DAMASCUS - US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice has a remarkable nerve.
In July, she went to Israel in the midst of a Lebanon war
in which thousands of civilians were being killed
and insisted on not calling for a ceasefire until
a final solution to Hezbollah was reached between
Israel and Lebanon.
This week, she makes a
surprise visit to Baghdad to show support for
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the man responsible
for much of the violence and sectarian killing
taking place in Iraq. Speaking at her press
conference with Maliki, she said: "This is
an important time and a
challenge for the Iraqi people, but they
are a strong people, they are
committed people, and we know that they will
overcome these challenges." She added: "I think he
is a very good and strong prime minister."
Surely Rice should have know that the
previous seven days had been horrendous for Iraq
and that in September a total of 2,667 people were
violently killed, while another 2,994 were
injured. The only logical and blameworthy person
for all this madness is the man leading the
country, whose duty as prime minister is to bring
security to his citizens.
The last thing
they need are the confronting words of the US
secretary of state, who seems to care little for
the number of Iraqis dying per day, and the
ineffective US military in the country, which is
unable to end the raging insurgency.
The
week prior to Rice's visit marked the highest
death toll since the Iraqi war started in March
2003. On Wednesday, four US soldiers were killed
southwest of Baghdad, bringing the total number of
US troops killed over the previous seven days to
14. Officially, this brings the number of US
troops killed in Iraq since March 2003 to 2,729.
Most in the Arab world, and particularly in Iraq,
estimate a much higher number.
One wonders
where Maliki's security plan stands, since he
promised to make safety a priority on his agenda
in May. A smarter question would be: Why are the
Americans still supportive of this failed premier?
His security plan has catapulted 15,000 US troops
into a hands-on presence on the streets of Iraq,
backed by 40,000 Iraqi soldiers.
According
to a US statement, they have "cleared
approximately 95,000 buildings, 80 mosques and 60
muhallas [small administrative districts],
detained more than 125 terrorist suspects, seized
more than 1,700 weapons, registered more than 750
weapons and found 35 weapons caches. The combined
forces have also removed more than 196,921 cubic
meters of trash from the streets of Baghdad."
All the same, the rising death toll shows
that Maliki's security plan has failed. According
to the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, a
quarter of a million Iraqis have been displaced,
because of deteriorating security conditions and
rising sectarian violence, since February. Between
July and August, about 80,000 Iraqis were
registered with the ministry as refugees and
40,000 families applied for government aid.
This number, naturally, might be much
higher, since many Iraqis have fled the country
altogether and not registered with the ministry.
Many have gone to neighboring Iran, Syria or
Kurdistan. According to the International
Organization for Migration, nearly 9,000 Iraqis
flee their homes every week.
Elsewhere in
Iraq, an entire Iraqi brigade, with 1,200 police
officers, has been suspended because of suspected
connections to the mass kidnapping of 26 workers
last Sunday. Six of the workers were later found
dead.
Also prior to Rice's visit were
heightened rumors in Iraq and the international
media that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the new leader of
al-Qaeda in Iraq, had been killed. Had this been
true, it would have been a great bonus to Maliki,
who celebrated the killing of Abu Musab
al-Zarkawi, Masri's predecessor, in June shortly
after he had come to power.
The reports on
Masri, denied by a US military spokesman, were
triggered by Hasan al-Senaid, a parliamentarian
close to Maliki, who said that Masri had been
killed in a US strike in western Iraq. The rumor,
apparently, was a publicity stunt by the prime
minister's supporters, who wish to raise his
ratings among the Iraqi public. It was intended to
show that at least the prime minister and his US
allies were working to bring terrorism to a halt.
Maliki and Rice sidestepped all of these
issues at their press conference. Maliki actually
seems reluctant to impose real security, since
this would mean a certain clash with powerful
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr (who currently supports
him) and dismantling Muqtada's Mehdi Army.
Since September 26, Iraqis - as elsewhere
in the Muslim world - have been celebrating the
holy month of Ramadan, and Maliki has ordered a
halt to house-to-house searches during the period
to avoid arousing religious emotions against the
government.
He has also given strict
orders that Iraqi troops do not enter Sadr City in
Baghdad, where Muqtada is based. Theirs is a
marriage of convenience based on religious
affiliations and common vision. Muqtada promises
to steer clear of anti-government activity, while
Maliki pledges to refrain from harassing,
arresting or disarming Muqtada's militia.
The two men are united on not wanting an
independent Shi'ite state in southern Iraq,
although both of them are Shi'ites, and refusing
Iranian influence in Iraqi affairs. The fact that
Maliki is able to walk the tightrope, with the US
on one side and their deadly enemy Muqtada on the
other, is in fact remarkable. His friendship with
Muqtada has nullified the Mehdi Army's attacks on
US troops - and vice versa - and also given great
credibility to the government because Muqtada has
ministers in the Maliki cabinet and seats in
parliament.
To think that the US supports
a prime minister who dabbles with militiamen,
wants to establish a theocracy and is unable to
bring security to Iraq is indeed baffling. This is
the Iraq that Rice visited on October 5, 2006.
A story published in Britain's Guardian
newspaper on Thursday claimed that Iraq's school
and university system was in danger of collapse as
students and teachers sought refuge to avoid
sectarian violence. Coincidentally, on the day the
story was published, this correspondent met an
Iraqi college student at a coffeehouse in
Damascus. He confirmed that classes had shrunk in
size as it was unsafe for students and teachers to
venture into the streets in many cities, and added
that he had dropped out of the Mechanical
Engineering School at Baghdad University in his
senior year to search for safety and a job in
Damascus.
He said, "If I do not find a job
in my domain, I will work in anything. I can work
as a waiter, a driver or a secretary!"
Universities, he added, had been infiltrated by
Islamic militias that forced female students to
wear the veil and that persecuted the Christian
community.
This community in Iraq was
listed at 1.4 million in 1987. Because of rising
sectarian violence, only 60,000-80,000 remain in
Iraq. Most fled to Syria after a series of church
attacks in 2004. According to the United Nations,
minorities in Iraq - Christians included - "have
become the regular victims of discrimination,
harassment and, at times, persecution, with
incidents ranging from intimidation to murder". It
added that "members of the Christian minority
appear to be particularly targeted".
This
type of violence is particularly acute in the area
around Mosul. High-ranking clergy there claim that
priests in Iraq can no longer wear their clerical
robes in public for fear of being attacked by
Islamists.
Beyond the platitudes at their
public show, one wonders whether Rice was able to
give Maliki any pointers to getting Iraq out of
its mess. Rice and the US administration insist
that Iraq is now better off than it was under
Saddam Hussein.
The facts, however, prove
otherwise. The Human Rights Report for 1998 showed
that "massive and extremely grave violations of
human rights and of international humanitarian
law" were happening in Saddam's Iraq. It added,
"Torture and ill-treatment continue to be
widespread."
Today, the UN mission in Iraq
notes: "Detainees' bodies show signs of beating
using electric cables, wounds in different parts
of their bodies, including the hands and genitals,
broken bones of legs and hands, electric and
cigarette burns." The report adds that Iraqi
morgues have bodies that "often bear signs of
severe torture, including acid-induced injuries
and burns caused by chemical substances, missing
skin, broken bones, missing eyes and wounds caused
by power drills or nails". Those not tortured, it
added, are shot in the head.
Rice should
have raised such topics as these in her meeting
with Maliki, who in his alliance with Muqtada is
responsible for a lot of what is happening in
Iraq. Sharing the blame are other militias, such
as the Badr Organization of Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim.
As head of state, though, Maliki (and his
rebel ally Muqtada) should be blamed and punished
for the chaos in Iraq, rather than supported by
the encouraging words of Rice.
Sami
Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd.
All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing
.)
