US representatives were in attendence at these proceedings, so if we blow them off we can count on having a difficult time getting Iraq on the right track. As Americans continue to debate what to do next in Iraq, here is yet another reminder that the locals already decided what they would like to do. Maybe we should try listening, and hope to cultivate a powerful new ally in the Middle East in return? Here's the latest description of how local groups already chose interim leaders, despite the fact that no one at the Pentagon seems to have noticed:
Posted by Mike at April 7, 2003 01:50 AM | TrackBack
As the time arrives for decisions about running Iraq, both the main Kurdish and Shia opposition groups yesterday rejected US plans to put Jay Garner, a retired general, in charge.
"We are concerned that this looks more and more like an occupation," said Hamid al-Bayati, a senior official of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), the most prominent Iranian-backed Shia group."With this approach the Americans will face both security and administrative problems."
Fawzi Hariri, an official in the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), added: "We will always be grateful to the Americans for overthrowing Saddam Hussein, but they need to understand that military rule just won't work."
Over the past week, the two main Iraqi Kurdish parties have been slowly expanding the 50,000 sq km swathe of northern Iraq they have administered since 1991. Joint operations with US forces have overrun Iraqi government positions near the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk.
Masoud Barzani, the KDP leader, said the US had learned lessons from "going it alone" in the early days of the war and had now "decided to use Iraqis on the battlefield at least for guidance and expertise".
Both Sciri and the Kurds believe "going it alone" politically will produce similar results. An Iraqi opposition conference in Salahaddin, northern Iraq, in February opposed US military rule.
The opposition wants its leadership council, elected at Salahaddin, to become a presidential body where sovereignty lies until a new constitution can be endorsed by the people.
"There was a similar situation after the monarchy was overthrown in 1958," said Nawsherwan Mustapha, a leading member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). "It's a matter of both principle and practice. The US has no clear vision of the situation inside Iraq."
Many in the northern-based opposition are privately scathing about those they regard as being dependent on the US - meaning both the Iraqi-Americans gathering in Kuwait and the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a group long supported by the Pentagon and receiving US funding.
"What is their constituency? It's not inside Iraq," said a senior KDP official. "They don't even have a medium for talking to people in the country."