The Non-Civil War In Iraq
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Foreign Affairs — Comments (10) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
It appears that Iraq has been pulled back from the brink of internal conflict. Of course, no one thinks that we are out of the woods when it comes to reconstructing the country. But this is welcome news:
In the days that followed the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine, Iraq seemed within a hair's breadth of civil war. But an aggressive U.S. and Kurdish diplomatic campaign appears for now to have coaxed the country back from open conflict between Sunni Arabs and Shiites, according to Iraqi politicians and Western diplomats speaking in interviews on Monday.
"Localized difficulties also persist, but I think, at the strategic level, this crisis -- a mosque attack leading to civil war -- is over," Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said in a telephone interview. "It was a serious crisis. I believe that Iraq came to the brink and came back."
Khalilzad and others sounded upbeat on Monday, as authorities lifted a three-day ban on vehicle traffic and life in Baghdad returned to a state of uneasy normalcy after five days of bloodletting. The ambassador, another Western diplomat and Iraqi politicians described the behind-the-scenes political negotiations that helped stem the violence.
The crisis began Wednesday with the destruction of the golden-domed Askariya shrine in Samarra, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. Although no one was killed in the bombing, the mosque is so important as a symbol that within hours the country appeared heading toward chaos. As Shiite and Sunni leaders called for peace by day, their followers waged war by night on one another and civilian bystanders in a campaign of raids, bombings, arson and assassinations. More than 1,300 Iraqis have been killed in the past five days, according to workers in the Baghdad morgue.
As fighting raged, Khalilzad and Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, pushed the factions toward a rapprochement. On Saturday, after a whirlwind of telephone calls and meetings, they managed to bring leaders from every important political faction in Iraq together in an unusual bid for peace that seems to have quelled the violence and stopped the slide toward civil war.
Read it all. There continues to be a great deal of violence in the wake of the recent mosque bombing, which may mean that American forces will have to clamp down on security the way they did for both successful Iraqi elections. Such a clampdown and the attendant lack of violence that would result would further pull Iraq away from the possibility of civil war. Indeed, it is somewhat hard to understand why a security clampdown cannot become more of a regular occurrence rather than a policy employed for specific and especially toughy situations.
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The Non-Civil War In Iraq 10 Comments (0 topical, 10 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
First let me say I am shocked that more than 1,300 Iraqis have been killed in the last five days - that is appaling. Yet at the same time I uneasily say these, I'm hoping, are simply very agonizing growing pains of the fledgling democracy.
The U.S. Army News Service reports that our recon has shown that only 23 mosques have encountered serious dammage. Multi-National Force-Iraq Spokesman Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch also stated that "there has not been widespread sectarian violence because of the capable Iraqi government, because of calls by religious and political leaders for calm and because of the capable Iraqi security force and coalition forces conducting security missions across Iraq...Let me be clear: there have been pockets of violence but we don't see that as a precursor to civil war."
Thus, the Iraqi police force that is now being trained in six police academies across Iraq will work with our brave American troops and bring enduring peace to Iraq. This peace will come about as the 18,000 Iraqi Border Patrol troops keep al-Qaida out and allow the Iraqi sects to pursue resolution.
is devastated at the failure of the Iraqis to plunge into civil war :-)
from the updated list on the sidebar: Shiites Told: Leave Home Or Be Killed
This update from the AP: Multiple Bombings Rock Downtown Baghdad doesn't look so good either. I sure hope the politicians can pull this out.
they are simply pretending, in many cases, that it's happening anyway.
You have to wonder if this is a moment like the Tet Offensive in 1968. People on the fence about all of this -- trying to believe the "good" news but very skeptical about the costs, human and otherwise -- must certainly be troubled that this far down the road we're still on the precipice of disaster.
I have always supported this war, and still do, but I must confess that even I find it disheartening. It runs against the grain of the "things are slowly but steadily getting better" argument.
We have been told that the overwhelming will of the majority of Iraqis to have self-determination is the driving force in Iraq. One has to wonder about that at this point.
Personally I have reached the point where I no longer believe anything that appears in the pages of the leading newspapers in this country or emanates from broadcast and cable TV.
Tet is actually a good example. The press painted Tet as a major defeat for the US/ARVN despite the fact that it was exactly the opposite. The people running the press today come from the Vietnam War/Watergate generation and are reliving their "successes."
Like you I support the war and find the coverage disheartening, which is of course exactly the intent of the coverage. If you recall the word quagmire appeared in the second week of the invasion, one week before the successful liberation of Baghdad. The press has spent it's ink and airtime exclsuively on pictures and reporting of bombings and destruction.
Think back to Afghanistan, the campaign that "everyone" supposedly supported; except of course the press and the left who went to great pains to quickly "remind" us that the British and Russians had failed in Afghanistan so how could we, mere Americans, succeed.
And don't even get me started on the hypocritical, treasonous b*stards at the New York Times. They have betrayed, and continue to betray, the US and the West in every matter from the Danish cartoons to the NSA intercepts.
The press may not be card carrying members of the enemy, but that's only because the enemy doesn't issue ID cards.
This goes against the grain, but the best out of Iraq IS partition. The Sunnis will never accept domination by the Shiites, and the Kurds are just fiddling, waiting for a good opportunity to declare their own dream of an independent Kurdistan. The Shiite clergy are likewise waiting for us to leave so that they can push for dominance, if not an Islamic state ala Iran, then certainly nonsecular dominance of the government by instituting Sharia law.
I was referring to Tet in all its glory: The fact that even though we won the battle convincingly, we lost the PR war once and for all.
Scotter said, "I'm hoping, [these] are simply very agonizing growing pains of the fledgling democracy."
I agree this is not a good time for the people in Iraq but we cannot forget that our troops are making real progress there (and the rest of the Middle East). We cannot be discouraged by this feuding by certain groups in Iraq nor should our troops hear the countless doubts spread in the media. Those troops have seen with their own eyes the progress being made and trust they are there for the right reasons - the Iraqi people have more schools, sewage systems are now in place, and Iraq IS making a steady transition into a working democracy. We cannot forget this and allow only the negative to be heard. We owe this to our troops serving there...
I do agree that this violence is awful, as any violence always is, but I find it more encouraging than not that the Iraqi government and military has been able to respond to this violence so well. Of the 32 demonstrations in Baghdad, only 31 of them were peaceful. I also read on the Army homepage that the 4th Infantry Division will be turning over responsibility of Operating Base O'Ryan to the Iraqi troops on Friday and Iraqi troops have already taken responsibility for bases in Western Baghdad and Eastern Abu Ghraib. Growing pains seems very accurate. No forward progress is ever made without a little setback but there is definitely forward progress nonethless.
why, in the words of WFB, "Saddam Hussein was needed to keep the Sunnis and the Shiites from each others' throats."