Here's another excellent post from Digital Diplomat. In this case, Justin is discussing the political snarl among competing Shi'ite factions. The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) has pushed through the Iraqi legislature a bill that creates a semi-autonomous Shi'ite zone in the southern part of the country. Of course, that's the region through which oil exports pass into the Persian Gulf. Therefore, any group that dominates the new Shi'ite zone will have a great deal of clout.
Of course, SCIRI isn't the only Shi'ite faction around. The Army of the Mahdi has a different strategy in the great game of Iraqi politics:
As far as the Sadrists, the point of contention is that they will be
marginalized in the political sphere. An independent southern Shi’ite
autonomous zone will be controlled by the SCIRI and policed by its
militia. Under the central government, Sadr’s alliance with the Da’wa
party affords him a good deal of leverage and that leverage may well
now disappear.
Since the Bush Administration has worked hard to make US interests hostage to the Byzantine relations among Iraqi groups, you'd think that journalists might be covering current events in Iraq in just the terms that Digital Diplomat describes. Instead, today's Washington Post Middle East section is dominated by American journalists writing about Americans. Here are the headlines, as of this moment:
- Majority of Americans Support Setting a Deadline for Troop Withdrawal, Poll Finds
- Marine Killed in Anbar Province
- No 'Brakes' on Iran Nuclear Effort
- Bomber Targets Baghdad College; At Least 39 Students, 9 Guards Die
- An Admonition on Intelligence
In other words, of the four stories ostensibly about Iraq, only one is really about Iraqis. Even that article is another article recounting another terrorist attack in another neighborhood in Baghdad. It is not a window into the political struggle that is driving the civil war, threatening to make the Iraqi constitution a waste of paper, and complicating efforts to fight insurgent groups like the ones who killed 48 Iraqis today.
Here's another parallel between Vietnam and Iraq: Americans talk about the war in a foreign country as if there were no people actually living there. At best, their supporting characters in a drama where the Americans play all the lead parts. The reality is exactly the opposite.
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