New Republic senior editor Lawrence Kaplan appeared on C-Span‘s Washington Journal today to promote, amongst other things, his current article Centripetal Force which describes his 3 week trip to Baghdad in January. The visit was his third in 18 months and his hope that the situation had “palapably improved, in Baghdad in particular,” was not realised, “At all.” I don’t subscribe, but this blogger does.
Saddam-crimes archivist for the Iraq Memory Foundation, Mustafa Al- Kadhimiy, is a pre-war friend of Kaplan’s who now acts mainly as a go-between for adversarial government ministries and invitation-less Americans. He arranged for Kaplan to attend a post-election dinner for election commissioners hosted by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaffari. The event was “surreal,” a “metaphor for Jaffari’s style of governance,” Kaplan said, because the prime minister wanted to discuss the books of Thomas Friedman and Francis Fukuyama and asked the guests if they preferred Samuel Huntington to the latter. Kaplan told C-Span that, “although some Iraqis view it as a sign of his intelligence, others just don’t know what he’s talking about.” In the article, however, this is what American officials think, including Kaplan, whose inability to engage in a lively discussion on a variety of topics is likely why he needs an intermediary to “wrangle” him invitations to events. Al-Jaffari told Kaplan he was “partial” to the philosophy of Noam Chomsky and wondered why he doesn’t visit Iraq. No wonder. The prime minister is eager to speak to an intelligent Westerner.
Kaplan writes that Sheik Abdullah Al Yawar of Tal Far, “wields so much power in this insurgent hotbed that U.S. Army officers say he can turn the violence on and off like a faucet. For the moment, at least, he has turned it off, responding to pleas and aid from his American interlocutors.” He quotes him saying, “If the Americans leave there will be rivers of blood.” He thinks the Sunni chief of the Shamar tribe and nephew of former Vice President Ghazi al Yawir is fascinating, more brilliant than “us,” and was quite impressed by his Malibu-Hamptons-like villa.
“Having turned the country inside out, what is our obligation?” Kaplan asks. This is Khalilzad’s current strategy, he says.
Placate without appeasing the Sunnis whilst fighting the insurgency. ( What is the difference? Kaplan doesn’t say. Arm insurgents who want the U.S. to stay and kill those who want the U.S. gone?) Accomodate Sunni nationalists. (See Sheikh Abdullah’s heavily fortified villa, above.) Train the now largely Shi’ite dominated security forces to be professional, not sectarian, whilst reaching out to the Sunnis.
National Security Adviser Mowaffaq Al Rubaie keeps the head of Saddam in his study. How’d he get it? Originally, after Americans toppled Saddam’s statue in Baghdad square, a senior American officer (Col. or above – hint, hint) tried to take it home. Kuwait customs inspectors alerted Rubaie and shipped it back. Iraqis, even the servants, have an open invitation to hit the statue in the head with the sole of their shoe but Americans are not allowed to do so. Why?
Because that would be an intrusion of sovereignty.
Nothing runs on time, Kaplan laughs. Ha. Ha. But no institutional brutality on the scale of Saddam! Iraq’s future is in the hands of Iraqis! Polls say the majority are very optimistic for the future! What polls? Oh, those taken by Sunnis, Kurds, and Turkomans who told Kaplan what he wanted to hear. I see villas in their future.