| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
24 Feb 2006 03:48:38 PM |
| Object: |
OT: All at sea in the Middle East's perfect storm |
All at sea in the Middle East's perfect storm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldbriefing/story/0,,1716836,00.html
Simon Tisdall
Friday February 24, 2006
The Guardian
Sectarian revenge attacks and widening divisions in the wake of the
Samarra mosque bombing have intensified fears of irreversible descent
into all-out civil war in Iraq. But it is unclear what the US and
Britain, lacking new ideas and facing a perfect storm of troubles
across the Middle East, can do to stop it.
Among yesterday's many ominous developments, accusations of deliberate
trouble-making levelled at Iraq's Shia leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, stood out. A spokesman for the Muslim Clerics Association,
the country's most influential Sunni religious body, said it held
"certain Shia religious authorities" responsible for continuing attacks
on Sunni civilians, clerics and mosques.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: All at sea in the Middle East's perfect storm |
26 Feb 2006 09:22:34 AM |
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On 24 Feb 2006 13:48:38 -0800, "maff" <maff91@yahoo.com> wrote in
alt.atheism
All at sea in the Middle East's perfect storm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldbriefing/story/0,,1716836,00.html
Simon Tisdall
Friday February 24, 2006
The Guardian
Sectarian revenge attacks and widening divisions in the wake of the
Samarra mosque bombing have intensified fears of irreversible descent
into all-out civil war in Iraq. But it is unclear what the US and
Britain, lacking new ideas and facing a perfect storm of troubles
across the Middle East, can do to stop it.
Among yesterday's many ominous developments, accusations of deliberate
trouble-making levelled at Iraq's Shia leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, stood out. A spokesman for the Muslim Clerics Association,
the country's most influential Sunni religious body, said it held
"certain Shia religious authorities" responsible for continuing attacks
on Sunni civilians, clerics and mosques.
In European terms, that would be like the Pope attacking the Archbishop
of Canterbury after St Peter's had been blown up. Coinciding with the
breakdown of talks on forming a "national unity" coalition government,
it marked a new low in efforts to bring the two communities together
US and British offers to help rebuild the Samarra shrine only seem to
have infuriated Shias, highlighting the west's inability to direct
events in a land apparently moving ineluctably beyond their - or
anyone's - control. Most Iraqis say they want foreign troops to leave.
But, perversely, Shias blamed the US yesterday for failing to protect
Samarra. Sunnis accuse the allies of turning a blind eye to militia
death squads. All sides criticise western reconstruction efforts.
Returning British soldiers, painting a picture of low morale, chronic
insecurity and unreliable Iraqi army units, complain that the coalition
is failing to achieve anything substantive. In most cities and much of
the countryside, they say, there is only an illusion of control. The
recent decision by local authorities in the south to freeze cooperation
with British forces reflects this growing sense of mutual alienation.
Official frustrations are beginning to show. Zalmay Khalilzad, the US
ambassador to Baghdad, came under fire this week for threatening to cut
US funding. Mr Khalilzad's talk of protecting Washington's financial
"investment" was a humiliating reminder of continuing national
subservience. Free tips by Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, on
non-sectarian coalition-building visibly irritated Iraq's prime
minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who said he did not need his advice.
The US and Britain laud Iraq's elections as evidence of progress. But
democracy has not yet brought tangible improvements in the impoverished
lives of many Iraqis. Like many in Britain, Americans are becoming
increasingly sceptical of their own government's judgment and statements
on this issue.
President George Bush's repeated insistence that America will not "cut
and run" has not concealed a loss of nerve in Washington about where US
policy is heading. Under pressure from falling poll ratings, and with
elections looming, Mr Bush has steadily scaled back US ambitions in Iraq
as well as, prospectively, US troops levels. There is less talk of
victory now - more of "honourable" exits. The neoconservative theorists
behind the Iraq intervention and the drive for democracy in the Middle
East are in intellectual retreat or - like Paul Wolfowitz and John
Bolton - have been shifted to new jobs.
The author Francis Fukuyama applied a verbal coup de grace this week,
rejecting neocon methods and asserting that the US "didn't know what it
was doing in trying to democratise Iraq". Peter Galbraith, a former US
envoy writing in the New York Review of Books, said: "Much of the Iraq
fiasco can be directly attributed to Bush's shortcomings as a leader ...
He conducted his Iraq policy with an arrogance not matched by political
will."
Washington's floundering policy in Israel-Palestine, Syria and Egypt is
also feeding a regional storm of its own making. The main beneficiary,
said Mr Galbraith, was an emboldened Iran that may ultimately pose a
greater danger to US interests than even civil war in Iraq. "We invaded
Iraq to protect ourselves against non-existent WMDs and to promote
democracy. Democracy in Iraq brought to power Iran's allies who are in a
position to ignite an uprising against American troops that would make
current problems with the Sunni insurgency seem insignificant.
"Iran in effect holds the US hostage in Iraq and as a consequence we
have no good military or non-military options in dealing with Iran's
nuclear facilities. Unlike the 1979 hostage crisis, we did this to
ourselves." In short, there soon may be no helping Iraq. Yet US and
British troops are stuck, with no obvious way back, forward or out.
/end
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a cornucopia of splinters.
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