Maliki’s challenge imperils all of Iraq

March 29, 2010 · Posted in NEWS
Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is moving onto very thin ice with his rejection of his country’s elections – and the entire country could well take a plunge with him.

It is one thing if Maliki simply expressed his opposition to the leader who won the elections, Iraqiya head Iyad Allawi; however, Maliki is denouncing and challenging the whole elections as fraudulent.

Maliki’s tirades and rationales lack any substance on at least three counts. First, he happens to have been the prime minister during the poll in question; should the ballot have been irretrievably tainted, that would in fact be a damning indictment of his leadership.

Next, Maliki is tarring Allawi as the stooge of the US. Well, yes, former Coalition Provisional Authority chief Paul Bremer did appoint Allawi prime minister in 2004; in fact, it is no secret that Allawi worked with the CIA from 1992 as part of his efforts as head of the Iraqi National Alliance to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Alas, Maliki’s charges do not present anything the Iraqi electorate was not aware of before the elections. And in case the prime minister had forgotten, those were actually US officials with whom he had been closely cooperating for the past four years. Perhaps we should remind Maliki that US influence in post-invasionIraq is simply a fact of life, irrespective of who holds the title of premier.

Maliki is also throwing around specious arguments that Allawi visited Saudi Arabia before the poll and perhaps received support and money from the Saudis.

The charge is laughable. Under the standing political dynamic, Iraq’s leaders will have to meet frequently with other regional players. The real question is whether Maliki, Allawi and their colleagues will choose to be surrogates of these powers, either of the US and its allies on the one hand, or of Iran and its partners on the other.

Iraq’s next prime minister must recognize that his country faces a difficult balancing act between the various players and agendas in the ongoing US-Iran standoff. Are Iraqis willing to sacrifice their lives and their future for this transitory conflict? Or can they instead find a method to deal with the region’s temporary calculus, wait for US troops to leave and save their money and their children? We assure them that today’s showdown will one day end.

Knowing that, Iraq should realize its own dominant interest in stability – and not the competing interests of the countries orbiting it. Iraq can force the nations around it to adjust to a stable Iraq that refuses to become a puppet. Of course Iraq’s leaders should listen closely to the interests of outsiders, but their goal should be to find the common ground among those interests and save their land for future generations.

Today, however, civil war looms. The leaders of Iraq should put internal peace above all else. If they choose the alternative, Iraq will pay the heaviest possible price.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article….#axzz0jazgRKUs