The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
Blame the Americans and Praise the Result
by James Dunnigan
December 29, 2005
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
Arguably, the best outcome for the
December 15th parliamentary elections in Iraq would be for no “party”
or coalition of two parties to secure the 2/3rds majority of delegates
necessary to permit it to form a government. This would force a broader
coalition, which would permit an opening for Sunni “accomodationist”
participation. Sunni leaders are aware that they made a serious
political blunder by boycotting the January elections for the
provisional parliament that wrote the new Constitution. As a result of
the boycott, there was relatively little the Sunni input in the framing
of the Constitution, and Sunni representation in parliament will be on
the low side. As a result, Sunni accomodationists are likely to welcome
a niche if a coalition has to be formed.
Toward
this end, it was interesting to note that some Sunni insurgent groups
declared a “cease fire” during the election, and others declared that
they would attack anyone attempting to interfere in the voting. While
some extremists among the Shia Iraqis would undoubtedly prefer to
exclude the Sunni Arabs totally from government – feeling that after
generations of Sunni Arab domination of Iraq “it’s payback time” – the
chances of establishing a relatively stable government are likely to be
dim unless there’s significant Sunni Arab acquiescence.
Al
Qaeda was humiliated during the elections, after having proclaimed that
voting was against Islam, and that good Moslems should rise up and
prevent this abomination. About 70 percent of eligible voters turned
out, and there were few incidents of violence. The word on the street
was that al Qaeda had called off its anti-democracy campaign. This
bothered al Qaeda so much that they issued a statement denouncing it.
But al Qaeda claims that they did attack the voters rang hollow. The
Sunni Arab community had decided to either vote, or not try and fight
those who were. In areas where al Qaeda still has a presence, local
tribal or Mosque based militias put out armed guards to keep al Qaeda
away from the polling places. These guys are usually shooting at
government or American troops. But on election day, they were left
alone by Iraqi troops, as everyone turned out to protect the voters
from Islamic terrorists.
This
relentless progress of democracy is causing quite a commotion
throughout the Arab world. While it is fashionable to denounce the
American presence in Iraq, and what the Americans were doing, the Arab
language buzz on the net is going in unexpected directions. Because of
al Jazeera and the Internet, young Arabs everywhere are not only able
to observe what it happening in Iraq, but to discuss it with young
Iraqis. These discussions are not noted much in the West, because they
generally take place in Arabic, and often via email and listservs. The
non-Iraqi Arabs are impressed at the proliferation of media in Iraq,
and the eagerness of Iraqis to vote, and make democracy work. The
economic growth in Iraq is admired, and is already attracting
entrepreneurs from other Arab countries. The more cynical non-Iraqis
believe that it will all come to nothing, and that another Saddam will
eventually emerge and shut down all this democratic nonsense, as is the
case in most of the Arab world. But the pessimists appear to be in the
minority. Arabs are tired of dictators, economic stagnation, the
corruption and living in a police state. Moreover, there’s a nimble
quality in Arab thinking that allows them to simultaneously blame the
Americans for going into Iraq, and praising the result.
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