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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Dos Equis on December 24, 2011, 04:49:54 PM
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Hope this doesn't blow up.
After U.S. Withdrawal, Iraqi Political Standoff Raises Concern of 'Unraveling'
Published December 24, 2011
FoxNews.com
One week after the last U.S. troops left Iraq, a flare-up in sectarian tensions is threatening to not only invite new violence but tear apart the country's fragile political arrangement.
Some officials fear the situation, if not properly handled, could reverse post-surge gains and plunge the country back into a climate of sectarian war. U.S. diplomats have conducted a flurry of phone calls and meetings over the past week in a bid to contain the problem and convince Iraq's political leaders to come together.
At the heart of the dispute is a decision by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, to issue an arrest warrant for Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi. The vice president is accused of running hit squads against government officials years ago, but Hashemi denies it and has been holding out in Iraq's Kurdish region while Maliki demands he be brought into custody.
Stoking the tensions, a wave of bombings ripped through mostly Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad Thursday, killing at least 69 and wounding nearly 200. The country's top Shiite cleric afterward blamed the politicians for creating an atmosphere for such attacks.
Amid the chaos, Hashemi has been lambasting Maliki from afar, using a string of media interviews to accuse him of pushing the country toward catastrophe. In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine, Hashemi warned the situation could spiral "beyond control," and likened Maliki to Saddam Hussein.
Maliki in turn has suggested he might abandon a critical power-sharing agreement in Baghdad.
Walid Phares, a Middle East analyst and Fox News contributor, said Saturday that the tensions are a reflection of conflicts that had been "frozen" -- but not resolved -- during the U.S. troop presence.
"As soon as we are out, and there is no political consensus, everything is coming back," Phares said.
While praising the U.S. for its military gains in the country, he said the broader political problems remain -- the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites, and also the presence of Iranian influence which he said is provoking the minority Sunni population.
"It's a spiraling process," Phares said.
Earlier this week, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., issued a dire warning about the political crisis.
"This is a clear sign that the fragile political accommodation made possible by the surge of 2007, which ended large-scale sectarian violence in Iraq, is now unraveling," they said.
The senators claimed the Obama administration's decision not to leave a small residual force in Iraq "precipitated" the dispute.
"If Iraq slides back into sectarian violence, the consequences will be catastrophic for the Iraqi people and U.S. interests in the Middle East, and a clear victory for Al Qaeda and Iran," the senators said. "A deterioration of the kind we are now witnessing in Iraq was not unforeseen, and now the U.S. government must do whatever it can to help Iraqis stabilize the situation."
Administration officials say they have been in constant contact with all sides.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Ambassador James Jeffrey had talks with "the leaders of every major group in Iraq" earlier in the week. Vice President Biden also has been deeply involved, talking to Maliki and other leaders.
In a statement, his office said Biden stressed the United States' commitment to Iraq and the need for leaders to "work through their differences."
After Thursday's bombings, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a statement appealing to the need for unity.
"Time and again, the Iraqi people have shown their resilience in overcoming efforts to divide them. We continue to urge leaders to come together to face common challenges," he said, noting the vice president's call for the country to abide by the rule of law.
The administration has not said publicly whether that means the Kurds should turn over Hashemi.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the bombings underscore, though, "how critical it is that Iraq's leaders act quickly to resolve their differences."
Asked for an update on the impasse Friday, Toner said: "We remain concerned about the political situation, and we would urge dialogue."
The dispute has created an apparent opening for other voices to resurface. On Saturday, notorious anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr launched what was described as a peace initiative.
Al-Sadr, whose militiamen were blamed for sectarian killings during the worst years of Iraq's violence, put out a 14-point "peace code" proposal. It warns against spilling Iraqi blood and urges respect for all religions, sects and ethnic groups.
Al-Sadr's aide Salah al-Obeidi described the code as an attempt "to preserve the unity of the country and save it from fighting."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/24/after-us-withdrawal-sectarian-tensions-raise-concerns-iraq-unraveling/
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Al Qaeda Front Group Claims Baghdad Blasts
Published December 27, 2011
Associated Press
December 22, 2011: Iraqi security forces and people inspect the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad. A series of blasts Thursday morning in Baghdad killed and wounded scores of people in a coordinated attack designed to wreak havoc across the Iraqi capital.
BAGHDAD – An Al Qaeda front group in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the wave of attacks that ripped through markets, cafes and government buildings in Baghdad on a single day last week, killing 69 people and raising new worries about the country's path.
The coordinated attacks struck a dozen mostly Shiite neighborhoods on Thursday in the first major bloodshed since U.S. troops completed a full withdrawal this month after nearly nine years of war. They also coincided with a government crisis that has again strained ties between Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites to the breaking point, tearing at the same fault line that nearly pushed Iraq into all-out civil war several years ago.
The claim of responsibility made no mention of the U.S. withdrawal. Instead, it focused its rage on the country's Shiite-dominated leadership, which Sunni insurgents have battled since it came to power as a result of the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
"The series of special invasions (was) launched ... to support the weak Sunnis in the prisons of the apostates and to retaliate for the captives who were executed," said the statement in the name of the Islamic State of Iraq.
According to the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based organization that monitors jihadist Web traffic, the claim of responsibility was posted late Monday on militant websites.
The group said the attacks were proof that they "know where and when to strike and the mujahedeen will never stand with their hands tied while the pernicious Iranian project shows its ugly face."
The remark was in reference to accusations by Sunni militants that Iraq's Shiite-dominated government has allied itself too closely with neighboring Shiite power Iran, a bitter enemy of Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The Baghdad military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, said Al Qaeda in Iraq -- no longer focused on fighting U.S. forces -- is hoping to take advantage of the current political tension to re-ignite sectarian warfare.
"It has become a clear scheme to draw Iraq into a sectarian war again," al-Moussawi said. "Al Qaeda in Iraq played a major role in 2005 and 2006 in pushing the county into a civil war and they succeeded."
On Tuesday morning, a car bomb exploded near a police station in the town of Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, killing two civilians and injuring another, said Kirkuk police commander Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir.
U.S. and some Iraqi officials have warned of a resurgence of Sunni and Shiite militants and an increase in violence after the U.S. troop withdrawal.
Along with the security challenge, Iraq is facing an increase in political tension as Iraq's Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is engaged in a showdown with the top Sunni political leader in the country.
Al-Maliki's government has issued an arrest warrant for Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on charges that he ran hit squads against government officials.
Al-Hashemi has denied the charges and said they are politically motivated.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/27/al-qaeda-says-it-was-behind-baghdad-blasts-that-killed-dozens/#ixzz1hiPPo4rL
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SOFA agreement was in place. Nothing we could do in 2011 to change that.
we've spent enough $ and life over there - let the iraqis clean up their own garbage. Without cnn cameras there, they'll dispatch of the terrorists with brutality.
When US forces see someone they know is a bad guy, but can't legally engage them, they just have to wait for him to act. I bet the iraqi military/police will drop his ass on suspicion alone.