Victory In Iraq Again Slips Through Our Fingers

Damn, it's tough forcing something on these Iraqis they don't want. And it's not we really care either -- this is just for domestic consumption -- as long as they let us keep a bunch of bases in their country, nothing else matters.

Political momentum in Iraq hit a sudden roadblock on Wednesday when a feud between the largest Shiite factions led to the veto of a law that had been passed with great fanfare two weeks ago. The law had been heralded by the Bush administration as a breakthrough for national reconciliation.

The law called for provincial elections by October, and it was hoped that it would eliminate severe electoral distortions that have left Kurds and Shiites with vastly disproportionate power over Sunni Arabs in some areas, a factor in fueling the Sunni insurgency. It would also have given Iraqis who have long complained of corrupt and feckless local leaders a chance to clean house and elect officials they believe are more accountable.

But the law was vetoed at the last minute by the three-member Iraqi presidency council, which includes President Jalal Talabani and two vice presidents. The veto came after officials in a powerful Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, objected to provisions that they contend unlawfully strip power from Iraq’s provinces.

Politicians involved in the debate said the main objections came from Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi, a Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council member. The bill now goes back to Parliament, where its prospects are unclear, given the acrimonious debate over the issue that led to the veto.

Even if the law is approved, Parliament must fill vacant election commission seats and approve an elections law before provincial contests can occur.

The veto is “somewhat of a setback,” Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, acknowledged Wednesday during a hearing in Congress.

A common refrain among American combat commanders is that new local elections could help sweep out ineffective leaders while remedying deeply uneven provincial councils, a legacy partly of the Sunni Arab boycott of previous provincial elections.

In Sunni-dominated Nineveh and Salahuddin Provinces, for example, Kurds enjoy far more power on provincial councils than their numbers would otherwise dictate. And in Diyala, Shiites dominate the government even though Sunnis account for a majority in the region, a situation that has exacerbated the fierce sectarian violence there.

The veto exposed the deep rift between the ambitions of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, or S.I.I.C., which controls provincial governments throughout most of Shiite-dominated southern Iraq, and the more nationalist Shiite factions that include lawmakers loyal to the firebrand cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

S.I.I.C. officials want provincial leaders to be allowed to operate with little interference from Baghdad. They also fear that they will lose power in some southern provinces to more popular slates put up by Mr. Sadr’s movement if new provincial elections are held. And they contend that the bill wrongly allowed the prime minister to fire provincial governors and diminished the provinces’ budgetary and administrative powers.

The Sadrists, who were furious at the veto, want to retain a strong central government that has the legal muscle to deal vigorously any province that Baghdad leaders believe is acting against the country’s best interests. They said the veto breached the historic agreement among political blocs two weeks ago that allowed the simultaneous passage of the provincial powers bill, the 2008 budget and another law granting amnesty to thousands of Sunnis and others in Iraqi jails.

“It’s a struggle of two wills,” said Nassar al-Rubaie, a legislator from the Sadr movement. “One side wants to strengthen the central government and federal authority, and the other wants to undermine it and grant the provinces greater powers.”

Link (emphasis added).