February Wrap-Up: Elections in Iraq, A Failure to Understand Syria and Kadhafi Calls for Jihad
The Iraqi Election: It has been a politically tricky and physically dangerous run-up to Iraq’s scheduled 7 March national election. The elimination of hundreds deemed “Ba’athists” by the largely Shiite electoral panel (many of whom were later reinstated) produced a threatened Sunni boycott and a wave of sectarian violence that threatened the election and Iraq’s increasing prosperity and social reconstruction. Not to mention the planned American withdrawal of combat troops in the summer.
The Iraqi Election: It has been a politically tricky and physically dangerous run-up to Iraq’s scheduled 7 March national election. The elimination of hundreds deemed “Ba’athists” by the largely Shiite electoral panel (many of whom were later reinstated) produced a threatened Sunni boycott and a wave of sectarian violence that threatened the election and Iraq’s increasing prosperity and social reconstruction. Not to mention the planned American withdrawal of combat troops in the summer.
The Sunnis did boycott the December 2005 elections, largely disenfranchising themselves, undermining the elected government and inclining the country toward civil war. Yesterday, however, Saleh al-Mutlaq–leader of the National Dialogue Front and himself banned from running–announced that his party would not boycott this time. “We have decided to participate with all our weight…and we call on our supporters to come crawling to the voting booths,” he said.
Iraqis continue to defy conventional wisdom as they move toward political pluralism and consensual government.
Who Knew He Had a Sense of Humor? We are indebted to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) for this translation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks at a press conference in Damascus with Bashar Assad.
In reply to a question on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s latest statements, in which she called upon Syria to steer away from Iran, President Al-Assad remarked sarcastically: ”In our meeting today, we meant to sign a separation agreement between Syria and Iran, but apparently some mistranslation or misunderstanding occurred, and we signed an agreement waiving visa requirements instead…
“We hope others will not [try to] give us lessons when it comes to our [own] region and history…We can decide how things will proceed, and we know our own interests… [though] we do thank them for their advice.”
The words are humorous, but the joint press conference was a reminder that what the United States thinks the countries of the region should do and the national interests of those countries as seen by their own leaders are often two very different things.
Libya’s Jihad: The word “jihad” or “jihadist” has been largely erased from official Washington-ese. Someone forgot to tell Moammar Kadhafi, who is so angry with Switzerland that he called for jihad in front of thousands of Libyans in a speech broadcast live on television:
“It is against unbelieving and apostate Switzerland that jihad ought to be proclaimed by all means. Jihad against Switzerland, against Zionism, against foreign aggression is not terrorism. Any Muslim around the world who has dealings with Switzerland is an infidel (and is) against Islam, against Mohammed, against God, against the Koran. The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, to all harbors and prevent any Swiss ships docking, inspect all shops and markets to stop any Swiss goods being sold.”
The United States has upgraded relations and recently signed a military Memorandum of Understanding with Libya, agreeing to sell “non-lethal” equipment. We should consider just how close we want to be to the host of the Lockerbie bomber.