"Iraq political crisis erupts as last U.S. troops leave" Washpost

"Iraq’s political process was unraveling faster than had been anticipated Saturday, with Sunni politicians walking out of the nation’s parliament and threatening to resign from the government even before the last U.S. troops had left the country.

The crisis was triggered by reports that security forces loyal to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, are planning to arrest the country’s Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, and charge him with terrorism.

Those reports have fueled fears among Sunni politicians that Maliki intends to further consolidate his grip on power by moving against his rivals now that U.S. troops have gone. In recent days, the homes of top Sunni politicians in the fortified Green Zone have been ringed by tanks and armored personnel carriers, and rumors are flying that arrest warrants will be issued for other Sunni leaders.

The mostly Sunni Iraqiya bloc said it had withdrawn from parliament to protest what it called Maliki’s increasingly dictatorial behavior. Sunni ministers in the coalition government will resign unless he gives them a greater say in running the government and, in particular, overseeing the country’s Shiite-dominated security forces, the bloc warned."  Washpost

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Here we go...    GZC questions the notion that Maliki is an enemy of the US.  I don't.  He is an enemy of the United States.  He is merely a clever enemy who  told the gullible what they wanted to hear.  Arab politicians are good at that, even better than American politicians.

He has us out of the way now and will act against those who are potential threats to consolidation of his and Shia Arab rule in Iraq.  Does this make him a stooge of Iran?  No, he was always an ally of Iran and one of several men competing for the Mullahs' favor.

I think that there is better than a 50% chance that Iraq will descend into greater and greater levels of inter-ethno-religous violence in the coming months.  While that occurs the MSM will strain its "guts" to the maximum in trying to avoid calling this "civil war."  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iraq-political-crisis-erupts-as-last-us-troops-leave/2011/12/17/gIQA3aor0O_story.html?hpid=z3

Comments

[Jim Ticehurst]

I Agree..and am not surprised at these Immediate Events in Iraq..Lot of Bad Blood to settle...and the NEOCONS were far too Ambitious and Ignorant when they stepped into this Arena on Pretext..We will soon see the Results of thier folly...

[Charles Cameron (hipbone)]

It does seem a sorry business.

I'd be interested to learn more about the Ya Husain military-political flag you posted -- where it came from, who flies it, and / or what it signifies.

[ISL]

I totally agree with the oftstated SST truism: People have friends, nation's interests. To imagine that Maliki ever would be anything but a friend of Iraq - Shiite Iraq - was/is delusional (but clearly neo-con presidential). The US has not provided sufficient incentives for aligning interests, more IMHO demonstration of their disalignment.

Ok, self evident.

But then again, hubris tends to ignore the self evident. Sadly, naivete is hubris's best friend with the price being paid by others for now.

On the other hand, assuming Karma, I wonder (dread) the blowback (and not necessarily from Iraq - perhaps internal and official).

[Green Zone Cafe]

So, I heard that Hashemi was apprehended at Baghdad airport tonight. The Green Zone is full of tanks.

This is supposedly all about the bomb that went off near the parliament building about two weeks ago. The story is that the car the bomb was in was traced back to someone's bodyguard. You might remember that the Iraqi government first said the explosion was a mortar. It wasn't.

A week after the bomb, Iyad Allawi said he wanted to have talks and reconcile with Maliki. I heard this was a result of Allawi's people being implicated in the bombing.
Then after that, the whole Iraqiya bloc walked out of parliament.

There is the possibility that people connected to Hashemi did plant a bomb, to embarrass Maliki, if for no other reason, or to express frustration about the failure of Maliki to allow an Iraqiya defense minister.

If there is evidence, they need to come out with it. Unfortunately, the judiciary is not very independent.

It's easy to talk about Iran and Maliki, but Hashemi and Mutlaq were pretty close to those who were backing the Sunni insurgents not too long ago.

Well, I hope things calm down and there is a collective "never mind."

[turcopolier]

GZC

If reconciliation among former enemies in a civil war is not possible then the contest will be renewed and fought to a finish. pl

[graywolf]

Give'em a year....maybe.
Another brutal dictator (likely an Iranian stooge) will take over.
The Iraqi's are just too tribal and too immature to run anything bigger than a 7-11.

If it weren't for oil, these losers would still be looking for a cave to live in.......in the desert.

[stanley henning]

So, over 4,000 dead American soldiers and over a trillion dollars down the drain and this is the result of neo-con mishandling of intelligence on WMDs in a misperceived need to protect someone else.

[turcopolier]

graywolf

It is endearing to see that you remain the racist xenophobe you have always been. Your Israeli friends were terrified of the Iraqis before we Americans smashed the country to bits for them. They had to be destroyed because the Israelis preferred Iran to them and did everything they could to help Iran against Iraq in the war between the two countries. pl

[Anna-Marina]

The pain and suffering and death of the thousands and thousands of human beings versus the improved financial situation and subhuman satisfaction of the few…
My simple question is how come that the big-time criminals like Bush and Blair and Cheney have not been excommunicated and anathemaized by the Church? And how come that the great Jewish tradition of humanism has been so thoroughly defaced by the American neocons on such grand scale? These are of course rhetorical questions...

This is a link to one of Hitchens’ great articles on the obscenity of the US policy in the ME: http://www.harpers.org/archive/1991/01/0000414

[graywolf]

Sir:
I'm not always endearing, but I try to be when I visit here.
I'll plead guilty to some xenophobia, but racist?
Only when I'm disguised in a white sheet.
I don't have any Israeli friends.
An Israeli worked me for me once - briefly.
Ok guy. Disliked American Jews, though.

[tequila]

I think the Sunnis have already lost ... the Anbar tribes just haven't realized it fully yet.

At best they can hope for a stalemate if they can split the Sadr current from Maliki, but the Iranians probably won't allow that to happen.

In the end, Shia Islamism will rule Baghdad and the Kurds will probably do their best to spin off as much as they can. Autonomous Kurdistan will probably switch allies to Turkey - ironically the Turks are their most logical allies.

[turcopolier]

graywolf

You deny that you are not prejudiced against Arabs as an ethnic group? Is that not racist? The pre 2000 Iraq was within a couple pf years of some kind of experimental nuclear explosion. 7/11 managers? pl

[graywolf]

To me, EVERYTHING is about results.

People blessed with oil/money and still manage to screw it up - repeatedly - don't deserve respect.
Of course, I'll goof on them.
That's not racist; that's realism.

I'm not bigoted, I'm Darwinian.

[turcopolier]

graywolf

They defeated Iran and then were twice crushed by the greatest military power in history. If you think they didn't defeat Iran you are wrong. I was there and no amount of propaganda changes the truth. Screw-ups? We wrecked their economy. They can't seem to do liberal democracy? You call Israel a liberal democracy? They discriminate aginst women and bomb children with white phosphorus. The whole country is run on the basis of racial discrimination. What a bunch of winners! pl

[Roy G.]

graywolf,

You proudly call yourself 'Darwinian,' yet clearly you are working from ignorance in this reference (nothing new there, to be sure). You seem to think you are referencing Charles Darwin and scientific theory, when in fact your position is actually 'Social Darwinism,' which is something else entirely. From Wikipedia:

Social Darwinism is a term commonly used for theories of society that emerged in England and the United States in the 1870s, seeking to apply the principles of Darwinian evolution to sociology and politics. It especially refers to notions of struggle for existence being used to justify social policies which make no distinction between those able to support themselves and those unable to support themselves. The most prominent form of such views stressed competition between individuals in laissez-faire capitalism but it is also connected to the ideas of eugenics, scientific racism, imperialism, fascism, Nazism and struggle between national or racial groups.
...
Nazi Germany's justification for its aggression was regularly promoted in Nazi propaganda films depicting scenes such as beetles fighting in a lab setting to demonstrate the principles of "survival of the fittest" as depicted in Alles Leben ist Kampf (English translation: All Life is Struggle). Hitler often refused to intervene in the promotion of officers and staff members, preferring instead to have them fight amongst themselves to force the "stronger" person to prevail - "strength" referring to those social forces void of virtue or principle.

The argument that Nazi ideology was strongly influenced by social Darwinist ideas is often found in historical and social science literature. For example, the Jewish philosopher and historian Hannah Arendt analysed the historical development from a politically indifferent scientific Darwinism via social Darwinist ethics to racist ideology. In the last years the argument has increasingly been taken up by opponents of evolutionary theory. The creationist ministry Answers in Genesis is especially known for some of these claims. Intelligent design supporters have promoted this position as well.
...
Ludwig von Mises argued in his book Human Action that social Darwinism contradicts the principles of liberalism, however this conclusion was based on the definition of social Darwinism as "that individuals or groups achieve advantage over others as the result of genetic or biological superiority". He addresses this definition of social Darwinism by stating "Darwinism does not in any way invalidate the liberal creed; on the contrary, the traits conducive to social cooperation (rather than the allegedly "natural" instincts of aggression) are precisely those that maximize one's offspring in the current environment. Far from being unnatural, reason is the foremost biological mark of homo sapiens.
//
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism

[William R. Cumming]

And is Afghanistan an "insurgency"?

[turcopolier]

WRC

Of course. pl

[Green Zone Cafe]

So, Hashemi and Mutlaq are up in Sulymaniyah under the protection of Jalal Talibani, and Hashemi's bodyguards are accused and in custody. The proof and the defenses are supposed to be forthcoming.

Contra the Colonel, a (Shia) Iraqi I was talking to today said the "word on the street" was that Maliki's crackdown was part of an American-approved plan that was given the green light during Maliki's recent visit to Washington. He didn't think much would come of it - Hashemi might move to Jordan at the most.

[turcopolier]

GZC

"...part of an American-approved plan that was given the green light during Maliki's recent visit to Washington."

Bull. You are as gullible as ever. pl

[J]

Iraqis who aided US left behind and fearful
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/12/20111215164220357796.html

[turcopolier]

GZC

On the other hand the halfwits who run policy in Washington may have agreed to this on Maliki's assurance that this is about "terrorism." The more I hear of MalikI the more I admire him. pl

[Byron Raum]

Eugenicists are also proud Darwinians.

[Fred]

GZC,

Of course its Washington's fault, just watch any presidential candidate debate or Faux news report.

[Green Zone Cafe]

I didn't say I believed it, that was what my Iraqi co-worker said people were saying.

I don't know what's going on.

[turcopolier]

GZC

I appreciate the distinction but see whatthey want or don't want to see. pl