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description= 6 posts published by Reidar Visser during September 2007;
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iraq, the, and, in, to, partition, is, it, gulf, analysis, archive, for, september, 2007, archives, categories, meta, my, latest, book, on, amazon, com, twitter, updates, subscribe, recent, posts, us, senate, votes, softly, football, quotas, national, reconciliation, statoil, getting, wrong, surge, shiites, nation, building, of, that, would, be, truly, artificial, local, reactions, british, withdrawal, from, basra, sadrists, claim, victory,
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the (388), and (93), iraq (88), that (66), iraqi (48), this (38), with (38), for (37), have (31), which (28), federalism (28), 2007 (26), would (25), from (24), kurdish (24), september (22), #statoil (22), biden (22), basra (21), their (21), was (20), more (20), are (20), sectarian (20), not (19), should (19), has (18), federal (18), one (17), but (17), all (17), may (17), iraqis (17), british (15), about (15), 2006 (15), 2008 (15), who (14), posted (13), there (13), partition (13), 2010 (13), 2013 (13), been (12), political (12), national (12), constitution (12), amendment (12), 2014 (12), 2009 (12), 2011 (12), 2012 (12), shiite (11), these (11), many (11), june (11), idea (11), new (11), country (11), among (11), october (11), august (11), part (10), than (10), sunni (10), state (10), even (10), april (10), december (10), january (10), other (9), sadrists (9), some (9), government (9), against (9), foreign (9), shiites (9), team (9), november (9), february (9), march (9), july (9), 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english translation of an op ed originally published in norwegian in aftenposten oslo 26 september 2007 soon after the recent announcement that norway s egil drillo olsen is the new coach of iraq s successful national football team critical voices emerged in the norwegian media some suggested that olsen would effectively be collaborating with the us led occupation of iraq whereas others were concerned that he might be unable to navigate the ethno sectarian tensions of the country when selecting players for future matches olsen should not take this criticism too seriously in the first place it should be stressed that most iraqis regardless of their view of the americans see their football team as a legitimate symbol of national unity leading newspapers like al zaman al mashriq and al manara which frequently feature criticism of the maliki government and the united states all used big headlines to celebrate iraq s recent victory in the asia cup even harith al dari a prominent opposition politician with ties to the armed resistance described the performance of the iraqi squad as a victory for the entire nation purists may perhaps claim that no contact with iraq is permissible pending the withdrawal of foreign troops but those critics should appreciate the widespread affection for iraq s national team even among radical factions within the iraqi opposition another important point concerns the question of ethno sectarian quotas one important factor behind the popularity of the iraqi team is the fact that it emerged relatively unscathed from the fixation with quotas that dominated the first years of the us administration of iraq after 2003 true many iraqis value the way in which the national football team represents the ethno sectarian complexity of their country but perhaps more importantly and this is often overlooked in the west this representation is imperfect in mathematical and proportional terms strictly statistically speaking sunni arabs and kurds are under represented in the current line up nevertheless and maybe precisely for this reason the team remains enormously popular among members of the under represented communities this is the area where the americans committed one of their gravest mistakes during the early years of the occupation the insistence that iraqis should think of themselves primarily as sectarian citizens rather than as iraqis this way of thinking is entirely alien to iraqi political thought but it is an approach which was cultivated among members of the exiled opposition during the 1990s and which enjoyed something of a boom during paul bremer s administration in 2003 and 2004 bremer s idée fixe was that sectarian disproprotionality had always been the main problem of the old iraq and while overlooking long periods of peaceful coexistence in previous eras such as the monarchy and ottoman periods he insisted that the political affairs of the country be conducted with strict ethnic proportionality as the guiding principle today most iraqis yearn to be treated on the basis of qualifications and merits rather than according to sectarian criteria olsen should simply disregard the whole idea about ethnic and sectarian quotas and should rely exclusively on performance related criteria when selecting his next squad iraq would stand to lose one of its last non sectarian oases if also the national football team should fall victim to the principle of quotas however there is one aspect related to team selection in which sociological patterns in today s iraq might become relevant in the near future the marked dominance of exiles in almost all fields of iraqi society since 2003 naturally many of the most talented iraqi football players have taken up lucrative offers from foreign clubs mostly in the gulf and in the arab countries of the mediterranean region but olsen should not neglect the domestic iraqi league historically one of the most enduring symbols of a unified iraq free of sectarian logic if it should prove impossible for him to visit matches in the domestic league due to security concerns he should at least use video materials to acquaint himself with talented players inside iraq once more there should be no need for quotas but with today s difficult security environment there is a real danger that iraqi footballers in the domestic clubs consistently would be at disadvantage during the selection of the national team under that sort of scenario valid criticism of olsen s brave undertaking in iraq might emerge posted in iraqi nationalism sectarian master narrative comments off on football quotas and national reconciliation in iraq is statoil getting it wrong in iraq posted by reidar visser on wednesday 26 september 2007 23 58 english translation of an op ed originally published in norwegian in dagbladet oslo 14 june 2007 as of september 2007 no statoil office has actually been opened in arbil recently announced plans by statoil to open an office in arbil the capital of the kurdistan federal region in iraq raise several critical questions about the company s ability to gauge the fundamentals of middle eastern politics it should however be clarified at the outset what this proposed office is really about statoil norway s biggest oil company and soon to become even bigger through a merger with hydro is not considering signing any kind of exploration deal with kurdish authorities statoil has repeatedly stated that it will not enter into any such deals in the absence of a judicial framework approved by the iraqi parliament moreover the projected statoil mission in arbil would have all of iraq as its sphere of operation not only the kurdish areas for example among the components of the plan is a training facility for prospective iraqi statoil employees who would be recruited from all parts of the country in this regard a key argument in support of statoil s choice of location has been the considerable difficulties involved in arranging such training sessions elsewhere internally in iraq this would be troublesome due to the security situation in other countries of the world it is simply proving increasingly difficult for iraqis to obtain visas on all these counts there are essential differences between statoil s plans and the kurdistan activities of another norwegian player the miniscule and privately owned dno which openly entered into cooperation with kurdish authorities prior to the adoption of the iraqi constitution in october 2005 nevertheless there are numerous problematic dimensions to the scheme currently under consideration by statoil above all concerning potential side effects in internal iraqi politics regardless of statoil s politically correct rhetoric an all iraqi office which just happens to be located in arbil due to the security situation most iraqis will interpret any such office as a preparatory step towards investments in the kurdish areas which in turn would make statoil s office part of the struggle about iraq s future state structure that is currently going on in committee charged with revising the 2005 constitution currently the stalemate in the constitutional revision committee concerns the prerogatives of the central government where the two kurdish parties are resisting attempts by shiite and sunni arabs to restore a modicum of authority for baghdad lately kurdish politicians have protested vociferously against even modest attempts at consolidating the powers of the centre preferring instead the current constitution which leaves iraq with one of the weakest federal capitals ever recorded in the annals of political science unable even to impose taxes and customs control inland waterways and administer civil aviation in recent years the kurdish parties have deliberately worked to improve their bargaining position vis à vis baghdad they have for instance approached shiite leaders with the hope of converting them to the idea of a mirror image of kurdistan in southern iraq a shiistan so far their success has been limited despite much sensationalism in the western press about various incarnations of southern separatism on the whole outside the green zone at least ideals of iraqi nationalism have proven remarkably resilient among the shiites nevertheless the overt attempts by kurdish leaders to push the shiites into a more pro federal direction form a considerable problem in the process of iraqi national reconciliation because this has encouraged some shiite leaders to embrace new and radical perspectives on federalism such as the idea of a single shiite federal entity which in turn has led to friction with other iraqis shiites and sunnis alike who have more traditional and sceptical attitudes to federalism among the symptoms of these ongoing processes are the kurdish led efforts seen in the first part of 2007 to define certain oil fields in southern iraq as undeveloped and hence open to foreign investment another reflection of a policy on the part of the kurdish leaders to seek out potential partners among other iraqis who may share their preference of a very weak central government the problem is that many inhabitants in southern iraq including many employees in the oil sector still adhere to the traditional vision of a unitary state with baghdad as the undisputed capital this kurdish strategy has included a component specifically aimed at western companies a deliberate attempt to maximise foreign involvement in the kurdish areas this is where statoil would directly become a player in an internal iraqi process naturally until now the kurds have preferred to negotiate for straightforward exploration deals with foreign companies like the one already signed with dno but a statoil interest section in arbil would serve exactly the same goal it would highlight the idea of kurdish autarky and would enflame tensions by encouraging kurdish nationalist grandstanding in the ongoing debates about a revised constitution and a package of oil legislation statoil would thereby effectively emulate dno in iraq it would create the same negative impact on the ongoing attempts at national reconciliation even if the company s spin doctors have done a somewhat more careful job than their dno counterparts training components and security advantages aside the choice of location for the proposed statoil office simply is not neutral with regard to the iraqi constitutional debate it is conceivable that statoil may have been persuaded by kurdish ideas about kurdistan emerging as the other and more secure iraq but this argument collapses as soon as actual kurdish behaviour in the ongoing political negotiations is taken into consideration increasingly one gets the impression that kurdish leaders think they can arrive at a state model in which the only ties with the rest of iraq would consist of some kind of defence arrangement directed against turkish incursions as well as monthly payments to the kurds from the southern basra oil fields estimated to be more than twenty times the size of the kurdish ones this kind of maximalist attitude represents a rather utopian approach to federalism but it nevertheless remains popular in many kurdish circles dno s choice to enter into this game must be seen against the backdrop of the small size of the company but why should a serious player like statoil do likewise cannot the company afford a waiting period in which the iraqis themselves would decide their future state structure without interference by foreign investors is not statoil s management concerned about possible side effects in the wider arab and islamic worlds where much religious extremism is fuelled precisely by conspiracy theories about western plots to divide and rule iraq on a sectarian basis true iraq desperately needs foreign investment today but first and foremost the iraqi attempts to create iraqi solutions to the country s political future must be supported the scenario of state sponsored norwegian capitalist interests acting as a destructive force in iraq s reconciliation process is a thoroughly shameful one and should prompt statoil s management and the norwegian foreign ministry to urgently re examine the whole idea of a statoil office in arbil posted in iraqi constitutional issues oil in iraq comments off on is statoil getting it wrong in iraq the surge the shiites and nation building in iraq posted by reidar visser on thursday 13 september 2007 21 36 for some time analysts have been suggesting that the bush administration s surge strategy may have achieved a measure of success in certain parts of iraq many highlight the tendency on the part of local tribes in the sunni dominated areas to stand up against al qaeda in that way emphasizing their own iraqiness as well as their unwillingness to join in an all out war against western civilization the number of attacks against u s forces has declined in many of these areas and there are signs that al qaeda has been forced to relocate to new areas and to choose new targets however perhaps the most convincing indicator of a degree of surge success is one that has gone largely unnoticed full story here posted in iranian influence in iraq uia dynamics us policy in iraq leverage issues comments off on the surge the shiites and nation building in iraq it is the partition of iraq that would be truly artificial posted by reidar visser on monday 10 september 2007 23 59 a steady stream of us commentators keep expressing support for the idea of some kind of ethnic partition be it soft or hard of iraq despite the repeated warnings against division by military advisors and experts in humanitarian aid the partition theme simply refuses to fade away from the american debate full story here posted in iraq and soft partition iraqi nationalism comments off on it is the partition of iraq that would be truly artificial local reactions to the british withdrawal from basra sadrists claim victory posted by reidar visser on tuesday 4 september 2007 17 11 perhaps the most important aspect of the recent british withdrawal from the urban centre of basra to a base near the city s airport is the reaction from local political forces so far the loudest response has come from the sadrists who publicly claim that their armed campaign led to the british withdrawal the sadrists claim is in fact a remarkable echo of events that took place as early as 2003 on friday 6 june of that year sadrists demonstrated peacefully in the city of basra their principal demand was as follows the withdrawal of british forces from the population centres of basra and the concentration of all foreign forces at locations on the outskirts of the city in the subsequent period the sadrist protests gradually grew more violent and basra soon became more dangerous for british troops as early as 2004 british influence was in steep decline in other words the recent pullout itself was a largely symbolic affair the british ceased exercising effective control of basra a long time ago also western commentators particularly...
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