Unity Is Rallying Cry Ahead of Iraq Elections
This is history, and how it began:
To many Americans, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s February 2003 speech to the United Nations on Iraq’s unconventional weapons was powerfully persuasive. It was a dazzling performance, featuring satellite images and intercepts of Iraqi communications, delivered by one of the most trusted figures in public life.
Then a long and costly war began, and the country discovered that the assertions that Iraq possessed illicit weapons had been completely unfounded.
(The above quotes are from an earlier article in The New York Times.)
Since such realization and the debacle and quagmire that followed, the following from today's The New York Times is the most (and perhaps only) encouraging thing I have read about the aftermath of our ill-fated attempt at nation building in the Middle East:
Iraqi politics has a new catchphrase, the “yes, we can” of the country’s coming parliamentary elections. It is “national unity,” and while skepticism abounds, it could well signal the decline of the religious and sectarian parties that have fractured Iraq since 2003.
Across the political spectrum — Sunni and Shiite, secular and Islamic — party leaders have jettisoned explicit appeals to their traditional followers and are now scrambling to reach across ethnic or sectarian lines. In some cases, the shift is nothing less than extraordinary.
With the elections less than four months away, the emergence of national unity as a theme has been welcomed by Iraqis and by American officials, who fear that identity politics in Iraq will only worsen tensions and risk a return to sectarian bloodshed.
Some go so far as to say the elections could reinforce a greater sense of Iraqi citizenship and nationalism out of the chaos of the war.
Even as Iraq’s political leaders all pledge national unity, Parliament remains so paralyzed by infighting that lawmakers are unable to pass any significant legislation, including the very bill required to hold the next elections, scheduled for Jan. 16.
Even so, party leaders agree that something fundamental is changing in the mood of Iraqi voters.
To many Americans, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s February 2003 speech to the United Nations on Iraq’s unconventional weapons was powerfully persuasive. It was a dazzling performance, featuring satellite images and intercepts of Iraqi communications, delivered by one of the most trusted figures in public life.
Then a long and costly war began, and the country discovered that the assertions that Iraq possessed illicit weapons had been completely unfounded.
(The above quotes are from an earlier article in The New York Times.)
Since such realization and the debacle and quagmire that followed, the following from today's The New York Times is the most (and perhaps only) encouraging thing I have read about the aftermath of our ill-fated attempt at nation building in the Middle East:
Iraqi politics has a new catchphrase, the “yes, we can” of the country’s coming parliamentary elections. It is “national unity,” and while skepticism abounds, it could well signal the decline of the religious and sectarian parties that have fractured Iraq since 2003.
Across the political spectrum — Sunni and Shiite, secular and Islamic — party leaders have jettisoned explicit appeals to their traditional followers and are now scrambling to reach across ethnic or sectarian lines. In some cases, the shift is nothing less than extraordinary.
With the elections less than four months away, the emergence of national unity as a theme has been welcomed by Iraqis and by American officials, who fear that identity politics in Iraq will only worsen tensions and risk a return to sectarian bloodshed.
Some go so far as to say the elections could reinforce a greater sense of Iraqi citizenship and nationalism out of the chaos of the war.
Even as Iraq’s political leaders all pledge national unity, Parliament remains so paralyzed by infighting that lawmakers are unable to pass any significant legislation, including the very bill required to hold the next elections, scheduled for Jan. 16.
Even so, party leaders agree that something fundamental is changing in the mood of Iraqi voters.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 6:03 AM
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