FYI: There’s A War On
Not over yet, contrary to what Iowans would prefer you to think. News and views:
Al-Sadr and al-Hakim’s men sit down to hash out issues. It is played as a good thing, to bring peace to the Shiite south, and it may be, though I suspect a quick militia Kumbayah chorus is little more than a repositioning for advantage.
It was at least the second formal overture al-Sadr has made to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim and his Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the largest Shiite political party, in less than a week.
Peace between the two — who each control powerful militias — is seen as key to preventing the outbreak of widespread fighting in oil-rich southern Iraq, where the British military recently handed over responsibility for security to Iraq’s government in Basra, the last province it controlled.
…
A delegation from al-Sadr’s office in Kufa, led by Sheik Muhanned al-Gharrawi, met with the Dhi Qar provincial governor Aziz Kadhim Alwan, a member of al-Hakim’s party, and other local officials in Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. In the past, al-Sadr followers have had violent clashes with the governor’s guards.
“The province should live in peace and security without armed violence and disorder,” Alwan said after the meeting. Al-Gharrawi said the talks were meant to “end political and military” violence in the province and “to protect citizens’ lives.”
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The differences between the two camps, however, are too complex and deep to be resolved at the level of Thursday’s meeting. Their rivalry mirrors class distinctions within the Shiite community as well as the longtime competition of the al-Sadr and al-Hakim families for the religious leadership of the holy city of Najaf, Shiite Islam’s primary seat of learning.
The rivalry is likely to come to a head when local elections are held nationwide, possibly this year. The two camps will spare no effort to dominate provincial councils in nine provinces south of Baghdad. Beside the oil reserves, southern Iraq has a prize in the wealth and prestige of the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala, visited by millions every year.
The news buried in the same article is actually more interesting. Al-Hakim does an end run around al-Maliki, with a Shiite valentine for the Sunnis:
Separately on Thursday, al-Hakim called for unity among Shiites, arguing that closing ranks would benefit the whole of Iraq since they are the majority.
“Every one must work to support and boost this unity,” he told supporters in Najaf.
He also acknowledged the contribution of Sunni militias, which have more than 70,000 members, to the decline in violence and called for their use in the continuing fight against al-Qaida in Iraq.
“Today, we are witnessing the decline of terrorism and the progress of reconciliation on the popular level with Sunni-Shiite solidarity,” he said, alluding to the government’s perceived failure to achieve political reconciliation among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish groups.
U.S. commanders have also credited the Sunni militias with playing a major role in the decline in violence over the past six months.
But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government has been deeply uneasy about the potential for the Sunni fighters — now better-organized and armed — to switch sides again, posing a threat to stability and the Shiite domination that followed the ouster of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-led regime.
NYT with more on al-Hakim’s Sunnier view.
IHT via Military.com: The dark side of the Sunni Awakening, inter-group rivalries.
AP: Vehicle ban in Baquba vs. AQ suicide bombs
AP: Gains could be reversed if eye is taken off ball. Gen. Rick Lynch: “The enemy’s still out there … My concern is when people begin to use words like defeat. We haven’t defeated the enemy; we clearly have the enemy on the run.”
Roggio’s LongWarJournal puts a finer point on it.
On the ground, Michael Totten takes a stroll in Fallujah in “Have a plan to kill everyone you meet.” He doesn’t.
A bittersweet groundview from Blackfive: Operation Puppy Love
Small Wars Journal, somewhat more wonkishly, examines the other half of counter-insurgency and U.S. insitutional nation-building deficiencies. Also, a surge roundup.
National Journal looks back, exhaustively picks apart Lancet’s 2004 654,956 Iraqi death toll, gets editor to admit discomfort. Scalp dangling on the lodgepole a warning to other politically inclined scientists in an election year? Should be.
Gateway: “Gimme an I … Gimme an R … Gimme an A … Gimme a Q!” and Sunni leaders blast AQ, roundup.
Despite the coronation of Aw Shucks and Obie in the cornfields, there still is an election going on. Newsweek rounds up the candidates on Iraq. Some of them, of course, much like their positions, are no longer relevant.
For a last word on that, via Badgers Forward in the field, some perspective.
Topics: Iraq
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:52 am Comments (2) on Friday, January 4, 2008
2 Responses to “FYI: There’s A War On”
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January 4th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Nothing brings home the fact that the war is still going on like reading something like this.
January 5th, 2008 at 3:24 am
RebeccaH, it was a piece for posterity. And it should be promoted as such.