Decision ‘08

We’ve Heard This Song Before…

…and the tune never was a good one. How hard it is to keep one’s hopes up about Iraq when the predominantly Shiite government continually favors its own!

A department of the Iraqi prime minister’s office is playing a leading role in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and national police officers, some of whom have apparently worked too aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias, according to U.S. military officials in Baghdad.

Since March 1, at least 16 army and national police commanders have been fired, detained or pressured to resign; at least nine of them are Sunnis, according to U.S. military documents shown to The Washington Post.

Although some of the officers appear to have been fired for legitimate reasons, such as poor performance or corruption, several were considered to be among the better Iraqi officers in the field. The dismissals have angered U.S. and Iraqi leaders who say the Shiite-led government is sabotaging the military to achieve sectarian goals.

“Their only crimes or offenses were they were successful” against the Mahdi Army, a powerful Shiite militia, said Brig. Gen. Dana J.H. Pittard, commanding general of the Iraq Assistance Group, which works with Iraqi security forces. “I’m tired of seeing good Iraqi officers having to look over their shoulders when they’re trying to do the right thing.”

The issue strikes at a central question about the fledgling government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki: whether it can put sectarian differences aside to deliver justice fairly. During earlier security crackdowns in Baghdad, Maliki was criticized for failing to target Shiite militias, in particular the Mahdi Army, which is led by hard-line Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, one of Maliki’s political supporters. Before the most recent Baghdad security plan was launched in February, Maliki repeatedly declared he would target militants regardless of their sect.

…[S]ome U.S. military officials say politics remains among the greatest hindrances to the development of the Iraqi security forces — a top priority for Americans in Iraq. Col. Ehrich Rose, chief of the Military Transition Team with the 4th Iraqi Army Division, who has spent several years working with foreign armies, said the Iraqi officer corps is riddled with divergent loyalties to different sects, tribes and political groups.

“The Iraqi army, as far as capability goes, I’d stack them up against just about any Latin American army I’ve dealt with,” he said. “However, the politicization of their officer corps is the worst I’ve ever seen.”

At the national level, some U.S. officials are increasingly concerned about the Office of the Commander in Chief, a behind-the-scenes department that works on military issues for the prime minister.

One adviser in the office, Bassima Luay Hasun al-Jaidri, has enough influence to remove and intimidate senior commanders, and her work has “stifled” many officers who are afraid of angering her, a senior U.S. military official said. U.S. commanders are considering installing a U.S. liaison officer in the department to better understand its influence.

“Her office harasses [Iraqi commanders] if they are nationalistic and fair,” said the U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity out of concern over publicly criticizing the Iraqi government. “They need to get rid of her and her little group.”

Sigh…we can argue for an enternity about the domestic political implications of the surge and the soon-to-be-vetoed Iraq votes from the Congress, but one thing is surely clear to both sides: Maliki has STILL not delivered on his promises of moves towards reconciliation, and he’s going to wake up one day soon and find that he is out of chances…My contempt for this man, never far below the surface, is beginning to rise yet again…

3 Responses to “We’ve Heard This Song Before…”

1 peter Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
I think it is worth noting that Bush announced a set of benchmarks in January, none of which have been met. These benchmarks were part of his justification for the escalation, but the troops are there and the benchmarks haven’t been met.
2 Mark Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Well, Peter, there’s no doubt that the progress is not being made at the pace it needs to be made. If this is still the situation in August or September, then the justification for the surge will begin to fall away, even among the hardcore supporters…
3 Peter Says:
May 1st, 2007 at 8:48 am
There was a Times article yesterday which said that the administration is lowering expectations because it doesn’t expect any tangible progress in meeting the benchmarks until at least September (”Maliki’s getting it from all sides and we have to give him more time”) — also that the escalated troop level is expected to remain that way until well into 2008 –