Monday, May 24, 2010
Iraq's leaders disappoint
Three months have passed since the people of Iraq voted in parliamentary elections, and as of today the country still has no government. This story will sound all-too familiar to the Lebanese, who themselves faced an agonizing wait when protracted negotiations followed our own elections last year.
But Iraq is not Lebanon. While paralysis and leadership vacuums have become expected fixtures of Lebanon’s political process, six months with no government in Iraq, where Al-Qaeda is openly and actively engaged in a massive effort to topple the country’s government, is an incontrovertibly dangerous prospect. Worse yet, we have seen no signs that either side is capable of ending this crisis.
After meeting with Ayad Allawi on Sunday, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani made it clear that he would not influence the balance of power in Iraq, and that no politicians should be excluded from government. His comments signal the recognition that the situation is precarious at best.
The more time that passes without Iraq’s politicians finding a solution by themselves, the more the sway of regional power brokers becomes a deciding factor. We can expect to see powerful countries exerting their influence over their weaker neighbors if this power vacuum continues – Iran supporting one side, Saudi Arabia the other, Syria with its shared border, and Turkey of course will want to make its voice heard on the Kurdish region.
While the powerful countries that surround Iraq pursue their own interests, Iraq, and the region, will suffer. An open power struggle in that country could see participants to more forcefully play their cards in other arenas, including Lebanon. What is required to counter this is strong leadership from within Iraq, and we have yet to see this.
Allawi’s coalition gained a majority in the elections, and with it a mandate to govern; but he has not as yet proven up to the task of building a state. His opponent, incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has shown himself to be equally unimpressive at this crucial point in the country’s history. To put it bluntly, the will of Iraq’s politicians does not match the crisis which the country faces.
Both sides have been undeniably tenacious in their quest for power; power is indeed necessary, but it is not sufficient on its own. The extreme case of this came with the rule of Saddam Hussein, a man who wielded an unimaginable amount of power over his population and little else, at the expense of humanity.
What Iraq needs is leaders with more than a thirst to rule, but a thirst rectify the country’s ills; leaders with a vision for their country rather than a vision for themselves. We have yet to see this from the current crop of politicians vying for power.
As long as this continues, Iranian, Saudi and Syrian interests will reign in Iraq, and the ramifications of the struggle for power in the country will reverberate across the region.
Iraq has the resources, the culture, the climate and the talent to take care of its own problems, but until its politicians begin to reflect the country’s potential, Iraq’s problems will continue.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&article_id=115159&categ_id=17#axzz0ooabmsIz
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Mar 05, 2010
Iraq elections this weekend; U.S. combat pull-out still set for August
The Iraqi elections are Sunday, but it will take months to form a new government -- though not so long as to affect U.S. plans to pull out combat troops by the end of the August, Obama officials say.
First, elections for Iraq's council of representatives are complex, with 6,127 candidates for 325 seats. Terrorists are threatening Election Day violence. And it could take a month or so for officials to formally certify all the results, after a series of expected vote challenges.
Then comes government formation. Once the council is seated, it must select a speaker -- then it elects a president -- then the president designates a prime minister -- and then the prime minister tries to put together a Cabinet that can be approved by the council. All these steps could take weeks, adding up to months.
There are still some 96,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, a number scheduled to be cut nearly in half by the end of August, with or without a new Iraqi government.
"The team here believes that we are on track, strongly on track, to meet the president's promise of withdrawing our combat brigades by the end of August, as he laid out last year," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
While ending combat operations, the U.S. plans to maintain a residual security force of 50,000 troops in Iraq. Under an agreement the Bush administration signed with Iraq, all U.S. troops are scheduled to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.
