Friday, August 10, 2012

Nouri's Iraq: No progress

If any single story illuminates Iraq during Nouri's second term as prime minister, it may be AFP's about the Olympics.  Grasp that Iraq sent 8 athletes to the Summer Olympics in London and that Dana Abdul Razak set the record for Iraq in the 100 meters.  AFP reports:
"When we follow the game at home, every five minutes the electricity is gone," said Lami, a 37-year-old truck driver who was at a cafe in central Baghdad to watch Olympic football.
The Iraqi national grid only supplies a few hours of electricity per day, interrupted by multi-hour outages, and Iraqis either have to make up the shortfall with private generators or do without electricity during the cuts.
"The electricity in Iraq has become like a chronic disease, and all the people are suffering," said Lami, an ardent football fan who was sitting with five of his children around a table near a television showing the Olympics, smoking flavored tobacco from a water pipe.

The story can be seen as how important Iraqis are in Nouri's Iraq.  Still no dependable public services but, for the world stage, Nouri puts forward 8 athletes to give the impression Iraq is showing progress.

There's no progress.  No progress on the security front.  Alsumaria notes that a suicide bomber drove a car up to a mosque in Muwafaqiya (east of Mosul) and detonated, taking his/her own life and the lives of 5 worshipers while leaving twenty-five more injured.  Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) notes a Dujail attack in which 4 Sahwa ("Awakenings," "Sons Of Iraq") were shot dead and a Muqdadiyah roadside bombing which claimed the lives of 3 police officers and left two more injured. AFP adds that Haditha city council member Nabil Shaakar was shot dead with his two brothers left injured.


There's no progress in the political stalemate either.  Dar Addustour notes the interrogation of Nouri before the Parliament has been tabled until they can see what the Reform Commission will propose.  Lots of luck with that.  Al Mada reports the National Alliance is declaring that the Reform Commission is proposing three special committees be formed.  Great!  Maybe they can waste months in 'studying' the problem which is about as far as anything ever gets in Nouri's Iraq.  Al Mada also notes Iraqiya leader Ayad Allawi put out a press release praising Moqtada al-Sadr, noting that Moqtada had attempted to chart a path best for Iraqis and that Moqtada's father (Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr) was one of the martyrs from the reign of Saddam Hussein.

Alsumaria notes that Imam Mahmoud al-Issawi declared in morning prayers today that the Iraqi government should release the many detainees they continue to hold imprisoned that have never been found guilty of anything.  You might remember that was among the demands the protesters made in February 2011.  Nouri promised action.  There was none.

No progress.  The story of Nouri's Iraq.

With yet another example of that, Adnan Hussein (Rudaw) reports:


A Kurdish representative in the Article 140 committee claims that the delay in implementing the article is a pressure card being used by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
However, another member of the committee describes the delay as simply a result of “carelessness.”
After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, 43 percent of areas historically claimed by Kurds were considered "disputed" and tied to Article 140 in the constitution. Article 140 was to have been implemented by the end of 2007, after a three-step process -- normalization, census and referendum.

Another example of the lack of progress and failure to follow the Constitution is not "carelessness," it's disregarding an oath Nouri took twice, at the start of each term as prime minister.
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