (2), essentially (2), country (2), americans (2), decline (2), extended (2), hope (2), part (2), run (2), appears (2), assumptions (2), suggest (2), significant (2), troops (2), armed (2), strongman (2), vis (2), fact (2), 2003 (2), using (2), anti (2), interest (2), achieve (2), anything (2), set (2), keep (2), little (2), help (2), rebuilding (2), our (2), redeploy (2), month (2), months (2), remain (2), efforts (2), toward (2), barack (2), approach (2), failed (2), levels (2), disputed (2), territories (2), victory (2), launched (2), ones (2), main (2), nine (2), launch (2), face (2), pre (2), poll (2), particular (2), timeline (2), including (2), principle (2), joining (2), onwards (2), emerged (2), wail (2), abd (2), latif (2), tribal (2), party (2), according (2), meet (2), draft (2), consists (2), subsequently (2), clearly (2), former (2), competition (2), wasat (2), versus (2), western (2), players (2), friendly (2), tehran (2), promoting (2), bigger (2), years (2), tri (2), outside (2), trouble (2), stage (2), scenario (2), challenging (2), southerners (2), mentioned (2), simultaneously (2), remained (2), just (2), demanding (2), disagree (2), relating (2), thursday (2), decided (2), hiwar (2), watani (2), tawafuq (2), concessions (2), profound (2), before (2), strategic (2), document (2), committing (2), days (2), negotiations (2), bilateral (2), relations (2), washington (2), enhanced (2), rule (2), going (2), elects (2), nomination (2), abbadi (2), rss (2), entries (2), amazon (2), feed (2), 2015 (2), started, design, collapse, bar, manage, subscriptions, reader, content, privacy, 203, subscribers, website, blog, reduce, won, day, 106, writing, unclear, abandoned, minute, adopting, reduced, advocating, per, battlefronts, identify, opponent, examples, favour, intricacies, matter, recording, hunayn, originally, elected, alliance, list, sympathy, front, fiercely, attempts, angry, television, interview, furat, praised, confronting, hadi, amiri, badr, protecting, complained, victims, veto, celebrated, triumph, none, fending, contest, understood, gerrymander, forthcoming, hotly, contested, compared, unlikely, impact, governments, agreed, change, makes, moved, intransigence, recognition, espousing, affiliated, proposing, apart, obvious, advantages, staying, good, calculation, able, stack, territorial, ambitions, owe, loyalties, serve, dissatisfaction, rejection, myriad, involved, aim, included, similarly, methods, defining, common, assyrian, chaldeans, tend, denomination, becomes, easily, compatible, ideas, challenged, decrease, fifty, percent, sabaean, believed, follow, closely, staffan, incarnation, hitherto, strongly, opposed, occasion, plot, divide, nation, arrangement, supported, khayrallah, basri, took, persuasion, accept, represented, historical, homeland, achieving, modus, vivendi, scrapped, outcry, swift, declarations, solidarity, spectrum, stressed, big, difference, micro, larger, frowned, upon, except, reason, grey, zone, turkmens, mostly, dismissed, emulation, lebanese, honoured, ottoman, formal, distinctions, muslims, jews, logic, gradually, accepted, northern, whose, history, distinctive, worthwhile, roughly, specifically, reserved, while, contentious, easy, formidable, legislated, detailed, arrangements, distribution, possess, authority, decisions, enumerated, shared, exclusive, incorporated, misreported, news, agencies, ignore, practice, secondly, mention, provocative, peoples, linguistic, traditions, pan, umbrella, inhabited, annexation, targets, finally, awaited, modification, adds, tortuous, disagreements, structure, gerrymandering, monday, makers, exceedingly, straightforward, consist, singling, chance, repair, appoint, revision, committee, energies, inclusive, fair, doing, accusations, meddling, second, builds, externally, induced, shock, exploiting, exists, scientist, proposed, internationally, guaranteed, plus, lines, åland, islands, finland, building, corollary, problem, artificial, alliances, biggest, backing, purport, represent, recalibration, impose, approaches, come, advantage, difficult, therefore, liam, anderson, camp, feels, grand, compromise, aspect, dayton, style, settlement, mark, tough, goes, extreme, offering, emerge, effectively, reserves, saudi, arabia, worked, grounded, realities, brian, katulis, marc, lynch, peter, juul, argument, assumption, perception, incorrect, thesis, prospect, minds, altruistic, supposedly, order, survive, positions, again, spoke, accomplished, wide, transition, objective, strength, perceives, room, manoeuvre, tied, discourse, sovereignty, takes, foreign, interference, faced, response, willing, bullied, reforms, behest, foreigners, thankful, ruler, strings, attached, maybe, base, boosted, increasing, friends, failing, symptomatic, tanzim, apparently, plans, separately, missing, appreciation, happened, wonderful, success, institutional, materialised, violence, worthless, temporary, stop, gap, measures, infusion, bribing, militants, person, enormously, strengthened, suggestion, met, ridicule, powerful, figure, undeniable, point, potential, tool, repression, authoritarian, rulers, envious, rediscovered, ideological, superstructure, criticism, longstanding, withdraw, beyond, care, realistically, unilateral, ambitious, aims, outlined, answer, embodies, several, forward, comprehensively, center, authored, colin, michèle, flournoy, shawn, brimley, titled, put, briefly, longer, strengthen, accordingly, stay, training, advisers, bonus, theory, shaping, inheritance, removal, responsible, phased, commanders, ground, consultation, experts, safely, combat, pace, remove, conduct, targeted, counter, terrorism, missions, qaeda, protect, diplomatic, civilian, personnel, build, permanent, bases, continue, train, move, away, sectarianism, joe, must, apply, pressure, accommodation, solution, differences, blank, check, take, responsibility, substantially, spend, revenues, own, reconstruction, sure, engage, society, forge, revenue, equitable, provision, services, aid, displaced, expectations, substantial, reduction, follows, friday, aspects, connected, each, respect, creating, huge, border, enthusiasm, entail, difficulties, complicated, roadmap, wish, rich, super, option, launching, locally, decide, modalities, poorly, najaf, lack, clarity, trend, attitudes, witness, gradual, retreat, propaganda, renewed, centralised, harmful, extension, remains, fate, influenced, struggles, numerous, ambiguities, politically, consideration, coexisted, neighbouring, secularists, amr, faiz, islamists, tiny, step, published, newspapers, add, names, tenth, voter, necessary, participation, win, formed, cannot, changed, read, framers, possibility, together, parliamentarian, announced, requesting, standalone, submitted, featuring, 800, signatures, petitioners, sufficient, requirement, voters, initial, correspond, voting, 740, 000, tuesday, conclude, trends, revived, variants, regionalisms, influential, tendency, emphasise, variant, outcome, bids, dominating, ideology, necessarily, finds, problematic, contrary, life, death, hardliners, spun, pact, scene, struggling, regionalist, happy, brand, masterful, undertaking, maximise, whilst, considerably, smaller, imaginary, shiistan, known, initiators, drive, campaign, public, unlike, sponsors, sudden, inspire, sinister, interpretations, persons, being, genuinely, precisely, sort, lacks, detail, exact, deadline, issuing, calls, exist, theoretically, given, complicate, matters, acting, spoiler, supportive, apparent, revival, individuals, considered, abruptly, organised, conference, appeared, incompatible, grander, designs, patrons, normally, sympathetic, basrawis, criticised, try, alone, istibyan, considering, bid, single, 2004, working, slightly, tripartite, union, somewhat, circles, uni, historically, presented, tried, promote, hardly, left, remaining, six, dominated, exception, wasit, transformation, hurdle, scrutinised, submission, petitions, certified, representing, electorate, federalists, task, mustering, actually, wednesday, acute, post, concerns, fear, prime, minister, way, dealt, story, pdf, here, promise, abbas, bayati, close, ties, thundered, linking, tampering, voiced, nonetheless, agree, adoption, demanded, cross, behind, bland, discuss, represents, optation, reluctant, nevertheless, seem, promising, fragmented, sometimes, ambivalent, protest, coherent, broader, solid, majorities, reflecting, 144, subject, contains, worry, woolly, sectors, health, economy, culture, developments, went, friction, reflected, things, intensification, revising, steps, basis, outreach, currently, prepared, statement, intent, punctuated, caveats, programme, package, legislation, sadly, reminiscent, deals, bestows, ample, privileges, promises, vague, defined, succeeded, keeping, end, show, disassociated, dismissing, barter, establish, link, couple, systemic, qarar, george, never, course, performed, unconditional, reversal, silently, moving, traditional, timetables, accepting, opening, pragmatists, democrats, enthusiastically, defended, weak, challengers, asking, favours, gave, shape, continuation, moreover, performing, built, requirements, consistently, sides, adopt, formula, wants, maximum, strengthening, relate, pressures, necessitate, probably, thinks, rely, survival, strategy, optimistic, cognisant, appeal, actions, doubtful, realises, abolish, domination, overhaul, mean, authoritarianism, covert, tacit, taken, various, inside, discovered, concept, persistent, secularist, charter, regarding, pledge, laws, amnesty, treatment, baathists, reintegration, wathiqat, islah, related, relationship, reported, giving, exchange, accurate, archive, speakership, field, candidates, fuad, masum, president, presidency, haydar, candidate, approves, fails, approve, controversial, approved, rise, isis, secede, groundbreaking, court, ruling, replacement, decentralization, libya, proposals, dimension, yemen, legality, constitutionality, push, posts, dec, oct, tweets, reidarvisser, twitter, updates, available, world, books, book, meta, uncategorized, 133, master, narrative, 280, 175, election, membership, international, soft, partition, middle, east, baathification, categories, archives,
Text of the page (random words):
of which were adopted with solid majorities reflecting the deal between the government parties and parts of the opposition 144 versus 35 votes is indicated in one report although the sofa or the withdrawal treaty as pro government iraqis like to call it is subject to a popular referendum to be held before 30 july 2009 the strategic framework has received less attention as a separate document it is less specific and contains little that the maliki government will worry about as most of the clauses are woolly and generally go in the direction of committing us support for the iraqi government in sectors such as health the economy and culture all in all it seems significant that the government decided to give in to the demands for a promise of reform resistance within the government was quite strong abbas al bayati an islamist with close ties to the islamic supreme council of iraq isci yesterday thundered against any linking of the issues and any tampering with the constitution and kurdish representatives voiced similar objections nonetheless the maliki government eventually did agree to the adoption of a decision on reform that had been demanded by many of the same parties of the cross sectarian 22 july forces that were behind the challenge to the government during the debate on the provincial powers law earlier this year the decision itself is so bland that one can discuss whether this is another victory for the 22 july forces or rather represents the co optation of parts of it iraqiyya al hiwar al watani and the more reluctant parts of tawafuq to work within the very system of ethno sectarian quotas that they reject in principle nevertheless it does seem promising that the opposition in the iraqi parliament in this case managed to turn a fragmented and sometimes ambivalent sense of protest into coherent demands and concessions from the iraqi government that at least will keep issues like constitutional reform on the agenda and thereby could help set the stage for a more profound debate on these issues before the parliamentary elections in 2009 posted in iraqi nationalism uia dynamics comments off on the withdrawal treaty is passed shiite leaders disagree on integration of sons of iraq into army posted by reidar visser on thursday 20 november 2008 15 46 one of the most acute issues in the post surge debate in iraq concerns the integration of the awakening councils sons of iraq into the iraqi army there is growing fear that the iraqi government of prime minister nuri al maliki will approach this issue much in the way it has dealt with other important questions relating to national reconciliation full story here pdf article on pp 22 23 posted in iranian influence in iraq iraqi nationalism uia dynamics us policy in iraq leverage issues comments off on shiite leaders disagree on integration of sons of iraq into army signs of competition in the struggle about basra and federalism posted by reidar visser on wednesday 19 november 2008 15 12 the scheme for the transformation of basra to a federal region has passed its first hurdle after the iraqi elections commission scrutinised the first submission of petitions demanding a referendum and certified them as representing more than the 2 of the electorate required to launch the process towards a referendum the basra federalists now face the far more challenging task of mustering the 10 needed to actually call a popular vote about basra s future simultaneously there are signs that other pro federal forces in and around basra are still considering a bid that would compete with the project for a single governorate federal entity based on basra ever since 2004 other southerners have been working on a similar but slightly bigger federal project that would join basra to dhi qar and maysan in a tripartite union called the region of the south iqlim al janub this project has been somewhat less prominent since around 2006 but has remained popular in certain circles including among some tribal leaders just like the uni governorate iqlim al basra scheme it has historically been presented as an alternative to the plan for a much wider nine governorate sectarian shiite federal region iqlim al wasat wa al janub iqlim janub baghdad which the islamic supreme council for iraq isci tried to promote from august 2005 onwards with dhi qar and maysan joined to basra there would hardly be any oil left in the remaining six shiite dominated governorates perhaps with the exception of wasit whilst the project of a small scale federal region in the south bigger than basra but still considerably smaller than the imaginary shiistan is thus well known the initiators of the recent drive for a petition have so far been less prominent in local politics this could simply have to do with the fact that the iqlim al janub campaign more generally has received less public attention over the past two years because unlike the basra alternative no major players in local politics have emerged as its sponsors still the sudden re emergence of the scheme for a tri governorate federal entity could inspire more sinister interpretations as well there are many persons outside basra who first and foremost may want to create trouble for the basra federalism petition without being genuinely interested in promoting any kind of federal alternative at this stage this is precisely the sort of scenario where the legal framework for the further process lacks detail because an exact deadline for issuing competing calls for a referendum and hence a pre referendum poll or istibyan does not exist in the legal framework that was adopted in october 2006 a third competing call which is theoretically possible given isci s earlier interest in challenging the southerners would further complicate matters there have already been suggestions that isci acting in a spoiler role could be supportive of the apparent revival of the iqlim al janub project back in april 2007 individuals considered friendly to isci received much media attention when they quite abruptly organised a conference in baghdad in support of a small scale tri governorate region in the far south that appeared to be incompatible with the grander federal designs of their patrons in isci still it should be mentioned that forces that are normally more sympathetic to the basrawis such as the fadila leadership in dhi qar have also criticised the decision by some basra leaders to try to go it alone for now one can conclude that a number of political trends that have been important in the far south since 2005 have all been revived and highlighted over the past few months regional variants of federalism iqlim al basra and iqlim al janub are more important than sectarian ones iqlim al wasat wa al janub iqlim janub baghdad hence the main struggle in the south is about non sectarian regionalisms versus iraqi nationalism which for its part still seems to remain influential among large parts of the population nuri al maliki s tendency in 2007 and 2008 to emphasise centralism instead of isci s variant of federalism could be an attempt at calculating the overall outcome of the competing southern bids for autonomy at the same time however it has become increasingly clear that maliki s emergence as some kind of strongman dominating iraq from baghdad through using a nominally iraqi nationalist ideology is not something iran necessarily finds problematic on the contrary in contrast to claims in the western media about a life and death struggle between maliki and iranian hardliners it seems likely that the growing iranian support for a sofa between iraq and the united states already spun by the iraq i government as a withdrawal pact is the result of a masterful undertaking by tehran to maximise its leverage over a number of players on the iraqi shiite scene in basra itself however iran is still struggling the regionalist parties are more friendly with arab gulf states than with tehran whereas many of the iraqi nationalists in the area are not especially happy with the particular brand of iraqi nationalism that maliki appears to be promoting with iranian support posted in basra and southern regionalism comments off on signs of competition in the struggle about basra and federalism an initiative to create the federal region of basra is launched posted by reidar visser on tuesday 11 november 2008 21 21 wail abd al latif the basra parliamentarian and former member of wifaq has announced that a petition requesting a referendum for the creation of the federal region of basra iqlim al basra as a standalone entity has been submitted to the iraqi electoral commission featuring 34 800 signatures the petitioners believe that this number is sufficient to meet the requirement that at least 2 of the governorate voters should sign the initial petition this would correspond to a total basra voting population of 1 740 000 according to the framework for the creation of federal regions adopted by the iraqi parliament with a tiny majority in october 2006 the next step now is for the petition to be published in local newspapers by the electoral commission which should then give supporters of the project at least one month to add their names to the petition to meet the required total of one tenth of the voter population necessary to call a referendum on the formation of a federal region 50 of the votes and 50 participation is required to win if a region is formed it cannot join with any other federal region only with additional governorates the first draft of the october 2006 law said a federal region consists of one or more governorates or one or more federal regions this was subsequently changed to read a federal region consists of a governorate or more which clearly seems to suggest a desire on the framers of the law to exclude the possibility of two regions joining together the further process towards a final decision on the fate of the basra federal initiative will be influenced by political struggles as well as numerous legal ambiguities politically the idea of basra as a separate federal entity has been under consideration since late 2003 but for a time coexisted with a scheme of joining basra with the two neighbouring governorates of maysan and dhi qar iqlim al janub then from around 2006 onwards the idea of basra as a one governorate federal region emerged as the most prominent of the local federal schemes with support among some secularists wail abd al latif tribal leaders such as amr al faiz and islamists the fadila party political aspects and legal ones are connected to each other with respect to what this initiative means in terms of a challenge to the islamic supreme council of iraq isci one of the shiite parties that both the united states and iran consider as one of their main partners in iraq their competing idea of creating a huge nine governorate sectarian shiite region from basra to the border of baghdad has failed to create popular enthusiasm since its launch in august 2005 the formation of basra as a federal region would entail additional difficulties for isci which would face a more complicated roadmap in case they should wish to create a scheme for additional shiite governorates to join the oil rich basra in a super region they do have the option of launching a competing initiative locally in basra this would be followed by a pre referendum poll that would decide which of the schemes should go to a referendum however the modalities for this and in particular the timeline is poorly specified in the october 2006 law and isci seems to enjoy far less support in basra than in najaf where there is almost no oil this lack of legal clarity along with the general trend towards more national attitudes in the iraqi parliament as a whole witness isci s gradual retreat from its pro federal propaganda and nuri al maliki s recent renewed call for a more centralised state means that the future of the basra federal initiative is far from certain some iraqi nationalists consider it to be less harmful than federal schemes that are explicitly sectarian such of that of isci whereas others including many in basra itself think that any extension of the federal principle south of kurdistan remains objectionable posted in basra and southern regionalism comments off on an initiative to create the federal region of basra is launched the obama administration iraq and the question of leverage posted by reidar visser on friday 7 november 2008 15 00 with barack obama s victory in the american presidential elections there are expectations of changes in us policy in iraq involving a substantial reduction of force levels in the so called obama biden plan for iraq this is expressed as follows the removal of our troops will be responsible and phased directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the iraqi government military experts believe we can safely redeploy combat brigades from iraq at a pace of 1 to 2 brigades a month that would remove them in 16 months under the obama biden plan a residual force will remain in iraq and in the region to conduct targeted counter terrorism missions against al qaeda in iraq and to protect american diplomatic and civilian personnel they will not build permanent bases in iraq but will continue efforts to train and support the iraqi security forces as long as iraqi leaders move toward political reconciliation and away from sectarianism barack obama and joe biden believe that the u s must apply pressure on the iraqi government to work toward real political accommodation there is no military solution to iraq s political differences but the bush administration s blank check approach has failed to press iraq s leaders to take responsibility for their future or to substantially spend their oil revenues on their own reconstruction as our forces redeploy obama and biden will make sure we engage representatives from all levels of iraqi society in and out of government to forge compromises on oil revenue sharing the equitable provision of services federalism the status of disputed territories new elections aid to displaced iraqis and the reform of iraqi security forces so the us forces will withdraw in large numbers but beyond that and of interest to those who care for iraq itself can obama realistically hope to achieve anything other than a unilateral withdrawal such as the ambitious reconciliation aims outlined above much of the answer to this question has to do with the issue of leverage in this regard the obama biden plan embodies several basic assumptions about the motives of the iraqi leadership that were set forward more comprehensively in a report by the center for a new american security in june this year authored by colin kahl michèle flournoy and shawn brimley and titled shaping the iraq inheritance put briefly the democratic view is that nuri al maliki has a strong desire to keep us forces a little longer in iraq so that they can help him strengthen his position by reb...
|
