Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, addressed throngs of Shiite worshippers in the holy city of Karbala on Thursday, the commemoration of the 40th day after the martyrdom of the grandson of the prophet Mohammed, Hussein. As they chanted, "Ali w'yak Ali," Ali we are with you Ali, referring to the revered cousin of the prophet Mohammed, Maliki declared that reconciliation had been achieved.
"We said 'national reconciliation among the sons of Iraq' and it succeeded," he told the crowd. "Iraqis once again became brothers, cooperating and loving one another. Harmony and loving has returned as it was. Now there is unity instead of civil war."
When he said it, our Iraqi staff chuckled. Yes the unidentified bodies in Baghdad have dropped, but violence has crept back up slightly, this month and the last, in the capital. The first day of February at least 99 people died in coordinated bombings here and when Shiites walked to Karbala, at least 40 died in a bombing at a roadside tent that offered refreshments to the pious walking to Karbala.
One of our Shiite Iraqi staffers asked if Maliki would go to Adil, a restive Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad where Sunni insurgents still operate and Shiites know they are not welcome. Maybe he can check out Hurriyah where Sunni residents have not returned. They were run out of the neighborhood in 2006 and some men were burned alive.
Maybe he can ask the more than 88,000 mostly Sunni contractors that work with the U.S. to fight Al Qaida how they feel about the reconciliation effort. Many of them are former insurgents, very few have been absorbed into the government. People complain now that many act as warlords, in each neighborhood the law is in their hands.
He may want to see what's happening in Basra where Shiite groups battle for power with bullets or ask the tribal sheikhs who are being targeted for turning on Al Qaida.
Things are a bit better, but is this victory?
Leila,
I'm an ESL teacher, so lexical choices are important to me. Did Maliki actually use the word "victory"? Or is that your paraphrase?
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Posted by: Jeffrey | February 28, 2008 at 03:20 PM
Maliki is learning the art of being a politician. Lesson No 1: tell the people what they want to hear, especially when it is only half-truth, or no truth at all.
Posted by: R J Adams | February 28, 2008 at 04:34 PM
Unless I am wrong, "reconcilliation" was voted DOWN! At least that is the reports in the US Press today.
So, someone is not telling the truth.Hmmmmmm!
Posted by: billjpa | February 28, 2008 at 06:09 PM
Leila,
Iraqi-American blogger Mojo writes today about the fact that under Saddam's tyranny none of the Shiite pilgrimages we've been seeing since April, 2003, were possible. Certainly from a Shiite point of view that counts as success -- and no sneer quotes needed around that word, right? And no chuckles from the journalists watching them on their pilgrimages, right?
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Posted by: Jeffrey | February 29, 2008 at 07:41 AM
"Things are a bit better, but is this victory?"
Not really. The US and Iraq have avoided strategic defeat, but so far that is about it. There have been many tactical victories, but the strategic situation is tangoing all over the place.
The sunnis incidently have been defeated, insofar as shiia-dominated rule is no longer in doubt. They have, over the past year, realized that, largely flipped; but if they become convinced the government will shut them out completely, things will become dicey again.
Posted by: Bruno Mota | March 01, 2008 at 03:11 PM