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Crocker's Questionable "Seeds of National Reconciliation"
Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) wasn't buying Amb. Crocker's portrait of sotto voce reconciliation efforts. Crocker, however, decided to double down, saying that the "Sunnis are now linking to the federal government by being part of the police force."
Unfortunately, the Shiite government believes, and not without reason, that the Sunni infusion into the local police and Iraqi Army will ultimately lead to a coup. Witness one Sunni recently telling The New York Times that "If we get into the Iraqi police we can move to Mahmudiya and Yusufiya and south Baghdad to free them and kill all the militias.”
To Crocker, those provincial moves against al-Qaeda "could be the seeds of reconciliation."
At several points during his testimony, Crocker has stated that "fundamental questions" over what sort of country Iraq will be is hindering reconciliation, while simultaneously hinting that such reconciliation is already occurring in miniature. Both statements can't be true at once.
Comments (7)
The Fool wrote on September 10, 2007 4:20 PM:National reconciliation? What a crock!
No Fool wrote on September 10, 2007 4:50 PM:What sort of country Iraq will be? Vacant. If we just wait long enough. And don't give up.
Hoplite wrote on September 10, 2007 5:02 PM:What a crock-o-shit!!
The Shias are not ready to `make nice' with the Baathists who murdered, raped, tortured, etc Shias for decades under the rule of Saddam Hussein, i.e. a dictator that the US once supported.
Iraq: The Way to Go
By Peter W. Galbraith
Volume 54, Number 13 · August 16, 2007
[snip]
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim leads the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC, previously known as SCIRI), which is Iraq's leading Shiite party and a critical component of Prime Minister al-Maliki's coalition.
He is the sole survivor of eight brothers. During Saddam's rule Baathists executed six of them.
On August 29, 2003, a suicide bomber, possibly linked to the Baathists, blew up his last surviving brother, and predecessor as SCIRI leader, at the shrine of Ali in Najaf.
Moqtada al-Sadr, Hakim's main rival, comes from Iraq's other prominent Shiite religious family. Saddam's Baath regime murdered his father and two brothers in 1999.
Earlier, in April 1980, the regime had arrested Moqtada's father-in-law and the father-in-law's sister—the Grand Ayatollah Baqir al-Sadr and Bint al-Huda.
While the ayatollah watched, the Baath security men raped and killed his sister.
They then set fire to the ayatollah's beard before driving nails into his head.
De-Baathification is an intensely personal issue for Iraq's two most powerful Shiite political leaders, as it is to hundreds of thousands of their followers who suffered similar atrocities.
pywiak wrote on September 10, 2007 6:34 PM:As I was driving into town earlier I was listening to the beginning of Crocker's statement and it was all I could do to stay on the road as he (I have to assume with a smug straight face) drew an analogy between the current reality in Iraq and the nascent political struggles of the American experiment. What he neglected to say was that there was probably no one in 1776 who had any illusions (and cynically tried to sell them) about the prospects for defeating the British Army and creating a new country and a cohesive government.
Crocker continued by delineating all of the historical reasons why Iraq was a basket case just prior to the 2003 invasion, implying that it would be wholly appropriate to temper one's expectations of a timely and predictable resolution of Iraq's problems.
At this point I stopped the car, got out, and just screamed.
For Crocker as a representative of this Administration's policy to now attempt to use as a justification for our continued occupation of Iraq the very same reasons for not invading that were apparent and ignored in 2002 is outrageous. Once again it demonstrates this Administration's unmitigated contempt for anyone or anything other than its own priorities and prerogatives.
moondancer wrote on September 10, 2007 6:54 PM:That reconciliation will happen right after the Israeli-Palestinian permanent peace accord.
wmcq wrote on September 11, 2007 1:39 AM:So we get two more friedmans of civil war to pretend is not happening, while MSM doesnt really cover it, while all the capons inside the beltway pretend they still have balls.
Partition has already worked so well in India, Pakistan, Isreal, Ireland, Korea, Nigerie, and Viet Nam; I don't know why anyone would worry about trying it in Iraq.
I already have the names picked out:
Iranq
Southern chunk of the area formerly known as Iraq. Noted for lots of oil and Arabs who think all Persians are groovy.
Kurdran
Northern part of TAFKAI. Lots of Oil and Kurds who think Turks suck.
Jordaq
Western part of TAFKAI. No Oil, principal products refugee camps and trigger fingers.
As long as we keep troops in any of these countries, two things will, unfortunately, be true:
1) a higher percentage of Iraqis will have learned English than our forces will have learned Arabic (Hence our inability to tell friend from foe, get actionable intelligence, win hearts and minds; and tell the difference between Al Quaeda Iraq and THRUSH) and
2) Any American,(soldier or contractor) will still be able to kill any non-famous Iraqi without fear of repercussion or inquiry.
I can't understand why our war groupies (including all these apple polishing generals and admirals) don't anticipate some serious legal and career problems once a constitutional democarcy is restored here.
VL wrote on September 11, 2007 9:59 AM:The contradictory statements are swallowed whole by the faithful, disregarded by the indifferent (which amounts to the same thing), and making anyone with a working memory crazy.