Saturday, November 25, 2006

What's going on in Iraq...or rather, Washington

There is so much killing and disorder in Iraq at the moment that any summary, even one as full as that given by Today in Iraq, is going to be inadequate.

However, a list of recent articles on "Post-Saddam Iraq" in The New Republic gives me a pretty good notion what is happening in high American circles.

You have to sign up for a free registration to read the entirety of the articles, but I think the list of articles is enough.

3 comments:

Phil Paine said...

I'm suprised that nobody has suggested this solution: hold a referendum in Iraq. Should the U.S. stay or should it go? The answer is predictable. Once it is given, however, the U.S. can pull out without losing face, and even live up to a small fraction of its talk about democracy.

Steve Muhlberger said...

I believe that this has been suggested a number of times. The Maliki government has shown no enthusiasm for this solution, presumably because the US presence is seen by Maliki as a backstop.

It is hard to imagine at this point that any sort of election taking place at this point. I think it very likely that there will be not even an illusion of constitutional government before the end of the coming week.

Will McLean said...

If the Maliki government wants the US to go, they can say so. One problem is that a big chunk of their (loose) coalition are Kurds, who generally aren't in a hurry to see the US go. Another is that a lot of the support for a US departure is based on contradictory expectations. Some Sunnis want the US to go because they think they'll then be able to overthrow the people who came out on top in the election, who they see as US puppets. Some Shiites want the US to go so they can crush the mostly Sunni insurgents without US interference. They can't both get what they want, and perhaps neither will.

And if a US departure doesn't make the situation a lot better, it's going to be really hard to get the US back.