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description= 10 posts published by Reidar Visser during October 2011;
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l maliki is to be sure tough minded and not easy to convince of things but the notion that he is an iranian sympathizer as opposed to a highly nationalistic iraqi is based on no evidence at all both of these arguments by hill can easily be refuted firstly the war was in fact winnable in the sense that a potential for peaceful sectarian coexistence in iraq did exist hill s strictures on iraq s sectarian history are complete nonsense in the first place shiism did not really emerge as a fully fledged sectarian movement until the tenth century prior to which point the struggle had been primarily dynastic and at any rate sectarian relations in iraq during ottomans and monarchical days were largely peaceful if not entirely frictionless historically far less blood has been spilt in sectarian conflict in iraq than in europe since the reformation or indeed in the united states during the civil war secondly regarding the iraqi nationalism of nuri al maliki hill fails to differentiate between the two different faces of maliki there is the nationalist face focused on the establishment of a strong centralised state in all of iraq except kurdistan which came to the fore during the local elections in january 2009 and persisted for some months as maliki explored potential alliances with sunni leaders like ahmad abu risha and usama al nujayfi while at the same time refusing to have anything to do with fellow shiites who wanted him to join their sectarian coalition but there is also the second maliki who jumped on the de baathification bandwagon created by other shiite parties before the march 2010 parliamentary elections and went on to win his second premiership on a purely sectarian platform with the sadrists in a kingmaker role by so doing maliki became the front figure of a political project that basically gives iran all it wants in iraq i e a politics in which sectarian loyalties shape the agenda and the debate crucially it is the distinction between the two malikis and hill s failure to detect that distinction that can shed light on how his own ambassadorship to iraq affected the big questions about the prevalence of sectarianism and iranian influences in the country when hill arrived in baghdad in april 2009 maliki was still trying to act in a nationalist manner and did his utmost to marginalise fellow shiites such as the islamic supreme council of iraq isci in several governorates but later that spring isci travelled to iran regrouped and joined the sadrists in an attempt to bring maliki back to the pan shiite fold what hill and the united states failed to do in this key period was to help maliki find sunni partners that could help him consolidate an anti iranian front for example the united states failed to use their leverage with the saudis to prevent them from intervening against maliki in his various alliance building projects instead it was widely reported that saudi machinations in the summer of 2009 led to the abortion of a promising alliance bid involving maliki abu risha and jawad al bulani the secular interior minister similarly during the autumn us moves to keep the contentious kirkuk issue off the agenda during the debate on the elections law meant that another promising avenue for rapprochement between maliki and the sunnis was closed off maliki sunnis and secularists tend to have identical views on kirkuk but us concerns about kurdish reactions plus a desire to adhere to timelines at any cost had the side effect of strengthening sectarian fronts at a time when rapprochement was needed ambassador hill himself played key roles with respect to the two final straws in the saga about sectarian repolarisation in iraq the first had to do with de baathification which the other shiites had originally devised as an anti maliki weapon designed to force him into a more sectarian corner when hill and other players in the international community failed to come out strongly against the ad hoc de baathification process during the run up to the march 2010 parliamentary elections maliki too ended up as a de baathification agitator second during the contentious debate about the premiership for the next government during the summer of 2010 hill insisted both on maliki as premier as well as an inclusive government in which the kurds would also participate given the constitutional framework in iraq that pretty much dictated the inclusion of the sadrists and the formation of a broad sectarian shiite front since maliki could not have won the premiership in any other way except one and the only alternative that could have produced a maliki premiership without the sadrists a smaller coalition of maliki s state of law and the secular iraqiyya never gained any significant traction in us circles during hill s tenure realistically speaking could the new us ambassador to iraq james jeffrey have reversed any of hill s mistakes when he arrived in baghdad in the autumn of 2010 probably not the idea of maliki as the next premier was already deeply rooted in us policy making circles as was the convoluted and stillborn idea of placating his secular rival ayad allawi with the presidency of an unconstitutional strategic policy council in early summer 2011 jeffrey did have the chance to come out loud against all that nonsense when the implementation of the so called arbil framework that had delivered the second maliki government in november 2010 seemed in doubt he could for example instead have embraced the idea of a more compact government of state of law iraqiyya and the kurds that would have been more likely to seek an extension of the sofa with the americans at that time however the sectarian polarisation set in motion again during hill s tenure was already beginning to make its mark in a serious way and even if jeffrey had considered this idea it would have been an uphill struggle chances are jeffrey didn t even consider it the main problem in us policy making for iraq has been how they conceptualise the country and its people instead of thinking of the country as a union of arabs and kurds as was usual among iraqi oppositionists in the 1990s americans have tended to reify a tripartite paradigm in which sunnis shiites and kurds are seen as monolithic and enduring players that is a paradigm that leaves pretty scant space for secularism and creates precisely the ethno sectarian framework for iraqi politics that iran prefers it should be pretty obvious why hill scoffs at the notion of the americans having clumsily re energised sectarian tension and why he so strenuously is seeking to pre empt any discussion of the dangerously heretic question about who lost iraq he did posted in sectarian master narrative us policy in iraq leverage issues 22 comments welcome to malikistan posted by reidar visser on saturday 29 october 2011 17 39 during a television interview today amid accusations of exaggerated de baathification and sunni federalist initiatives prime minister nuri al maliki has added some interesting perspective on his own vision of iraq with respect to the recent wave of arrests maliki tried to make the point that the majority of the arrests took place south of baghdad rather than in the north implying in other words that most of those arrested were shiites and not sunnis that should be fine as long as those arrested are actually charged with specific crimes rather than punished for their links to the baath in the past regarding de baathification of teachers in salahaddin maliki suggested that those dismissed were former intelligence officials in which case the sackings would be legal he nonetheless announced the formation of an investigatory committee which is a strange ad hoc move there already is a special appeals institution for de baathification although it has been inoperative for a long time due to the failure of parliament to agree on some of the replacement judges the money paragraph in the interview is the following one on federalism for salahaddin وأشار المالكي إلى أن ما حصل في صلاح الدين طلب وليس إعلان عن إقليم لافتا إلى أن هذا الطلب سيقدم الى مجلس الوزراء الذي سيرفضه كونه قائم على خلفية طائفية وحماية البعثيين وخلفيات أخرى غير واضحة first maliki clarifies that what has transpired in salahaddin is not really a declaration of a federal region since this is not legally possible this is correct and thankfully the electoral commission has also contributed on a clarification on the subject underlining that the governorate can only make the first step towards the creation of a federal region and not simply declare it but what follows is complete nonsense maliki says the government will reject the request for a referendum because it is based on a sectarian grounds intended to offer protection of baathists and on other unclear grounds this comment by maliki is tantamount to pissing on the constitution as long as they stay faithful to the procedures laid down in the law for forming regions iraqis can create federal regions for whatever reasons they want no one has the right to enquire about the motives as long as the modalities are done correctly if maliki wants to change that and there are good reasons for restricting federalism options so as to avoid a constant string of useless federalism attempts he must work to change the constitution it is a sorry sign of the state of play in iraq that both opponents and proponents of the salahaddin federal region are now making up their own laws posted in iraq regionalism general iraqi constitutional issues 15 comments in salahaddin a confused federalism bid posted by reidar visser on thursday 27 october 2011 17 38 the most spectacular fallout from the recent de baathification escalation is the declaration by the salahaddin governorate council today that in protest against arrests and sackings they have established salahhadin as an administrative and economic region within a unified iraq the move while clearly reflecting a growing pro federal trend in some sunni circles is confused illegal and unconstitutional firstly the council does not have the powers to declare anything of this kind a third of its members can submit a request to the government to hold a referendum on a federal status but it is the people not the politicians that ultimately decide second the council members seem to be making a point that they had a two thirds majority in the council what are they trying to tell us is this a flawed attempt at reading the law on the formation of regions the only special status granted to a bid by two thirds of the governorate council members in the law on forming regions is that it will automatically trump alternate federal combinations in the case of multiple competing schemes say some want to have mosul plus salahaddin to form one region and thus avoid a pre referendum poll istibyan it should be noted that similar language about declaring regions has previously noted in places like maysan but it later died down again the bottom line is that the only thing the governorate council can do is to request a referendum according to the law the government should automatically and promptly enable them to hold such a referendum by activating the elections commission basra and wasit have submitted such requests in the past without any response from the central government the significant aspect of the salahhadin bid is that it could put more pressure on maliki to allow federal referendums from basra in the south to mosul in the north but to get there the politicians of salahhadin must first submit a request within the existing legal framework instead of making up their own procedures posted in iraq regionalism general iraqi constitutional issues 53 comments the latest wave of arrests baathists and terrorists are two different things posted by reidar visser on wednesday 26 october 2011 13 29 the full picture is only beginning to emerge after two days of widespread arrests involving hundreds of people across iraq most of those arrested are described as baathists with vague accusations about plans to subvert the political process in iraq after the us withdrawal the prosecution has yet to speak on these cases but disturbing language has been employed by those who carried out the arrests in many cases their choice of words suggests those arrested were not targeted for any specific planned act or terrorism or even for lauding the baath party but simply for having been members of the baath party in the past in yet other cases vague accusations of terrorism are coupled with specific information about membership levels in the baath party here are some excerpts from the initial reports on 24 october 28 persons were arrested south of kirkuk among them 12 of the firqa or shaaba membership level in the baath party according to local police sources on 24 october police sources in diyala said 15 persons in muqdadiyya had been arrested mostly firqa members of the baath on 24 october police sources in babel said 50 persons had been arrested among them firqa and shaaba members of the baath on 25 october sources in the security committee in the basra governorate said 30 persons had been arrested some of whom were members at the firqa level on 25 october security sources in diyala said more than 30 persons had been arrested across the governorate including some firqa level members of the baath why are these sources so obsessed with membership rank a terrorist is a terrorist no matter what background he or she has right the systematic reference to membership ranks instead of specific accusations of terrorism strongly suggests that a dangerous conflation of the concepts of baathists and terrorists has taken place and that some are being arrested simply for having been a member of the baath in the past rather than for any specific criminal act suffice to say in this context that the iraqi constitution actually offers pro active protection of former members of the baath article 135 5 explicitly says mere membership of the baath party is not a sufficient basis for transfer to the court article 7 of the constitution outlaws propagation of a number of political ideologies where baathism is mentioned alongside racism terrorism and ethnic cleansing but stipulates the passage of a law by parliament to codify this more precisely which has yet to be done in other words there is no basis whatsoever for prosecuting anyone for simply having been a baathist member and arguably at the current time not even for propagation of baathism since this is not covered by any specific form of legislation the systematic information about membership levels strongly suggests this is an attempt to refer to iraq s de baathification legislation from 2008 but it is a flawed attempt the de baathification legislation is only interested in membership level as a principle governing the reinstatement of former baath officials in the public sector high levels like shaaba members are not allowed to return but firqa members are specifically allowed to return with the ex...
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