Barzani Threatens Secession;
Sistani Aide Assassinated;
4 GIs Killed
Massoud Barzani reacted angrily to criticisms of him by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and many other Iraqi politicians for his call that the Iraqi flag not be flown in Iraqi Kurdistan. Al-Hayat reports [Ar.] that in a speech before the opening session of the Kurdish parliament on Sunday, Barzani said that he had discussed the flag issue at some length with President Jalal Talabani and with PM Nuri al-Maliki, and that this was not a unilateral decision. He characterized the present Iraqi flag as that of the Baath Party, the Anfal chemical weapons campaign against the Kurds, and mass graves. He added,
' If the Iraqis are not enthusiastic about creating a new flag, the Kurds also are not in a hurry on the issue . . . [my message to all is] that the time of threats has passed, and we will not accept the language of threats from anyone at all. The will of the Kurdish people will not be held hostage to others . . . The Kurdish parliament decided to remain now inside the federal framework, but at any moment the Kurdish parliament and the Kurdish people perceive it in their interest to announce independence, we will announce it without fearing anyone."
He made fun of his critics, saying that they cannot even administer their provinces, are failures, and just want to reduce Kurdistan to a similar failure.
Al-Hayat says that the Iraqi National Security Council will look into what is driving Barzani's emotionalism on this issue.
Meanwhile, the Higher Commission for Reconciliation and National Dialogue has decided to seek a site other than Irbil (Barzani's base) for the holding of its conference. Obviously, an attempt to reconcile Sunni and Shiite Arab Iraqis will require that the Iraqi flag be flown.
Fadil al-Sharaa, the political councillor to the Iraqi prime minister, implied that Barzani was making a bid to take the focus off the substantial problems facing the Kurdistan Region, and said that Barzani's occasional attempts to portray himself as a Kurdish national hero standing up to an oppressive anti-Kurdish government in Baghdad targetted not only Arab Iraqis but also prominent Kurds serving in the Federal government, including the president.
He said that Prime Minister Maliki had put the ball in parliament's court.
Borzou Daragahi reports that in Kurdistan, Iraq seems far, far away.
While Barzani cannot stand even the Iraqi flag, 300 Sunni tribal chieftains demanded that Saddam Hussein be released from prison. Whether he resumed the presidency, they said, would be up to him. They threatened to join the guerrilla movement against the US presence if their demand is repulsed.
My guess is, any tribes still attached to Saddam Hussein, are already behind the scenes playing a big role in the guerrilla movement.
Unknown assailants assassinated Shaikh Hasan Muhammad Mahdi al-Jawadi, 56, in the southern city of Amara on Sunday. Al-Jawadi was a senior aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Amara is a rough neighborhood, dominated by displaced Marsh Arabs, where the Sadrist Movement and its splinters are strong and maintain paramilitaries. It is alarming that this assassination is almost certainly a further manifestation of Shiite on Shiite violence, of the sort that shook Diwaniyah last week.
The Iraqi Radio Sawa, which is generally much more substantive and professional than the generic version, reports that Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi recently brought an oral message from Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani to George W. Bush, as Abdul Mahdi himself claimed in an English language press conference. Najaf appears to be denying the report, but maybe is just denying that Sistani sent a formal letter.
2 US soldiers and 2 Marines were reported killed by guerrillas in Iraq over Labor Day Weekend.
Reuters reports that in the city of Khalis "A bomb in a market store killed four people and wounded 19 in the religiously mixed town of Khalis, 80 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad . . ."
(Reuters also reports:)
' DIWANIYA - U.S. troops patrolled through Diwaniya in a show of armoured force a week after the Iraqi army lost at least 20 soldiers fighting Shi'ite militiamen in the city. The U.S. military had no immediate comment . . . [Aljazeera described the US operation as an encirclement of the city. - JC]
BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi forces have arrested the second most senior figure of al Qaeda in Iraq and killed 20 fellow militants, Iraq's national security adviser said, claiming a big victory over insurgents. Mowaffak al-Rubaie named the man as Hamed Juma Faris al-Suaidi, also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana. . . '
I'm afraid that if the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi did not stop massive terrorism in Iraq, we may conclude two things: 1) relatively little of the political violence is being carried out by "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia" or Monotheism and Holy War as many still prefer to call it on the ground in Iraq; and 2) capturing al-Suwaidi is not going to stop the violence, either.
Meanwhile, the US military is offering to turn control of the Iraqi army over to the Iraqi government, and tried to do so again on Sunday, but failed. This writer says that the reason for the Iraqi foot dragging is that they are only being offered control of company-sized (100 men or so [-correction) operations, and they want much more, and are holding out for it. ( - Update)
Al-Zaman/ DPA report that an Iraq-Iran free trade zone opened Sunday in the Shalamijah district of Basra, the southern port city. The zone is based on an agreement earlier signed by the Basra city governing council and the Iranian government. (The Iraqi central government isn't mentioned as having been involved.) The area of the new market is 750 by 1500 meters (approx. yards), and the goods sold there from Iran will be allowed to be transported at much reduced tariff rates from both sides. There will be a similar zone inside Iran. Iran has undertaken to fund the repaving of the streets connecting Shalamijah with downtown Basra, and the rebuilding of a bridge across the Shatt al-Arab (the water boundary of Iran and Iraq).
posted by Juan Cole @ 9/04/2006 12:30:00 AM
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Your post above on turning over control of the Iraqi army describes a company size operation as 25 men, which is probably incorrect. A standard modern company has about 150 men at full strength, but would almost never achieve that in reality (although 80+ should be an absolute minimum). 25 men would be a fairly typical number for a platoon, (40 at full strength).
The flag business is not new. The reason given for rejecting it is that it is a Ba'ath flag! Why on earth would the anti-Ba'ath central government want to use it then?
The real issue is well illustrated by an interview with Barzani on al Arabia TV in the summer of 2004.
He was incensed by the description of Kurds as a minority. He argued that Iraq is a country of two nations: the Arabs and the Kurds and must have equal weights. It gets better: one of his many red-lines was that the constitution must guarantee that the PM; the President, or BOTH must be Kurds.
Back to the flag. It is generally understood in Iraq that the colors are Arab, which is the real reason the Kurdish warlords dont like it. Bremmer and co weighed in, and one morning a new Iraqi flag was shown on TV screens, in the exact white and blue colors of the Star of David! The rsponse of the masses was immediate, and giant flags were draped all over the place forcing a quick back down.
Meanwhile, the Kurds continued to ban the Iraqi flag, until recently and for an unexpected reason.
The Kurdish Thick Tanks [sic] have, with the help of their US and Israeli advisers, fantasised for a long time that they can achieve huge economic success with foriegn investment.
So they raced to complete the Kurdish airports (by an Israeli company,) issued a very generous foriegn investment law and waited for the stampeed of US and other companies ... nothing happened.
The next brilliant idea was to get Gulf money, but why would the Arabs invest in a such a clearly anti-Arab regime? Easy, be Arab friendly. So they allowed primary schools to teach Arabic and displayed earlier versions of the Iraqi flag .... nothing again.
Then comes Bush's bombshell about the unity of Iraq. Barzani, who is a very simple man, has convinced himself that he is vital to the USA and that they can never afford to upset him. He also convinced the Kurdish people that they would by now have the highest standard of living in the world: Kirkuk's oil + compensation from Iraq for past abuses + huge thank you money from the USA. Easy.
Now povery; no USA obedience; and adding insult to injury the Kurdish warlords are being asked to make concesions in the reconcilliation process: they are not happy bunnies, and like the other Turbans in the Green Zone are trying to make the reconcilliation a process whereby all the others agree to all their demands in return for trivial and meaningless "concessions".
The flag business is not new. The reason given for rejecting it is that it is a Ba'ath flag! Why on earth would the anti-Ba'ath central government want to use it then?
The real issue is well illustrated by an interview with Barzani on al Arabia TV in the summer of 2004.
He was incensed by the description of Kurds as a minority. He argued that Iraq is a country of two nations: the Arabs and the Kurds and must have equal weights. It gets better: one of his many red-lines was that the constitution must guarantee that the PM; the President, or BOTH must be Kurds.
Back to the flag. It is generally understood in Iraq that the colors are Arab, which is the real reason the Kurdish warlords dont like it. Bremmer and co weighed in, and one morning a new Iraqi flag was shown on TV screens, in the exact white and blue colors of the Star of David! The rsponse of the masses was immediate, and giant flags were draped all over the place forcing a quick back down.
Meanwhile, the Kurds continued to ban the Iraqi flag, until recently and for an unexpected reason.
The Kurdish Thick Tanks [sic] have, with the help of their US and Israeli advisers, fantasised for a long time that they can achieve huge economic success with foriegn investment.
So they raced to complete the Kurdish airports (by an Israeli company,) issued a very generous foriegn investment law and waited for the stampeed of US and other companies ... nothing happened.
The next brilliant idea was to get Gulf money, but why would the Arabs invest in a such a clearly anti-Arab regime? Easy, be Arab friendly. So they allowed primary schools to teach Arabic and displayed earlier versions of the Iraqi flag .... nothing again.
Then comes Bush's bombshell about the unity of Iraq. Barzani, who is a very simple man, has convinced himself that he is vital to the USA and that they can never afford to upset him. He also convinced the Kurdish people that they would by now have the highest standard of living in the world: Kirkuk's oil + compensation from Iraq for past abuses + huge thank you money from the USA. Easy.
Now povery; no USA obedience; and adding insult to injury the Kurdish warlords are being asked to make concesions in the reconcilliation process: they are not happy bunnies, and like the other Turbans in the Green Zone are trying to make the reconcilliation a process whereby all the others agree to all their demands in return for trivial and meaningless "concessions".
I've been reading a 1952 translation of "Tales from the Thousand and One Nights" by N.J. Dawood, an Iraq State Scholar who went to England in 1945 and graduated from London University. He was born in Baghdad.
The seven voyages of Sinbad start in Baghdad where he gathers materials to trade, loads them onto a boat to sail down the Tigris to Basrah, and then out to sea.
On his return, the journey ends with making his way up from Basrah to to Baghdad, the City of Peace. That's the way it's described. It's hard to even imagine that now, with the whole country in turmoil.
Maybe there's an opportunity here the Shi'ites and Sunnis conjoined together against the Kurds. A little "wag the dog" if you will.
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