Excellent contributions from Wulli and George!
There is obviously a crisis among political leaders in Iraq. They have yet to learn to compromise and work together to achieve the minimum possible. There is this hated habit of ‘pulling out’ every time there is some problem. It seems to be restricted to Arab politics only. Every time some group or party doesn’t like what’s going on, they pull out of the forum they are in, which is totally counter-productive. Prior to this ‘Accord front’ pull out, there was another pull out from what is called ‘Dialogue front’ (funny how they choose their names) which is headed by Salih Mutlig. They said that they will keep away from parliament as long as their demands are not met. They then added that if there is a critical vote in parliament, then they will come back! In other word, they are saying to their follow MPs go ahead on whatever legislation you are working on, but if you deal with something serious, we will come back and screw it up for you! What kind of logic is that?
Yes there is alot of hard work among the military (Iraqis and Americans) and among local leaders. But the politicians in the Green Zone have been a terrible failure (most of them anyway).
I can’t wait for the next election (late 2009 I think) as I am pretty sure that this uselss lot will be swept aside.
“I can’t wait for the next election (late 2009 I think) as I am pretty sure that this uselss lot will be swept aside.”
That - late 2009 - is less than 24 months away. My guess is that the development of political positions “from the grass-roots up”, will not, by then, bear enough fruit from the local leaders who are stepping up against the terrorists and sectarian insurgents.
They will still - in 2009 - be busy helping to bring to greater success the counter-terrorism task.
The one position they will be in is to begin the process of locally-derived pressure on the current generation of leaders; because they, the local leaders building local consensus with the counter-insurgency operations, will have obtained the status and local leadership role from their communities.
I believe that when a certain level of stability against the terrorists and sectarian insurgents is achieved (it will NEVER END 100%) - and only then - that the natural rise of local leaders and their non-sectarian coalitions will be ready to reach for national roles.
The U.S. job will be most effective if its focus is primarily divided with the greatest amount of constant military focus at the local level in the counter-insurgency operations and only in the final critical analysis securing the people in national leadership roles and the institutions of the national government; only so far as to insure its survival and general functioning. The rest of the job is political and must be built up from the local leaders winning the counter-insurgency and from them into the national institutions. That will take more than 24 months from now to actually begin and more than one election cycle before Iraqi national politics begins to change from being centered on thugish power-holders whose main ambitions are no higher than simply having power for the sake of having power.