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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
With the insurgency boiling over and sectarian strife spreading, ethnic divisions threaten to derail the new Iraqi government.
May 6, 2005 | Iraq's elected Parliament finally swore in a new Cabinet on Tuesday -- yet another milestone that the Bush administration hoped would represent a decisive turning point in its campaign to remake Iraq. But like the toppling of Saddam's statue, the dictator's capture, the formation of an interim government, the siege of Fallujah, the national elections, and the formation of a new government, this latest development offered little reason for hope that the bloody insurrection would subside.
Years ago, George Bush the elder explained why he did not push on to Baghdad at the end of the first Gulf War: He feared the breakup of the Iraqi state. The most dangerous fissure was and is between Iraq's majority group, the Shiites, and the formerly ascendant Sunnis. Those divisions have now exploded into a horrific guerrilla war in which disaffected Sunnis increasingly target Shiites and Kurds. In the week after the Cabinet was presented to Parliament, Sunni Arab guerrillas went on a bombing spree that left some 200 dead and hundreds more wounded. The Bush administration had hoped that the new, elected government would attract the loyalty of alienated Iraqis, and that as a result the guerrilla war would wind down. Instead, Sunnis are furious that their representation on the Cabinet is still unclear and that their suggestions for Cabinet members have been rejected by Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
The massive suicide bombing that killed 60 and wounded 150 at a police recruitment station in Irbil Wednesday morning was only one of a string of deadly assaults signaling the resolve of the Sunni Arab guerrillas to keep fighting. While some of the attacks were carried out by fundamentalist holy warriors ("jihadis"), the bulk are probably the work of Baath military men. A Col. Zajay, a Shiite police official in south Baghdad, told the London Times last week, "We have lots of information that the Baathists are regrouping ... They think they can take power again."
President Bush, as usual, tried to put the best possible light on the situation, saying in his April 28 news conference that he believes "we're making really good progress in Iraq" and praising the new government for exemplifying "unity in diversity." Many Iraqis, shell-shocked by the bloody attacks and the unraveling of the Iraqi social fabric, begged to differ. In addition to the massive bombing campaign that greeted the formation of the new government, sectarian strife continued in the mixed Sunni-Shiite areas south of Baghdad. In another alarming development, major rioting broke out Tuesday and Wednesday at Baghdad University between Shiite and Sunni students and professors.
When the Cabinet was presented to Parliament on April 28, only 185 members (out of 274) showed up to vote it into office, and Sunni Arab officials were clearly frustrated and disappointed that so many key posts reserved for Sunnis had not yet been filled. Eleven small Sunni parties had formed a National Dialogue Council to negotiate with Jaafari and to put forward candidates for positions. The Sunnis had demanded seven ministries, including the powerful post of minister of defense. But only a few of the ministries allotted to the Sunni Arabs were filled by Prime Minister Jaafari before he took the Cabinet to Parliament. Sunni Arabs expected to get defense, human rights, and industry and minerals, but those posts were filled by acting ministers.
Among the major Sunni Arab players, the rotund Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer called the new Cabinet, with its holes where Sunnis should be, "disappointing" and "sectarian." An official of the Iraqi Islamic Party said that the Cabinet did not represent Iraq and therefore could not usher in national reconciliation. He complained of its "racist" character. He said that all of the candidates suggested by his party for Cabinet posts had been rejected.
The Association of Muslim Scholars, a hard-line Sunni group with extensive ties to the guerrillas, responded to the Cabinet by saying that there is no hope of peace in Iraq until the United States withdraws its forces. In his Friday prayers sermon at the Umm al-Qura mosque in west Baghdad, Shaikh Hareth al-Ubaidi criticized the new government of Ibrahim Jaafari as having "marginalized the Sunnis." He also ridiculed the talk that a Sunni Arab would be appointed "minister of tourism."
Sunni Arabs constitute about 4 million of Iraq's population of 25 million and predominate in Baghdad and its western and northern hinterlands. They had been the elite of the country in the 20th century, and they dominated the upper reaches of the civilian bureaucracy and the officer corps, as well as being large landlords and entrepreneurs. Under Saddam Hussein, the Baath Party became an important source of wealth and patronage for Sunni Arabs, the top leadership of which kept Kurds and the majority Shiites politically marginalized.
