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Foreign Policy |
Where rivals are entrenched in their rigid ideological and political stance, a fresh perspective is needed. I am no different than many others who are worried by the local and international implications of the ongoing Israeli - Palestinian conflict. However, I do try to make a difference through modest contributions to the continuous efforts towards achieving peace in the region.
Click here to view my Middle East Blog
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| David Martin Abrahams |
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International community needs to reconcile different segments in Iraq
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By David Martin Abrahams
Nov 07, 2009
Despite the recent spate of high profiled bomb attacks in Iraq, the United States is set to withdraw all troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. Thomas Sanderson, Deputy Director of the Transnational Threats Project at Washington think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has said "The United States is going to leave (Iraq) at the end of 2011 regardless of whether this kind of attacks will continue," noting the agreement reached by U.S. and Iraqi governments on withdrawing all U.S. troops from Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011. One motivating factor for the withdrawal of US troops is the continuous battles between Sunnis and Shiites factions." Yet this reality should spur the international community to focus upon reconciling sectors of Iraqi society, rather than merely disengaging from events on the ground.
The pair of suicide car bombings on Oct. 25 2009, targeted government institutions in the same manner and at the same time of day as the terrorist attacks of Aug. 19. The bombings claimed at least 155 lives, wounded over 700 people, and destroyed or seriously damaged three major government buildings -- the Justice Ministry, the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works, and the Baghdad Provincial
Administration, akin to City Hall. For this reason, Iraq’s foreign minister Hosyar Zebari said, ''that organized attacks of such size and complexity could not have been planned, funded and executed without significant support from outside parties.'' Iraq has blamed an alliance between al-Qaida in Iraq and Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party for the pair of truck bombings on Aug. 19 outside the Foreign and Finance ministries in Baghdad that killed about 100 people. The Iraqi government wants Syria to hand over several suspects it says are based there.
Sheikh Khalifa noted, "The once-relied-on security agencies in Anbar are now helpless as to confront violence for the two specific reasons of poor intelligence gathering and security commanders' inclination to avoid clashing with powerful political blocs".
It is possible that due to the fallout from months of negotiations over creating alliances for Iraq's parliamentary elections in January, government officials were involved. Sheikh Hashim Khalifa, a renowned tribal chief in Anbar … ascribed this growing wave of violence to "political conflicts as the forthcoming elections are drawing near". Iraqi officials have blamed "Sunni extremists and members of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led Baath party for a wave of bombings [in Anbar] since June, including two at federal ministries." Another contributing factor is Al Qaeda exploiting the rift between politicians ahead of the polls and then proceeding to blame security forces for negligence.
In order to claim success in Iraq, the international community must attempt to reconcile different segments of Iraqi society, whether they are Sunni, Shiite, or ex-Baath officials. The way to proceed in this manner is though the cultivation of good governance and civil society. This is a bottom-up approach, as opposed to the current top-down focus, which has emphasised upon the cooperation of the political elite. Only a bottoms-up approach, which reconciles different sectors through the building of NGOs, trade unions, charities, which shift people away from their tribal loyalties, will lead to a prosperous Iraq. Upon this basis, the US can then withdraw its troops with the acclaim of the international community.
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