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| Iraq |
| Iraq Sunni bloc weighs quitting government |
| 2007-05-02 |
| Iraq’s main Sunni bloc is considering quitting the Shi’ite-led government because it believes the concerns of Sunnis are not being addressed, members of the bloc including the vice president said on Tuesday. Some members of the Sunni Accordance Front have been urging the bloc for several months to pull out of Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s cabinet, partly over accusations that reconciliation with minority Sunni Arabs has moved too slowly. But frustration has grown in recent weeks, members said. “We are serious in withdrawing if nothing new happens with progress in the political process,” Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni bloc, told Reuters from Amman where he was on a visit. “Reconciliation the government speaks of is only for conferences and speeches. No results can be seen on the ground.” Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a senior member of the bloc, told Reuters the Front would make its position known soon. “We are very serious in taking a real unified stance over a possible withdrawal,” said Hashemi, who discussed the issue with US President George W Bush in a telephone call on Sunday. Washington has set Iraq’s government benchmarks that it wants to see progress on by September, and which US officials believe will be crucial to bringing Sunni Arabs, the backbone of the insurgency, more firmly into the political process. It wants parliament to delay a two-month summer recess due to start in July to pass laws on sharing Iraq’s oil wealth, easing a ban on former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party holding office, and paving the way for provincial elections. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 And it will be Bush's Fault. Because it always is and always will be. (Or so hope the Dems.) |
| Posted by: eLarson 2007-05-02 17:30 |
| #2 Plus the Sunnis can not take advantage of their Democratic allies to press Maliki for more rapid change, lest he fail to achieve the upcoming "benchmarks". Waytago Dems! Make it impossible to achieve peace! |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-05-02 05:37 |
| #1 Provincial elections are fine, as they may help create more, and more local, power bases and orientations apart from the very problematic "national" parties. But again, I am very dubious of the actual, real-world payoff to getting any of these items passed. If Hashemi and Dulaimi and Co. had the pull with the muchachos doin' the shootin' and killin' to "deliver" them in terms of stopping their mayhem, I've never seen any evidence of it. I'm sure there are various situations in different Sunni communities, but it strains credulity to assert, or assume, that the hydrocarbons law or Shi'a promises of Ba'athist re-integration in an environment of Shi'a revenge squads (pre-dated Golden Mosque bombing, more systematic) will motivate a meaningful number of "insurgents" to stop their shenanigans. Such things might make the elected Sunnis feel less insecure, or embarrassed, but I don't see how that translates into valuable change. By all means push for these sorts of limited progress - but beware the counter-intuitive mental affliction that has gotten us into so much trouble in Iraq and repeat before every senior staff meeting at Victory or in the North Wing of the Palace: bitter wars with high stakes are settled with "iron and blood" .... not political finesse. |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2007-05-02 00:32 |