JUST GET OUT OF THEIR WAY:

Getting It Right, Despite Ourselves?: The democratic ethos is still moving forward in Iraq. (Reuel Marc Gerecht, 06/07/2004, Weekly Standard)

[N]ow have to cross our fingers and hope that Sistani and the clerics of Najaf will continue to hold the Shiite center even though elections still seem as far away with the United Nations involved as they did when Ambassador Bremer was calling the shots. We have to gamble that if the senior Shiite clergy decides to object to significant aspects of the appointed transitional government, they will do so in a way that allows the overall process to continue peacefully.

The amazing public statement issued in late May by the senior clerics of Najaf, collectively known as the Hawza, against the young clerical insurrectionist Moktada al-Sadr and his Lebanese supporter, the general secretary of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, ought to fill one with hope that Sistani has not yet given up on the American promise of democratic elections. If the elections are fair, they will finally give the Shiites the stake in Iraqi society that the British denied them 80 years ago. The Hawza's statement identifies Sadr and his Sadriyyin, not the Americans, as those who first violated the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf. The Shiite clergy obviously has not lost its balance and is even willing publicly to reprimand severely one of its own.

Given Sistani's boldness, having Brahimi and the United Nations center stage in Iraq probably won't hurt us. Neither probably will the common sense of Colin Powell. Nor the too distant date (January 2005) for the first round of national elections. Nor the possible selection of Iyad Allawi as Iraq's first unelected, transitional prime minister.

Allawi is a Shiite member of the Iraqi Governing Council and the former leader of the Iraqi National Accord, the CIA's favorite exile group, which had a very clubby propensity for former Baathist military officers. Anyone who has had dealings with the Accord knows that the organization has not been blessed by Langley with influence and lots of cash because the Directorate of Operations views Allawi or his group as a bastion of democratic zeal. But if the Governing Council, with a majority of Shiite members present, actually chose him, then he unquestionably carries Sistani's approval--as odd as it seems, since Allawi has had an awful reputation among senior Shiite clerics. As a Shiite the Sunnis could like, Allawi may be acceptable to Brahimi.

If Sistani is in fact behind Allawi, then Brahimi's objections won't matter. Neither will the criticisms of those in Washington who sensibly question Allawi's past and probably present predilections. The democratic ethos in Iraq, fortified much more by the Iraqi Shiite clergy than the Coalition Provisional Authority, is still moving forward.

From jump street folks have drastically underestimated the natural democratic tendency of Shi'ism.

MORE:
-Iraq's New Government Faces Bargaining Over Its Power: The first job of the new government will be to negotiate sharp limits on its sovereignty in many areas, particularly security matters. (STEVEN R. WEISMAN, 6/02/04, NY Times)

"It's a charade," said a diplomat at the United Nations, where a resolution blessing the interim government has been proposed by the United States. "The problem is that you need a charade to get to the reality of an elected government next January. There's no other way to do this."

Questions about Iraq's real sovereignty are bound to deepen, according to many diplomats, now that it has become clear that the United Nations special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, played a secondary role in setting up the new government.

People close to the envoy say the choices, especially that of the prime minister, Iyad Allawi, were essentially negotiated between the United States and the Iraqi Governing Council, which the occupation authorities put together last year. "The visible role of the Iraqi Governing Council in choosing its own successors in Iraq is more than was anticipated," an American official acknowledged in something of an understatement.

-U.S. and Britain circulate revised Iraq resolution (Bill Nichols, 6/01/04, USA TODAY)

The United States and Britain tried to smooth over objections to a United Nations resolution on Iraq on Tuesday with a version that would remove troops no later than early 2006.

The draft, which represents the most specific end point proposed for the U.S.-led military presence in Iraq, was presented to the Security Council by U.S. and British diplomats. The two nations want a new resolution passed to legitimize the caretaker government that takes over Iraq when the U.S. occupation ends June 30.

Council members China, France, Russia and Germany complained that the original draft of the resolution, offered last week, did not make clear when the U.N.-mandated international force would leave Iraq or how much power the interim government would have.

The amended text "makes clearer that the occupation ends on June 30 and that the Iraqi interim government will be fully sovereign," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

-List of Iraqi Cabinet members (The Associated Press, 6/01/04)

Here is the list of Iraqi ministries and the Cabinet members who will lead them, announced Tuesday by the prime minister-designate, Iyad Allawi:

-Many hold new hope for an end to violence (Anne Barnard, June 2, 2004, Boston Globe)

While Iraqi, US, and UN officials noisily debated how to give Iraqis a say in selecting the government and traded accusations of hijacking the process, many Iraqis seemed to assume it would be an American-run show. But yesterday around Baghdad, they declared with surprising unanimity that they barely care who rules as long as they end the security fears that disrupt nearly every effort to improve their lives and their society. Only then, they said, can Iraqis begin to find their political voice.

"Whoever does something good for Iraqis, let him be president. If he makes us safe, and gives us jobs and houses, what more could we want from him?" said Edward William, an Iraqi contractor building a park.

A walk down the street from Fakri's post by the telephone exchange offered a tour of thwarted civic effort.

William has a contract from the Baghdad city government to build a park in a flat, dusty spot between two highway offramps. He said he had barely started work last month when 150 meters of fencing was stolen from around the site at the busy hour of 6 p.m. The police were unhelpful, telling him, "Maybe your workers did it." On Monday, he said, a vanload of young men pulled up, accused him of working with American occupiers, and threatened, "We will kill you."

A quarter of a mile down the road, Nasser Qas Yunan's repair crew was working on a pipe break that periodically caused the busy street to flood with sewage. Last week, a car bomb across the street killed a boy selling cigarettes.

Fear, he said, is slowing the project and depriving the workers of overtime pay.

"The workers, whenever a car stops, they look up and wonder if it's a car bomb, so they can't keep their minds on their work," he said as he watched three emaciated men drive a pipe into the ground, standing knee deep in muddy water. "We used to work until 2 a.m.. Now we stop by 4 p.m."

The new government, he said, should strengthen the police force so that the foreign troops on each side of his repair site can pull back. The foreign neighbors are a target, he said, which makes him one, too.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 2, 2004 7:38 AM