Reports from Iraq the Model

I went over to Iraq the Model to see what Mohammed and Omar have to say about the violence following the bombing of the Golden Mosque, and I found other posts in addition to what I was looking for.

First, a photo and a question.

One commenter (I don't know his connection to Iraq--his name sounds American) said that the Iraqi police department is infiltrated by Iran's surrogates, and it's the Iraqi Army that seems to have Iraq's best interest at heart.

Another post looked at the interim government's Prime Minister's recent, unannounced in Iraq, visit to Turkey, which stirred up animosity within the government and concern within the country.

The trip was particularly disturbing for the Kurds who are chronically allergic to Turkey.

It's not a secret that the UIA had been dreaming of a sectarian state in the south and of taking over the oil riches of the country which is concentrated in Basra and Amara.But the new state has to gain the approval of the neighboring powers and a large deal of that is Turkey's approval and support. And I assume that most of Jafari's time in Turkey was dedicated to discussing the fate of Kirkuk which is as you know another oil-rich province with an ethnically mixed population with the Kurds dreaming of uniting it with the rest of their region for years.

This is my theory and I could be wrong but what I'm sure of is that this will only complicate the political process even more than it already is.

The next post down was on Saddam's trial session Tuesday and gave the kind of detail we don't get here in the States, even on Fox News. Here's how Omar summed it up:

The people I spoke to during and after watching the session were pleased with the way the trial went this time. Today's session wiped away the bad impression many of us had about the last few sessions where the trial looked like a circus by all standards but today things were different and we were able to see a reasonably professional trial that relied on much more facts and much less rhetoric.

Actually no one had to say anything, the papers spoke for themselves and for the horrendous crimes of Saddam and his fellow criminals.

Again, I'm glad they choose this case to begin Saddam's trial with; it's probably the only case that can be supported with so many documents unlike many of the later crimes that were conducted after verbal orders.

Prepare for going back to your hole Saddam, but this time, nobody is going to pull you out.

Finally, I found a post on the aftermath of the Golden Mosque bombing (For before and after pictures of the mosque, take a look at this post at Hedgehog Blog. It's enough to break your heart). Mohammed's post is a long one but well worth reading.

Life is coming back to normal in Baghdad and marketplaces and offices are open again after being shut for 4 days. Although there were a few security incidents today people are mostly looking at these as part of the usual daily situation and not related to the latest shrine crisis.

But, what can we learn from this lesson and how can we make benefit from it in avoiding similar problems in the future.

It's not a secret who was behind the attack on the shrine and I am sure that who did it were the Salafi/Wahabis whether Iraqi or foreigners and with external support from parties planning to disrupt the political process in Iraq.

Mohammed explains a lot of the history of the various factions as it relates to mosques and shrines and burials, and it is this history that points him to the Salafis as his presumed suspects.

Ayatollah Sistani issued a fatwa on Wednesday that sounded peaceful and normal from the first look but if you look closer at each word you will find that the "safety valve" became the igniter this time.

This fatwa which is sugar-coated with tolerance and restraint is actually pointing at the perpetrator that we-should-not-punish-because-we-are-merciful.

So, this was planned to prepare the atmosphere for putting the blame on others and sending a message to the other parties that "we cannot contain the anger of the street forever and you have to listen to us and answer our demands if you want us to prevent a catastrophe".

However, it seems there are also some positive outcomes from this incident and its aftermath; the first one in my opinion was the performance of the Iraqi army which had a good role in restoring order in many places. Actually the past few days showed that our new army is more competent than we were thinking.

The other positive side is represented by the line we've seen drawn between clerics and politicians.

This meeting indicates that politicians have realized that those clerics whether Sunni or Shia are the origin of the problem and are ready to coup on even their political allies which made the politicians more aware of the danger imposed by clerics on the project of building a state ruled by the law.

Clerics will not stop and they will carry on with their plans and I suspect they will launch the next phase of their plan soon after they received instructions from Syria (the Muslim scholars) and from Iran (the Sadrists).

Now the government has rise to the level of the challenge and proceed to take the most important and critical step and disband religious militias of all sorts and limit the influence of clerics-of any sect-in the decision-making process.

I've only excerpted bits and pieces from the post, and I recommend reading all of it. Mohammed and Omar are intelligent, thoughtful, and articulate in their discussions of life in Iraq on its bumpy road to liberty.

It's encouraging to me to see the way these men hold not only to hope but to the expectation of improvement in the future. From reading Iraq the Model, it doesn't look as though Iraq is on the brink of civil war, in spite of that implication coming out of the mainstream media.

Much is needed from Iraq's leadership circles. Here in America, though, what Iraq needs most from us is patience, steadfastness, and prayer.