Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Iraq does not have a normal -- or functioning -- government

Abu Muhammad lies in his front room and tells a story depressingly familiar by Iraqi standards. A public servant, he was travelling to work when he hit traffic at the nearest checkpoint to the highway out of his neighbourhood. So he took a detour and used another checkpoint that would take him through a predominantly Shia area.
One hundred metres from the checkpoint he was blocked by two cars and dragged from his vehicle by masked, armed men. "They didn't seem to know my name. They swore at me and when I asked what they were doing, I was hit on the head with a pistol. I fought and then they shot me in the foot. They tried to put me in the boot but I managed to break free. Then I was running. That's when they shot me again."
It may sound like a story from the bad years of sectarian conflict from 2005 to 2008, when at its peak on average 3,000 people were killed every month. But this episode happened earlier this year, and speaks volumes about the rising tide of sectarian confrontation that has returned to Iraq.


That's the opening to Peter Beumont's "Iraq fears return of sectarian war, this time with added political dimension" (Guardian).  People who've been following Iraq have noticed what Beumont's been describing and they've noted the press reluctance to address it or their insistence that it's okay because the deaths are at an apparently 'acceptable' level.  That's the problem with the baseline of 2006 and 2007, by the way.  That was ethnic cleansing.  Unless open, continuous warfare breaks out in the streets (as opposed to the hit-and-run violence Iraq saw before 2006 and after 2007), you aren't going to see those numbers.  Those numbers resulted from forces the US-armed going through the streets of Baghdad (elsewhere as well but Baghdad primarily) and targeting Sunnis.  Shi'ites died during the ethnic cleansing as well but, in Baghdad, the targeted were the Sunnis.  The US armed the Shi'ites, trained them, were used by them to round up Sunnis and much more.  Baghdad was a mixed city (of Sunnis and Shi'ites).  It's predominately Shi'ite now and the reason is the ethnic cleansing.

Fixating on the death toll of those two years has allowed a lot of lies to take hold.  'Violence is down.'  No, violence is up since 2011.  But if you use those two years from the war as your baseline, it will skew all the results and confuse the issues -- which maybe is why so many use those two years as their point of reference?

Yesterday's snapshot included:


In possibly related news, the Minister of Finance was targeted today.  Alsumaria reports that Iraqiya is calling for Nouri's government to explain exactly what happened today in Anbar Province when Nouri's forces went for Rafie al-Issawi.  Were they attempting to kill him or were they hoping to kidnap him?  Some may say al-Issawi resigned; however, Nouri refused to accept that resignation and stated al-Issawi could not resign until Nouri's investigation into him was complete.  al-Issawi is a Sunni and a member of Iraqiya.  It appears that this identity is why he was targeted today.

Al Mada reports today that Nouri's forces were attempting to grab him and that they were backed by helicopters.   And yet the US plans to still arm Nouri with F-16s -- among other weapons?  al-Issawi is a member of the Council of Ministers.  That's Nouri's fault.  He refused to accept the resignation.  Nouri's trying to have a member of his Council arrested.

Do we all not get how screwed up Iraq is?

Do we suddenly find it normal that a country's vice president (Tareq al-Hashemi) has had to flee the country and been convicted of 'terrorism' in absentia -- after his guards were tortured, one tortured to death?

I'm sorry but this is not normal, this is not a sign of a healthy government.  The refusal to look at Iraq today and appraise it honestly goes a long way towards why so many Iraqis are suffering. 

Iraq as the elephant in the room -- and this is after the (illegal) US intervention.  Some columnist in need of a topic could go to town with that utilizing the 12 steps of AA/NA. 

Various officials are targeted today with violence. National Iraq News Agency reports, "Police chief of Zummar district, Nineveh province survived an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb exploded on his convoy today 13, March."  And they report that a roadside bombing targeted Peshmerga Colonel Azad Mohammed.  In both attacks, the target emerged unscathed but a bodyguard was left injured.


On the political front, the most useless news comes from MP Hafal Kwistani.  All Iraq News reports that the Kurdish MP has stated that Kurdish ministers will not withdraw from the Cabinet.  From some Kurdish MPs that might have some meaning.  But Kwistani is with Goran ("Change").  You can't run around -- as they have all week -- insisting to various outlets that Goran is independent of the Kurdistan Alliance (it is, too bad it's not independent of foreign money) and then turn around and attempt to speak for the Kurdistan Alliance.  If the tiny Goran keeps this up, they may soon outdistance Nouri's State of Law in the race for stupidity.




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