Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
November 10, 2006
By Sabrina Tavernise
BAGHDAD, Nov. 9 — Perhaps the most striking part of the Iraqi political elite’s reaction on Thursday to the changes in American politics is that there did not appear to be one.
There were no soul-searching speeches. No hand-wringing. No rallying calls for unity.
Parliament debated issues related to the country’s electoral commission, and then went home early. The cabinet discussed floods in Kurdistan, mosque reconstruction, cellphone frequencies and a small Japanese loan. But there was scant mention of the shift in the American political landscape that the war here was central in bringing about.
“Things were predictable,” said Ali al-Adeeb, a prominent Shiite lawmaker who was just finishing lunch in the dining area of the Parliament building.
Two tables away, Noor al-Din al-Hayali, a lawmaker from the largest Sunni Arab bloc, responded without emotion, “When they announce changes, we’ll discuss them.”
The silence on the political front was matched in the Iraqi news media. Among the major newspapers, only a Kurdish one, Ittihad, had a banner headline announcing the resignation of the American secretary of defense.
Iraqi leaders had more pressing issues to handle. Nine bombs exploded across the capital during the day, killing 18 Iraqis and wounding 86. A volley of deadly mortar attacks continued for a third day. Bodies continued to surface — 26 across the capital on Thursday.
Part of the challenge faced by the Americans here is the need to corral the increasingly fractious political class. It has been held together in the unsteady arrangement called a national unity government, but it appears to be splitting at the seams.
“It’s a government of sectarian disunity,” Adnan Pachachi, an Iraqi statesman and lawmaker, said by telephone from London. “There is distrust and dispute between ministers. The extremists on both sides are taking over.”
In Parliament — a hulking building with tinted windows in the Green Zone, the walled area where the Iraqi government meets — the mood was business as usual, which is to say glum.
Political leaders, hopelessly divided between Shiites and Sunnis, were sunk into their sectarian suspicions on Thursday in the dining area of the building. Many could barely contain their derision for the other side as they chatted with colleagues and ate late lunches of sandwiches and French fries.
The Shiites, for their part, were angry that the Sunnis were insisting on a bigger role in government. The Sunnis chose to boycott politics in the early months of the occupation, they said, a decision that cost them their say in the early efforts to form a new Iraqi government.
The anger was not helped by the 10 lethal mortar attacks across Baghdad since Sunday that have killed 15 people and wounded 87. Mortars shot by militants of both sects are an ever-more-popular way to carry out sectarian killings here.
In an off-the-cuff estimate of Iraqi civilian casualties, Iraq’s health minister, Ali al-Shimari, said on an official visit to Vienna that 150,000 Iraqis had been killed in violence since the American invasion, according to The Associated Press. He did not say whether the figure included the deaths of Iraqi Army soldiers and police officers. The figure assumes a monthly death toll of 3,300, about the national toll given by the United Nations for July.
In the Parliament dining area, sectarian anger was present at lunch. “Their existence in the political process was a mistake,” Mr. Adeeb, the Shiite lawmaker, said of the Sunnis, sitting at a glass table, pushing back from an unfinished sandwich. “Some people in Towafak,” the largest Sunni Arab bloc, “are extensions of the insurgency. They have militias in their guards.”
“They don’t believe in democracy because it doesn’t serve their intents. They believe in taking power through coups.”
Several tables away, Mr. Hayali, a Towafak member, struck a similar note about the Shiites. He said they controlled too much of the government, and that they would not allow the Sunnis enough of a say over how things were run. The Iraqi security forces are too heavily Shiite and are full of people who want to kill Sunnis, he said, his cellphone silently flashing.
“We believe that Maliki seized all the power,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. “Our ministers in the government do not have broad authority. We have been waiting for seven months for him to achieve the balance we agreed upon.”
A committee that was supposed to have ironed out differences was never formed, he said. Long-promised action to remove militia members from security forces has also never materialized. His party is considering withdrawing altogether from the government, he said, although a threat to that effect on Thursday from a hotheaded fellow member, Abdel Nasir al-Janabi, did not reflect the position of the entire party, lawmakers said.
There may be no way to resolve the differences. The Shiites, a majority in Iraq, have power for the first time, and are growing tired of having to share it with the Sunnis, who long controlled the country and whose participation was forced upon them by the Americans in the first place.
“All over the world, the winning bloc has the right to form its own government, but this didn’t happen in Iraq,” said Falah Hassan Shanshal, a member of the bloc controlled by Moktada al-Sadr, a powerful Shiite cleric.
“The politicians were informed that the national government would have to be bigger than the political blocs. We were told that this was the only way to secure Iraq.”
Mr. Shanshal hinted that there might be a cabinet shuffle, but said that even if there were, Mr. Maliki would have to consult the Sunnis, who would retain control over the ministries they now lead.
Iraqis who did express an interest in the American political changes on Thursday said they were a bittersweet vindication. Many noted in satisfaction that there had finally been a decisive, public accounting on the American war effort that many have seen as flawed from the very beginning.
“We didn’t understand your president’s politics here,” said Sheik Adel Ibrahim Subihawi, a Shiite tribal leader from northeastern Baghdad. “All the good that you did in liberating Iraq has been undone.”
November 10, 2006
By Sabrina Tavernise
BAGHDAD, Nov. 9 — Perhaps the most striking part of the Iraqi political elite’s reaction on Thursday to the changes in American politics is that there did not appear to be one.
There were no soul-searching speeches. No hand-wringing. No rallying calls for unity.
Parliament debated issues related to the country’s electoral commission, and then went home early. The cabinet discussed floods in Kurdistan, mosque reconstruction, cellphone frequencies and a small Japanese loan. But there was scant mention of the shift in the American political landscape that the war here was central in bringing about.
“Things were predictable,” said Ali al-Adeeb, a prominent Shiite lawmaker who was just finishing lunch in the dining area of the Parliament building.
Two tables away, Noor al-Din al-Hayali, a lawmaker from the largest Sunni Arab bloc, responded without emotion, “When they announce changes, we’ll discuss them.”
The silence on the political front was matched in the Iraqi news media. Among the major newspapers, only a Kurdish one, Ittihad, had a banner headline announcing the resignation of the American secretary of defense.
Iraqi leaders had more pressing issues to handle. Nine bombs exploded across the capital during the day, killing 18 Iraqis and wounding 86. A volley of deadly mortar attacks continued for a third day. Bodies continued to surface — 26 across the capital on Thursday.
Part of the challenge faced by the Americans here is the need to corral the increasingly fractious political class. It has been held together in the unsteady arrangement called a national unity government, but it appears to be splitting at the seams.
“It’s a government of sectarian disunity,” Adnan Pachachi, an Iraqi statesman and lawmaker, said by telephone from London. “There is distrust and dispute between ministers. The extremists on both sides are taking over.”
In Parliament — a hulking building with tinted windows in the Green Zone, the walled area where the Iraqi government meets — the mood was business as usual, which is to say glum.
Political leaders, hopelessly divided between Shiites and Sunnis, were sunk into their sectarian suspicions on Thursday in the dining area of the building. Many could barely contain their derision for the other side as they chatted with colleagues and ate late lunches of sandwiches and French fries.
The Shiites, for their part, were angry that the Sunnis were insisting on a bigger role in government. The Sunnis chose to boycott politics in the early months of the occupation, they said, a decision that cost them their say in the early efforts to form a new Iraqi government.
The anger was not helped by the 10 lethal mortar attacks across Baghdad since Sunday that have killed 15 people and wounded 87. Mortars shot by militants of both sects are an ever-more-popular way to carry out sectarian killings here.
In an off-the-cuff estimate of Iraqi civilian casualties, Iraq’s health minister, Ali al-Shimari, said on an official visit to Vienna that 150,000 Iraqis had been killed in violence since the American invasion, according to The Associated Press. He did not say whether the figure included the deaths of Iraqi Army soldiers and police officers. The figure assumes a monthly death toll of 3,300, about the national toll given by the United Nations for July.
In the Parliament dining area, sectarian anger was present at lunch. “Their existence in the political process was a mistake,” Mr. Adeeb, the Shiite lawmaker, said of the Sunnis, sitting at a glass table, pushing back from an unfinished sandwich. “Some people in Towafak,” the largest Sunni Arab bloc, “are extensions of the insurgency. They have militias in their guards.”
“They don’t believe in democracy because it doesn’t serve their intents. They believe in taking power through coups.”
Several tables away, Mr. Hayali, a Towafak member, struck a similar note about the Shiites. He said they controlled too much of the government, and that they would not allow the Sunnis enough of a say over how things were run. The Iraqi security forces are too heavily Shiite and are full of people who want to kill Sunnis, he said, his cellphone silently flashing.
“We believe that Maliki seized all the power,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. “Our ministers in the government do not have broad authority. We have been waiting for seven months for him to achieve the balance we agreed upon.”
A committee that was supposed to have ironed out differences was never formed, he said. Long-promised action to remove militia members from security forces has also never materialized. His party is considering withdrawing altogether from the government, he said, although a threat to that effect on Thursday from a hotheaded fellow member, Abdel Nasir al-Janabi, did not reflect the position of the entire party, lawmakers said.
There may be no way to resolve the differences. The Shiites, a majority in Iraq, have power for the first time, and are growing tired of having to share it with the Sunnis, who long controlled the country and whose participation was forced upon them by the Americans in the first place.
“All over the world, the winning bloc has the right to form its own government, but this didn’t happen in Iraq,” said Falah Hassan Shanshal, a member of the bloc controlled by Moktada al-Sadr, a powerful Shiite cleric.
“The politicians were informed that the national government would have to be bigger than the political blocs. We were told that this was the only way to secure Iraq.”
Mr. Shanshal hinted that there might be a cabinet shuffle, but said that even if there were, Mr. Maliki would have to consult the Sunnis, who would retain control over the ministries they now lead.
Iraqis who did express an interest in the American political changes on Thursday said they were a bittersweet vindication. Many noted in satisfaction that there had finally been a decisive, public accounting on the American war effort that many have seen as flawed from the very beginning.
“We didn’t understand your president’s politics here,” said Sheik Adel Ibrahim Subihawi, a Shiite tribal leader from northeastern Baghdad. “All the good that you did in liberating Iraq has been undone.”