Divide and rule Iraq, ill-advised US move

Thousands of Iraqis stormed parliament on April 30 demanding water and electricity and an end to corruption and the ethno-sectarian regime imposed by the US in 2003. 

To reach the building hosting the legislature, the protesters had to breach the fortifications of central Baghdad’s Green Zone which also houses government offices, ministries and embassies, including the monumental US mission. Since this zone has been off-limits to most Iraqis since 2003, the event has been seen by some as a “revolution” against the hated US.

Iraqis have been infuriated by legislators’ refusal to confirm a cabinet of technocrats who can not only manage the country but also tackle rampant graft. The Shia fundamentalist-dominated regime, installed and supported by the US, has developed powerful patronage networks that the ministers and legislators refuse to dismantle although these networks are the source of mismanagement and corruption. 

Shia militias that prey on Sunnis have worked as enforcers for the networks and have been deployed to bolster the army in the campaign against Islamic State, seen by Sunnis as anti-Sunni. This regime is not only responsible for alienating Sunnis but also for the rise of IS and al-Qaeda which have brought nothing but death and destruction to Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

Having camped outside the Green Zone walls for weeks, the protesters entered the area, slapped prominent parliamentarians and broke up furniture. The protest movement is led by radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr who opposed the US invasion and formed a militia, the Mahdi Army, to fight US forces. 

While his party is part of the Shia fundamentalist regime, he has clearly decided to latch onto the issues that have plagued the majority of Iraqis over the past few years. In the battle against corruption, he has the support of Iraq’s senior Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Shias are in the forefront of the campaign for a new system of governance because they not only see that the communal model imposed by Washington has divided and destroyed the country but has also led to the carnage inflicted on civilians by IS and al-Qaeda. While Iraqis from all communities die and are maimed by suicide and car bombings, the majority has been Shias, who are targeted at markets or during pilgrimages. 

In March, 1,119 Iraqis were killed; in April 741, 410 of them civilians. Since more than 90 civ-ilians were slain by three explosions in Baghdad on May 10, cas-ualties could be high this month.

The main reason for violent attacks claimed by IS are the military successes the Iraqi and Syrian forces have had against the cult, which has lost considerable territory in both countries, is strapped for funds, and suffers a reduction in recruits. 

By mounting deadly bombings in Iraq, IS punishes its enemies, terrorises the populace, undermines the security forces, weakens the government and keeps itself in the news. Attacks also maintain the impression that sectarian violence in Iraq is endemic and cannot be quelled.

This is a view adopted as early as in 2006 by US Vice President Joe Biden, who visited Baghdad unannounced two days before the storming of the Green Zone with the aim of giving a boost to Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi. Appointed in 2014, al-Abadi’s efforts to reconcile with Sunnis and tackle graft have been stymied by parliament.

Sectarian partitionIn 2006, while serving in the Senate, Biden and Leslie Gelb, an influential commentator, produced an article calling for the partition of Iraq into Shia, Kurdish, and Sunni regions. Biden’s visit coincided with a New York Times article by Tim Arango who quoted “experts” who favour partition. 

One such “expert” was Ali Khedery, a former US official of Iraqi origin who advised US ambassadors and generals serving in the country. In his view, Iraq should become a confederacy or be partitioned. He claimed Iraq “is a violent, dysfunctional marriage” of sects and ethnicities. “We should...broker an amicable separation or divorce that results in self-determination for Iraq’s fractious communities.”

Partition or confederal statelets would be the worst possible option, compounding the disaster the US wrought on Iraq by adopting a communal “divide-and-rule” strategy to perpetuate the US occupation. Conflict would erupt over territory and boundaries, over oil and other resources. 

Baghdad would be cleansed of its remaining Sunnis and Kurds by extremist Shia militias. Kurds would go north to their autonomous region but Sunnis would flee the country rather than be confined to a rump Sunni statelet in resource-poor Anbar, Salahuddin, and Nineva provinces. Shia and Kurdish regions would reap the benefits of Iraq’s oil which would serve as a casus belli for Sunnis.

The sole but, admittedly, impossible solution for Iraq is abandoning the ethno-sectarian model and reinstating secularism. This could be done by simply outlawing all religion- and ethnic-based political parties, dissolving communal militias, establishing parties with secular agendas, banning from office politicians with ethno-sectarian connections and ideologies, and prosecuting those who have enriched themselves while serving in post-2003 governments.