Iraq

Top Iraqis Pull Back From Key U.S. Goal

Reconciliation Seen Unattainable Amid Struggle for Power

Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government. Instead of reconciliation, they now stress alternative and perhaps more attainable goals: streamlining the government bureaucracy, placing experienced technocrats in positions of authority and improving the dismal record of providing basic services.

"I don't think there is something called reconciliation, and there will be no reconciliation as such," said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd. "To me, it is a very inaccurate term. This is a struggle about power."

Humam Hamoudi, a prominent Shiite cleric and parliament member, said any future reconciliation would emerge naturally from an efficient, fair government, not through short-term political engineering among Sunnis and Shiites.

One of the biggest mistakes post invasion was the lack of attention payed to law and order.

Instead the CPA spent most of their time in a deluded bubble thinking they were creating Iraq in the American mold, I mean focusing on fucking traffic rules, trivial stuff

Another error was allowing most of the major ministries to be looted, disbanding the Iraqi army and getting rid of all Baath party members, I mean how stupid do you have to be to get rid of those who knew how to run the country! The answer is quite stupid, since many of the members of the CPA were Republican party loyalists with little or no experience in post conflict reconstruction, while experts were dismissed or had their job made very difficult if it didn't follow the party line.

The fawning over the exiles at the expense of those who had stayed in Iraq and the way the CPA actually created sectarian tensions or at least contributed to it, by splitting the Iraqis into Kurds, Shias and Sunnis,the way there was guilt overload in giving everything to Kurds and Shias at the expense of pissing off former power holders the Sunni's. You would of thought the CPA would of done their best to keep the Sunni's happy somehow, or just be a little bit more understanding

Disbanding the Iraqi army, there you have the nucleus of the insurgency, along with disgruntled Sunnis, followed by an influx of foreign fighters. On top of that the US is funding militias against each other and against the insurgency, adding fuel to an already massive sectarian fire and what happens when the militias use US made guns on their former US allies?