The weird thing about Iraq is that it has no central government – whatsoever.
The official U.S.-sanctioned ‘government’ sits in the Green Zone and has no power. Mostly, these officials travel overseas on our tax money, sometimes to stand next to Bush or Blair and make announcements. At one point this year, the entire Iraqi cabinet was overseas.
Meanwhile, outside the Green Zone, amidst the facts on the ground that people are always talking about, various militias are running various parts of the country. And in those parts they’re running, they devote their time to offing their ethnic rivals in what some call "sectarian violence" and others call "civil war," and what I'd call your basic Middle Eastern government: warlordism.
It would be easy to split this no-central-government country in three – under the Kurds, who’ve run themselves for years now, and whose warlords don’t allow any Arabs in, and under the Sunni and the Shiite warlords (which the Sunnis don’t want to do, because their area has no oil, and they, who ruled Iraq under Saddam, would find themselves fatally impoverished).
So you can divide the country in three, but how do you divide Baghdad? It would be like trying to separate a rabid threesome of snakes on Viagra. In the capital, Sunnis and Shiites live cheek by jowl. Neighborhoods are mixed; unmixed Sunni and Shiite neighborhood sit right next to each other, on both sides of the river. That’s why the killing in Baghdad goes on regardless, openly in daylight on the streets for all to see, as Shiites and Sunnis try to consolidate the neighborhoods they can consolidate.
The ‘government’ of Iraq is not a government like we understand it. If the U.S. pulled out today, the Iraqi ‘government’ would immediately flee overseas, back to where many of its members have come from – expats who returned to their home country when Saddam was overthrown. They returned after being away for 30 years, not knowing a damn thing about their country anymore, in order to batten on the largesse of the U.S. occupation. This, they know how to do – vampire fleas sucking themselves fat as hogs from our tax dollars like they’re guzzling warm blood on tap. We’re not just talking thousands and millions; we’re talking billions as well. These guys are more corrupt than a clusterfuggian cabal of Abramoffs.
Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
Adam, while I appreciate your theorizing about the Iraqi government from thousands of miles away, I wonder if you have ever considered providing ANY kind of documentation or supporting facts for your theories.
While I'm willing to consider the theory that Iraq has no functioning central government, that doesn't really fit with the facts that can actually be verified, The government includes representatives from all over the country, provides services all over the country, and has police and troops deployed in lots of different locations. That suggests that it does have a real presence. Remember, Iraq has a FEDERAL government, so local authorities handle most of the day to day government and the central government often works through them.
But I'll give you credit for not writing the same article you've been writing for months now, except the last few paragraphs, anyway.
Dave
2 - Jet in Columbus
He's right Adam, the line should read that Iraq has no EFFECTIVE government.
Uh... what's the differnce in the distance that Adam is from Iraq than you or I are...am?
You don't have to be an on-site reporter to write an OPINION piece do you?
3 - Davd Nalle
Jet, opinions are fine, but I take them more seriously when they're backed up by some facts. If Adam is going to say the Iraqi government isn't doing anything outside of Baghdad it's reasonable to ask him to back that up with some evidence.
Dave
4 - STM
Adam: You are right about the lack of planning. One of the things that has given the secular nationalists impetus in the insurgency is that they were forced out of work by the invasion. Had that not happened, the country would have ticked along as well as could be expected - for a while, before the old hatreds were on the table again.
The war was beautifully planned, and is a testmaent to NATO-style military planning.
Rumsfeld buggered it up a bit, however, in his haste to get the troops on the ground, but as most Iraqis hated the regime anyway, the army managed to melt away for the most part.
What we've lost is the peace. So is it our peace to keep? Yes (even if you believe that the whole enterprise served as nothing more than a vehicle for US and British imperialism) - for now. The real problem here is that Shi'ites are in the majority, particularly in the south, and the US administration - quite rightly - fears Iranian influence created by a power vacuum in any modern Iraq largely ruled by the Shia. That is the crux of much of the current problem in terms of disengagement.
At a time when Iran is deliberately rattling the sabre, how can we just pull up stumps and walk out, allowing them to extend their sphere of influence into one of the world's biggest oil-rich regions - given that Iraq is the only other country with a large Shi'ite population and despite Arabs' dislike of Persians generally, these two groups have traditionally been close simply by dint of their common religious persuasion?
Seriously, it would be good if anyone could come up with an answer to that issue, as I would hate to see a Shi'ite islamic empire extending east and west from Iran as long as that country has a pathological dislike of America and the west in general. We are now heading into quite dangerous territory on that one single dilemma.
5 - Bliffle
There's plenty of documentation available. For example:
Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco by David L. Phillips (Paperback - Jun 30, 2006)
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks
Iraq reconstruction shows 'limited progress'
text file for GAO report number GAO-05-876 entitled 'Rebuilding Iraq: Status of Funding and Reconstruction Efforts' which was released on July 28, 2005.
Iraq health update - Summer 2005
There's no shortage of hard data to support Adams article.
6 - Bliffle
More:
Committee on
government reform
7 - Georgio
Excellent article Adam..even though Biffie has provided links for documentation Dave will say that's not good enough but anyone with common sense can tell by listening and reading about what's going on there will agree with what you wrote..for my two cents worth REGION is the main factor with the problems in Iraq and if we stay there 20 more years we will not accomplish a damm thing ..Bush has made the biggest blunder ever and and it's time to admit what the American ppl have finally figured out(took them long enough).
8 - Lee Richards
Oct. 6, 2006: Senator John Warner, the Republican Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said that parts of Iraq have taken steps backward and that the U.S. is at risk of losing control in an increasingly violent Baghdad.
Warner said on Capitol Hill that the Iraqi government is having trouble making strides and is incapable of providing even basic necessities in areas of the country. Warner said, "I assure you, in two or three months if this thing hasn't come to fruition and if this level of violence is not under control and this government able to function, I think it's a responsibility of our government to determine:Is there a change of course that we should take?"
Oct. 30, 2006: George W. Bush at Georgia Southern University: "And they got a unity government that is working hard to repel the extremists who are preventing them."
9 - Lumpy
Bliffle recommending a couple of partisan opinion-mongering hack books is not the same as providing evidence. obviously a whole bunch of leftists agree with adam. Doesn't make any of them right.
10 - troll
Adam links to an Iraqi blog with links to numerous others...do eye witness accounts measure up as evidence - ?
Adam - love the irreverent ideas but not the scatful style...you lost me with the turd ball sucking
11 - Joan Hunt
I may not agree with you on any of your points, Adam, but you get brownie points for the phrase: "a rabid threesome of snakes on Viagra".
Classic!