Bush message read by Iraqi PM?
Iraq’s new prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, gave a speech Monday Juan Cole says caused a “major stir”
Cole says the speech “seemed to back off the policy of debaathification or the exclusion from high office of former Baath civilian and military officials,” and that, “Some Shiite parlimantarians were furious.”
Cole describes the “pressure” Jaafari has been under, “to find ways of bringing the Sunni Arabs into the government.”
Here is where I would like to see Juan Cole dig a little deeper. He repeats the conventional wisdom that, “Most seasoned and capable Sunni Arab leaders, whether civilian or military, had been Baath Party members or had some close connection to the party.” A question for which I would like an answer, though, is how are these “seasoned and capable” ex-Baathists being used by the Americans in their chain of command? Please see this Deep Blade post, US-sponsored militias and death squads in Iraq, for a discussion of what seems to be happening and a link to an important article on the subject by A.K. Gupta.
Another important question is, did Rumsfeld’s and Bush’s orders to “not politicize your military” from last month get through to Jaafari? Is that why Jaafari caused this “major stir”??
May 3rd, 2005 at 19:18
Deep, you are making adroit connections as ever. However, I had hoped that Jaafari would be less pliant than other ministers (puupets) since he is not, as far as I know, a Bremer puppet. What would it serve hime to bow to such presure when essentially his loyalties lie with his Dawa followers and other sh’ites? It’s all a little confusing. Maybe you could shed more light on this.
May 3rd, 2005 at 19:19
I suppose it just goes to show that Iraq and the elections were nobody’s to own…