Word: iraqi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Iraq's cabinet met Tuesday for roughly one hour and discussed the role of security companies in the wake of a violent incident in Baghdad Sunday when a U.S. convoy protected by Blackwater contractors killed a reported eight Iraqis and wounded others. According to a senior Iraqi official who spoke to TIME, the cabinet decided to uphold a previous decision by the Minister of the Interior to suspend Blackwater's license. According to the senior official, Blackwater will be allowed to continue to operate inside the Green Zone, which includes the U.S. embassy and Iraqi government offices. But "they will...
...forced to make such local-level arrangements to deal with local-level problems, that's because the central government is an ineffective vehicle for the U.S. agenda, or, indeed, for any sort of governance right now. Having conceded to the principle of Iraqi sovereignty, however, Washington is in no position to change Iraq's government...
...testimony this week from Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus on Capitol Hill appeared to offer a reality check to a legislature whose debate on Iraq often appears disconnected from reality. The "benchmarks" set by Congress to measure Iraqi progress and justify the U.S. deployment were criticized by Ambassador Crocker as unrealistic. Indeed, they are U.S.-designed goals that Washington has spent years cajoling Iraqi politicians to pursue. But aside from promises, there's been scant evidence of any genuine Iraqi intent to implement them. The Iraqi leaders are unlikely to believe that the U.S. will make its decisions...
...Given the weakness of the central government in Iraq, stability there is unlikely without an agreement among Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and Iran over managing the political contest there. The most powerful stakeholder among them is Iran, which has close ties to the dominant political parties returned by the Iraqi electorate. And as long as Iran believes the U.S. is pursuing a policy of regime-change in Tehran, it has little incentive to help out Washington...
...Administration's hopes for a turnaround in Iraq. If there were only a Sattar or two for every province, the thinking went, then the insurgency might finally fade enough to allow the government in Baghdad to function properly. Never mind that the Shi'ite sectarian partisans of the Iraqi government in Baghdad led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seemed altogether unwilling to include such Sunni local leaders in the political process. Grassroots success would reshape the political landscape and allow things to work out,or so the Americans hoped. And so U.S. military leaders sought more tribal chieftains...