K
Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names
Guest
Misperceptions of the 'War' in Iraq
An NBC News correspondent-with longtime experience in Iraq-describes
many other visions of the war now being fought.
By Richard Engel
The war in Iraq is not what it seems. In fact, there is no "war" in
Iraq-there are many wars, some centuries old, playing out on this
ancient land. But this is not what Americans are often led to believe.
The perception portrayed by the White House and Iraqi government in
Baghdad-and commonly reflected in the news media-is that the violence
in Iraq is a fundamental struggle between two opposing teams: Freedom
Lovers and Freedom Haters.
In this Manichaean and simplistic view of the fighting here, the tale
of the tape is:
The Freedom Lovers: The 12 million Iraqis who plunged their fingers
into purple ink on Election Day in December 2005, choosing freedom,
democracy and to shut forever the door on Saddam Hussein's
dictatorship. Their team captains are the Iraqi government, the White
House, the U.S.-trained Iraq security services, and the roughly
150,000 American troops in Iraq.
The Freedom Haters: Iraqi radicals, foreign jihadists, former Ba'ath
Party members, and criminals supported by al-Qaeda, Syria and Iran,
who have formed an alliance of convenience to reject the
democratization of Iraq, each for its own motivation. The team's
captains are al-Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni militant groups, Iranian
and Syrian agents and, but not always, radical Shi'ite cleric Moktada
al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
While there are certainly elements of truth to this narrative, the
reality in this fractured country is much more complex.
The Other Wars
During a break in a diplomatic meeting in Baghdad in March, I was
sitting in a smoke-filled waiting room of the foreign ministry
watching Iraqiya, the state-sponsored television station. It was the
final day of the Shi'ite festival of Ashura, and several hundred
thousand, perhaps as many as two million, Shi'ite pilgrims were
gathered in the holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad. The television
images showed the Shi'ite devotees flagellating their backs with
zangeel (bundles of chains) and cutting their heads with swords to
mourn the seventh century martyr Hussein and punish themselves for not
having done more to save his life during a battle in Karbala in one of
Islam's early civil wars.
The pictures showed a man dressed as Hussein in ancient Islamic battle
dress, with a sword, flowing headdress, and a colorful cape,
reenacting the battle by single-handedly fighting off a crowd of
attackers until he was overwhelmed and heroically slain. Hussein's
martyrdom, many Shi'ites claim at the hands of early Sunnis, is one of
the central themes of Shi'ite Islam in Iraq and establishes a basic
premise that Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, and his Shi'ite
descendants are the true heirs to Islam but were defeated by Sunni
"usurpers."
But the footage on Iraqi state TV during Ashura didn't stop there.
Interwoven with the images of Hussein's struggle and the mourning
rituals was current news footage of the aftermath of car bombings in
Baghdad, the
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
....it is apparent that many of Iraq's Shi'ites believe they are
fighting a different war from the one many in the United States see
their troops engaged in here, and for different reasons.
Shi'ite al-Askari mosque in Samara destroyed by al-Qaeda militants in
February 2006, and wounded Iraqi women and children. The message was
clear: the attacks on markets, Shi'ite mosques, restaurants and
university campuses, mostly carried out by Sunni radicals, are a
continuation of Hussein's battle centuries ago.
As pilgrims marched by our Baghdad bureau on their way to Karbala, I
could hear them chant: "Kul yom Ashura! Kul ard Karbala!" or "Every
day is Ashura! All land is Karbala!" Simply put, they were saying,
everyday and everywhere in Iraq, Shi'ites are reliving Hussein's
battles in Karbala. There was no talk of democracy or the Ba'ath
Party, Saddam Hussein or the U.S. troop "surge," or other subjects
that dominate the Iraq debate in the United States. Instead, it is
apparent that many of Iraq's Shi'ites believe they are fighting a
different war from the one many in the United States see their troops
engaged in here, and for different reasons.
Many Sunni groups in Iraq are also fighting a war that seems to have
little in common with the official U.S. and Iraqi characterization of
the conflict. Al-Qaeda in Iraq and its allies recently formed an
umbrella group they call Dowlit al-Islam, or the Islamic State in
Iraq. After the group claimed responsibility for bombing the Iraqi
parliament building in Baghdad's Green Zone in April, the group issued
an Internet statement explaining its motivation. The group said the
suicide bomber who attacked parliament's cafeteria and killed one
lawmaker was motivated to kill "the traitors and collaborators" who
had sold out to a "Zionist-Persian" conspiracy to control Iraq. From
what they wrote, they seem to believe they are fighting Israel, Iran
and their agents, not the U.S. mission to bring democracy to Iraq.
These visions of war are just two of the competing power struggles
that U.S. troops in Iraq are trying to quell; the reality is there are
many wars within the war. Others include:
Moktada al-Sadr: The radical Shi'ite leader and commander of the Mahdi
Army who wants to equal or surpass the influence of his father, one of
Iraq's most revered Shi'ite leaders. Based primarily on his family's
reputation, Sadr has tapped into the frustrations of Iraq's poor,
uneducated and unemployed Shi'ite community, increasingly fed up with
the continued presence of U.S. troops.
The Kurds: Iraqi Kurds want independence and control of the oil rich
city of Kirkuk. Thankful that U.S. troops rid them of Saddam's
oppression, they now want to capitalize on their new freedom by
establishing what they have been denied for centuries, an autonomous,
prosperous oil-rich state. For Kurds, the fighting in Iraq is not
about democracy, but self-determination.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim: He is the leader of the Supreme Council for
Islamic Revolution in Iraq [now the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council] who
wants to control southern Iraq and carve out a ministate allied with
Iran. His party would rule this emirate, containing both the rich oil
fields in Basra and access to the Persian Gulf. Al-Hakim's Iranian-
backed militia, the Badr Brigade, renamed the Badr Organization in an
attempt to make it seem more mainstream, has gained control of many of
the local councils and police stations across southern Iraq.
Ayad Allawi: The former prime minister and ex-Ba'ath Party member and
western intelligence "asset," he wants to return to power, overthrow
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, unite Sunnis and Shi'ites under his
secular rule, and bring back divisions of the Iraqi army dissolved by
then U.S. administrator Paul Bremer.
Nuri al-Maliki: Prime Minister Maliki's goals are unclear. At times he
sounds as though he is reading talking points from the White House,
but he has been reluctant to stop Shi'ite militia groups and has
overseen a Shi'ite-led government often accused of pursuing a
sectarian agenda.
U.S. politicians and military commanders often complain that the Iraqi
government "won't step up and do its job." The impression they give is
that Iraqi officials are sitting around smoking hooka pipes and
refusing to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, while U.S. troops
are fighting and dying to "get the job done." Perhaps the question
should be, "Which job?" American soldiers often ask me when the Iraqis
will "step up and fight for their own country." They are already
fighting for their country. Iraqi officials, religious leaders,
militia groups, Syria, Iran and al-Qaeda are struggling and dying to
get a "job done" in Iraq, though it does not appear to be the job the
White House would like them to be doing.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned during his April visit to
Iraq that America's "patience is running out." If he's waiting for
Iraqis and the wider Middle East to start fighting the war of Freedom
Lovers against Freedom Haters, Americans might need to have
considerably more patience in the years ahead.
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/07-2NRsummer/p14-0702-engel.html
An NBC News correspondent-with longtime experience in Iraq-describes
many other visions of the war now being fought.
By Richard Engel
The war in Iraq is not what it seems. In fact, there is no "war" in
Iraq-there are many wars, some centuries old, playing out on this
ancient land. But this is not what Americans are often led to believe.
The perception portrayed by the White House and Iraqi government in
Baghdad-and commonly reflected in the news media-is that the violence
in Iraq is a fundamental struggle between two opposing teams: Freedom
Lovers and Freedom Haters.
In this Manichaean and simplistic view of the fighting here, the tale
of the tape is:
The Freedom Lovers: The 12 million Iraqis who plunged their fingers
into purple ink on Election Day in December 2005, choosing freedom,
democracy and to shut forever the door on Saddam Hussein's
dictatorship. Their team captains are the Iraqi government, the White
House, the U.S.-trained Iraq security services, and the roughly
150,000 American troops in Iraq.
The Freedom Haters: Iraqi radicals, foreign jihadists, former Ba'ath
Party members, and criminals supported by al-Qaeda, Syria and Iran,
who have formed an alliance of convenience to reject the
democratization of Iraq, each for its own motivation. The team's
captains are al-Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni militant groups, Iranian
and Syrian agents and, but not always, radical Shi'ite cleric Moktada
al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
While there are certainly elements of truth to this narrative, the
reality in this fractured country is much more complex.
The Other Wars
During a break in a diplomatic meeting in Baghdad in March, I was
sitting in a smoke-filled waiting room of the foreign ministry
watching Iraqiya, the state-sponsored television station. It was the
final day of the Shi'ite festival of Ashura, and several hundred
thousand, perhaps as many as two million, Shi'ite pilgrims were
gathered in the holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad. The television
images showed the Shi'ite devotees flagellating their backs with
zangeel (bundles of chains) and cutting their heads with swords to
mourn the seventh century martyr Hussein and punish themselves for not
having done more to save his life during a battle in Karbala in one of
Islam's early civil wars.
The pictures showed a man dressed as Hussein in ancient Islamic battle
dress, with a sword, flowing headdress, and a colorful cape,
reenacting the battle by single-handedly fighting off a crowd of
attackers until he was overwhelmed and heroically slain. Hussein's
martyrdom, many Shi'ites claim at the hands of early Sunnis, is one of
the central themes of Shi'ite Islam in Iraq and establishes a basic
premise that Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, and his Shi'ite
descendants are the true heirs to Islam but were defeated by Sunni
"usurpers."
But the footage on Iraqi state TV during Ashura didn't stop there.
Interwoven with the images of Hussein's struggle and the mourning
rituals was current news footage of the aftermath of car bombings in
Baghdad, the
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
....it is apparent that many of Iraq's Shi'ites believe they are
fighting a different war from the one many in the United States see
their troops engaged in here, and for different reasons.
Shi'ite al-Askari mosque in Samara destroyed by al-Qaeda militants in
February 2006, and wounded Iraqi women and children. The message was
clear: the attacks on markets, Shi'ite mosques, restaurants and
university campuses, mostly carried out by Sunni radicals, are a
continuation of Hussein's battle centuries ago.
As pilgrims marched by our Baghdad bureau on their way to Karbala, I
could hear them chant: "Kul yom Ashura! Kul ard Karbala!" or "Every
day is Ashura! All land is Karbala!" Simply put, they were saying,
everyday and everywhere in Iraq, Shi'ites are reliving Hussein's
battles in Karbala. There was no talk of democracy or the Ba'ath
Party, Saddam Hussein or the U.S. troop "surge," or other subjects
that dominate the Iraq debate in the United States. Instead, it is
apparent that many of Iraq's Shi'ites believe they are fighting a
different war from the one many in the United States see their troops
engaged in here, and for different reasons.
Many Sunni groups in Iraq are also fighting a war that seems to have
little in common with the official U.S. and Iraqi characterization of
the conflict. Al-Qaeda in Iraq and its allies recently formed an
umbrella group they call Dowlit al-Islam, or the Islamic State in
Iraq. After the group claimed responsibility for bombing the Iraqi
parliament building in Baghdad's Green Zone in April, the group issued
an Internet statement explaining its motivation. The group said the
suicide bomber who attacked parliament's cafeteria and killed one
lawmaker was motivated to kill "the traitors and collaborators" who
had sold out to a "Zionist-Persian" conspiracy to control Iraq. From
what they wrote, they seem to believe they are fighting Israel, Iran
and their agents, not the U.S. mission to bring democracy to Iraq.
These visions of war are just two of the competing power struggles
that U.S. troops in Iraq are trying to quell; the reality is there are
many wars within the war. Others include:
Moktada al-Sadr: The radical Shi'ite leader and commander of the Mahdi
Army who wants to equal or surpass the influence of his father, one of
Iraq's most revered Shi'ite leaders. Based primarily on his family's
reputation, Sadr has tapped into the frustrations of Iraq's poor,
uneducated and unemployed Shi'ite community, increasingly fed up with
the continued presence of U.S. troops.
The Kurds: Iraqi Kurds want independence and control of the oil rich
city of Kirkuk. Thankful that U.S. troops rid them of Saddam's
oppression, they now want to capitalize on their new freedom by
establishing what they have been denied for centuries, an autonomous,
prosperous oil-rich state. For Kurds, the fighting in Iraq is not
about democracy, but self-determination.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim: He is the leader of the Supreme Council for
Islamic Revolution in Iraq [now the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council] who
wants to control southern Iraq and carve out a ministate allied with
Iran. His party would rule this emirate, containing both the rich oil
fields in Basra and access to the Persian Gulf. Al-Hakim's Iranian-
backed militia, the Badr Brigade, renamed the Badr Organization in an
attempt to make it seem more mainstream, has gained control of many of
the local councils and police stations across southern Iraq.
Ayad Allawi: The former prime minister and ex-Ba'ath Party member and
western intelligence "asset," he wants to return to power, overthrow
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, unite Sunnis and Shi'ites under his
secular rule, and bring back divisions of the Iraqi army dissolved by
then U.S. administrator Paul Bremer.
Nuri al-Maliki: Prime Minister Maliki's goals are unclear. At times he
sounds as though he is reading talking points from the White House,
but he has been reluctant to stop Shi'ite militia groups and has
overseen a Shi'ite-led government often accused of pursuing a
sectarian agenda.
U.S. politicians and military commanders often complain that the Iraqi
government "won't step up and do its job." The impression they give is
that Iraqi officials are sitting around smoking hooka pipes and
refusing to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, while U.S. troops
are fighting and dying to "get the job done." Perhaps the question
should be, "Which job?" American soldiers often ask me when the Iraqis
will "step up and fight for their own country." They are already
fighting for their country. Iraqi officials, religious leaders,
militia groups, Syria, Iran and al-Qaeda are struggling and dying to
get a "job done" in Iraq, though it does not appear to be the job the
White House would like them to be doing.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned during his April visit to
Iraq that America's "patience is running out." If he's waiting for
Iraqis and the wider Middle East to start fighting the war of Freedom
Lovers against Freedom Haters, Americans might need to have
considerably more patience in the years ahead.
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/07-2NRsummer/p14-0702-engel.html
