Page 1 of
2 Another illusion out of the Iraqi
hat By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - Life without illusions is
unbearable, especially if someone is living in the
Arab world. That is what Thomas Friedman wrote in
his classic From Beirut to Jerusalem
regarding his experiences in Lebanon during the
civil war in the 1980s.
More than ever it
applies to Iraq today. A summary of all rhetoric
coming out of Baghdad and Washington shows how
desperate politicians are to convince the world
that a solution is reachable in Iraq. What is
being written in the Arab press and heard in the
Arab
street, however, shows just how desperate people
are to believe them.
The latest of these
illusions came from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
on Thursday when speaking to the Iraqi Parliament.
The premier, whose popularity is diminishing by
the minute in Baghdad, spoke about the US-Iraqi
security plan dubbed "Operation Imposing Law". It
is the latest of his many fanciful schemes to
bring security to Baghdad since coming to power
last May.
None of them has come to
anything. Maliki said, "We are full of hope. We
have no other choice but to use force and any
place where we receive fire will not be safe even
if it is a school, a mosque, a political party or
a home. There will be no safe place in Iraq for
terrorists."
Had Maliki been prime
minister of a real state he would have had a lot
of explaining to do when mortars hit an all-girls
secondary school three days later, on Sunday,
killing five students. All of them were Sunnis. A
Sunni group called the General Conference of the
People of Iraq accused Shi'ite militias of
carrying out the attack, saying that the markings
on the mortars indicated that they were "made in
Iran".
Also on Sunday, Iraqi and US forces
reported that they killed "several hundred gunmen"
who were said to be planning an attack on a
Shi'ite shrine. In a battle in the holy city of
Najaf that raged all day, a US helicopter crashed,
killing two troops.
More than 150 people
were killed in the week preceding the attack on
the girls' school, most targeting Shi'ites as they
prepared to celebrate the holy day of Ashura on
Tuesday.
Preceding all this bloodshed was
the much-publicized shootout between Sunni
militants and US troops, backed by Iraqi security,
in Haifa Street in Baghdad in which 30 militants
died. Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for the
government, said it was aimed at eradicating
"terrorists and outlaws" from the neighborhood.
The Association of Muslim Scholars, a
Sunni group, claimed that the Haifa Street attack
was "genocide", using it as further evidence to
blame the Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi government of
persecuting Sunnis.
The terrorists Maliki
promises to destroy are apparently alive and
kicking in Baghdad, with no indicator that his
security plan will succeed, not even with the
21,500 additional troops President George W Bush
plans to send to Iraq, the first of whom arrived
last week and the last expected in May.
Maliki promised, however, that his
security plan will target both Sunni and Shi'ite
militias. A major cause of concern over the past
six months has been Maliki's alliance with the
Mehdi Army of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
It
is accused, among other things, of kidnapping
Sunni notables, assassinating Sunni clergy and
burning Sunni mosques. The hanging of Saddam
Hussein on December 30, which fueled Sunni anger
not only in Iraq but throughout the Arab world,
was carried out by members of the Sadr movement,
who chanted Muqtada's name in the Iraqi dictator's
face before telling him to "go to hell".
Maliki never lifted a finger to stop them.
When Iraqi troops stormed Muqtada's districts in
late 2006, the prime minister apologized and
released the arrested Sadrists. While he cracks
down routinely on Sunni militias, Maliki refuses
to harass Muqtada's Shi'ite militias or his rival
in Shi'ite politics, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.
Some of Maliki's personal guards, it is
reported in Baghdad, are members of the Mehdi
Army. During the latest holy month of Ramadan,
Hakim gave a banquet in honor of the premier.
Maliki attended and promised to bring security to
Baghdad, while disarming the militias. Those
guarding him and his cabinet at Hakim's banquet
were members of the Badr Organization, one of the
militias the premier promises to "disarm".
In a very simple equation of the
patron-client system of the Middle East, Maliki
offers them protection, exemptions and "above the
law" treatment, while they offer him allegiance.
Last month, however, a fallout seemed
apparent between Muqtada and Maliki. The prime
minister ignored Muqtada's
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
