Michael Rubin and I have been disagreeing about the nature of Iraq’s government and specifically about Prime Minister Maliki: Is he a well-intentioned leader who is trying, in all good faith, to increase the power of the central government in Baghdad so as to govern the country effectively, or is he a budding dictator who is trying to establish a sectarian Shi’ite regime with the aid of Iranian agents? I wish the answer were the former but I fear, alas, that it is the latter. More evidence of his alarming tendencies comes from Human Rights Watch, which can hardly be accused of being a Sunni mouthpiece. Its latest report finds:
Iraq’s government has been carrying out mass arrests and unlawfully detaining people in the notorious Camp Honor prison facility in Baghdad’s Green Zone, based on numerous interviews with victims, witnesses, family members, and government officials. The government had claimed a year ago that it had closed the prison, where Human Rights Watch had documented rampant torture.
Since October 2011 Iraqi authorities have conducted several waves of detentions, one of which arresting officers and officials termed “precautionary.” Numerous witnesses told Human Rights Watch that security forces have typically surrounded neighborhoods in Baghdad and other provinces and gone door-to-door with long lists of names of people they wanted to detain. The government has held hundreds of detainees for months, refusing to disclose the number of those detained, their identities, any charges against them, and where they are being held.
That certainly doesn’t sound like the actions of a prime minister interested in upholding the rule of law or in establishing a sound basis for Iraqi democracy. The tragedy is that, in the days when there were still U.S. troops in Iraq, the U.S. commanding general undoubtedly would have gone along with the U.S. ambassador to Maliki’s office and read him the riot act over such egregious misconduct. Similar Iraqi torture operations had been uncovered in the past and disbanded under American pressure.
With our troops gone, we have now lost a good deal of leverage to influence the actions of the Iraqi government. We must use what leverage we still have–Iraq is counting on arms sales from the U.S. to deliver F-16s and other valuable systems–to try to keep Maliki in check. But it won’t be easy. It may not even be possible. For all our disagreements about Maliki, Michael and I at least agree that withdrawing American troops entirely was a mistake, and one for which we–and the long-suffering people of Iraq–are likely to pay a steep price.
Let's take stock for just a minute. Max and Michael are in agreement that withdrawing American troops was a mistake. Iraq is moving (at least according to Max) to a malevolent dictatorship. That's a story we've seen before and it does not end well. n nMeanwhile, Omri posts that Egyptian candidates are trying to out do one another with who can be a bigger supporter of Sharia. Sharia, I think we can agree, is not perfectly in-line with democratic and liberal values. n nSyria is in the midst of a civil war and who knows just how bad that will degrade; even the current conditions are already horrible. Iran continues to her quest for nuclear bombs. n nElsewhere, the last remaining super power is preparing to haphazardly downscale her military with sequestration coming in just a few months. n nIt all sounds like a comic book plot and our government appears uninterested to do anything about these events. One day we will look back on our actions and wonder how we could have been so foolish as to let these things just happen. n
The Obama govt does not care as long as the US is out of there. The same evolution will take place in Afghanistan.
That is a very poor anaolgy of events in Iraq. n nYour inept and by and large flimsy analogy of the situation in Iraq is astounding. You speak of Iraq with disproportional negativity that is due when speaking about the Saudi dictatorship and other Sunni extremist sectarian regimes to whom, you did not dare direct that much lambasting criticism when in fact it is much due with dictators whose tyrannical dynasties have terrorized Shi'ite Muslims, Christians and Jews in the most sectarian manner. n nBy no means am I or the outright majority of Iraqis fans of the Iranian regime, but one thing you and like-minded people to yourself including those mouthpieces for the Saudi dictatorships whose for-rent negativity is a service to none other than Sunni-extremist sectarianism MUST come to understand, is that the absolute majority of Iraqi and Iranian people are BONDED by unilateral interests in having a SECULAR PROGRESSIVE Shi'ite Muslim state that affords other minorities their rights while preserving the identity of our people. n nHuman Rights watch has lambasted the State of Israel with much worse reports, want to go ahead and call Israel a Jewish regime of sectarian basing? We stomach constructive criticism, and my first hand knowledge of Michael Rubin knows him to be a man who criticizes constructively and sensibly. n nAlas, to lament the withdrawl from Iraq is to lament the soveregnity of the Republic of Iraq. No crocodile tears over a people the interests of whom you compromise being a Sunni-extremist mouth piece will convince any one other wise. n nPRESIDENT OBAMA'S FOREMOST FOREIGN POLICY SUCCESS WAS HIS WITHDRAWL FROM IRAQ !!! NO ONE, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE WILL ROB HIM OF THAT ACHIEVEMENT! Especially not those mouth pieces for Sunni extremism, hired by Saudi to say otherwise.
Dear Writer: n nYou want to compromise with Sunni extremists and Arab supremacists??? By all means, start writing about how Israel must bow down to Sunnis and give Sunnis power in Tel Aviv, only then will articles the likes of the above be dignified with a listening ear after Israel concedes Tel Aviv and other parts of Israel to Sunni extremists. Show us the way, because surely, you are not and cannot be holding Israel to different standards than those to which you are holding Almaliki's Iraq ?!
"I at least agree that withdrawing American troops entirely was a mistake, and one for which we–and the long-suffering people of Iraq–are likely to pay a steep price." n nWhat price will we pay?