Bombings Kill 10 in Baghdad
Iraqi Parliament in Uproar over Debaathification
Al-Hakim Defends Iran
On Sunday, the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki presented to parliament its bill revising the expulsion of ex-Baathists from government jobs and public life. The Shiite deputies in parliament essentially booed it, with the thirty Sadrist deputies pounding the table and making it impossible for parliament to conduct business. Parliament adjourned among shouting and scuffling. Shiite suffered under the Baath Party and are uncomfortable at what they see as an attempt to rehabilitate Baathists.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council in Iraq (ISCI), has denied that Iran has behaved disruptively in Iraq. Al-Hakim lived much of his adult life in exile in Tehran and is still close to the ayatollahs.
Guerrillas set off a big bomb in downtown Baghdad on Sunday.
The bombing near the Health Ministry in Baghdad on Sunday, and the earlier bombing on Friday of a pet market demonstrate how artificial the relative reduction in violence in Iraq has been. One newspaper account revealed that the pet market had begun doing business again only because the US military forbade automobiles to drive in that area. Now, I'm all in favor of such measures as part of an over-all policy, and had suggested them myself at IC in the past. If car bombs daily kill a lot of people at a market, then obviously it is best you don't let people drive into that market. So I'm not complaining. I am just pointing out that if you get relative calm that way, you can't be sure it isn't just an inevitably temporary policy that is producing it. And sure enough, last Monday the US military had started letting people drive in the area of the pet market, and . . . kaboom! Car bomb? Yes. Car bomb.
This problem is why everyone admits that we need a political solution. Security precautions are temporary. Political solutions can be long-lived.
Reuters reports civil war violence for Iraq on Sunday:
BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed nine people and wounded 30 near the Health Ministry in Bab al-Muadham street in central Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb wounded two civilians in the Waziriya district of northern Baghdad, police said. A second roadside bomb exploded when Iraqi security forces arrived on the scene, killing one soldier and wounding six others, police said. . .
BAGHDAD - Five corpses were found in various parts of Baghdad, police said.
MOSUL - A roadside bomb targeting a U.S. patrol wounded six people in the city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. . .
MOSUL - Gunmen killed a guard at the headquarters of the Sunni Islamic Party in eastern Mosul . .
FALLUJA - Police detained four gunmen after an attack that wounded a policeman in Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, police said. . .
KIRKUK - One Iraqi soldier was killed and four were wounded when Iraqi forces opened fire on an explosives-laden truck speeding towards a checkpoint in the city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. Three soldiers were still missing after the truck exploded, police added.
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 11/26/2007 12:30:00 AM
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3 Comments:
This problem is why everyone admits that we need a political solution. Security precautions are temporary. Political solutions can be long-lived.
I agree with you concerning the need of a political solution. However I think that all along, the US has played a "divide and rule" policy in Iraq, whose fruit is a more or less open civil war. It's easy to stirr conflicts between different ethnics groups and different social classes, but it's much more difficult to reconcile them.
Such a political negotiation or reconciliation won't be possible unless the US leave Iraq completely and stop meddling in Iraqi affairs. There won't be any serious political solution without taking the Al'Sadr current in count, because they are much more popular among the Iraqi population than the ISCI (exiled in Iran) or the other Sunni collaborationists (exiled in the West). The problem is that the US is afraid of the Al'Sadr nationalism and of the fact that like the majority of Iraqi, they want the US out.
The ruling Shiite are opposed to the Sunni ex-Baathists only. The Shiite Baathists (abouth 3/4 the party memebers) are judged to have been coerced and didn't mean to. They have therefore been pardoned and many are absorbed in the Shiia parties or militias.
Re: Hakim defending Iran.
Asking the US for proof is very unwise of Hakim. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards leaders who were arrested in his complex have been a treasure trove. I would also think that in such a corrupt environment, the US (and even the Saudis) would have moles in the highest places.
Recently, the Iranian government sharply rebuked Maliki's spokesman for rejecting their proposal of Iranian troops, among others, areplacing the American. Iran described the Iraqis as being irresponsible! Maliki's spokesman replied that the rebuke should have been through the back channels and not in public!
Maliki has so far never ever been critical of Iran, but they still treat him like dirt. He left it to his spokesman to reply to their outrageous proposal, and this is the result.
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