Stop It! No, You Stop It!
Was there ever a more blurred line of agreement between congenial affiliates than that existing between the government of Iraq under president Nouri al-Maliki and that of the U.S. - arguing, contesting, blaming, cajoling, promising and mistrusting one another. Mr. al-Maliki sternly warns George W. Bush's administration not to meddle in Iran; just forget invasion. For Iran is Iraq's erstwhile friend.Not that long ago, their mortal enemy when each country sacrificed its youth to bitter enmity through the allure of conquest. Iraq cautions the U.S. that they are not of the region, they will depart eventually, but Iraq is of the geography and contiguous to it is Iran, peopled by well, Shia Muslims, just like them, and friends of Iraq. Where, under the late Saddam Hussein, an unreconstructed Sunni, they were not.
Iran is blameless, according to Mr. al-Maliki; not at all interfering with Iraq; they are, actually, good friends of the country. Though obviously, not of the United States, arming as they are the Mahdi Army, no longer part of al Sadr's stand-down militias, trained by Iran's Quds Force and encouraged to continue waging war with deadly accuracy on American and allied troops.
In fact, Mr. al-Maliki is rendering quite a bit of his own bitter accusations against the Americans whom he accuses of arming and making common cause with the Sunni community and its militias, bypassing the utility of so doing in the interests of that community taking part in the rejection and ousting of al-Qaeda cohorts. Love all around.
Now the Iraq administration has another complaint with gun-happy American mercenaries. So enmeshed in the U.S. offensive mechanism in Iraq as to be indistinguishable from the regular army, other than for its shoot-first-ask-questions-never attitude, as to be absolutely necessary for the protection services they provide, freeing up regular soldiers. So live with it.
But then there's one further discontent, that U.S. air strikes are killing the wrong people. The U.S. contending they targeted radical Shia Muslim groups backed by Iran, the Iraqi government insisting they were innocents in the practical guise of armed civilians. Armed civilians? Radical Shia Muslim groups? Difference, please?
Puzzling indeed. Quarrelling, bitter cousins are still closer in empathy despite enmity, than a foreign invasion force whose presence is seen as an enabler toward future peace and stability. The detested yet desired presence of foreigners can never trump the regional cohesion of neighbours, however steeped in blood their mutual history is.
How like dysfunctional families and their relationship to helpful interlocutors. How unfortunately human.
Labels: That's Life, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, October 07, 2007
<< Home