Al-Maliki's night of the long knives*

[Guest Adnan Darwash]

After returning from the USA and his meeting with US President and American business leaders, Al-Maliki felt strong enough to correct the long-awaited political imbalance into which the Sunni Arab and Sunni Kurdish minority parties were allowed to control 66 percent of the power. In Iraq, the Shiat constitute 60 percent of the population. By default, any free and democratic election would result in a government controlled by Shiat people. But this was initially rejected by the Sunni Kurds (17%) saying that they oppose the dictatorship of the majority. The Sunni Arabs (23%) have been in government since 1920 and will be against any Shiat Prime Minister. All minorities throughout history of Iraq have welcomed and collaborated with foreign invaders in order to gain power. With the American attempt to fragment Iraq, the Kurds were allowed to control the Northern Provinces, the presidency, the foreign ministry and the armed forced of the central government in Baghdad. Besides their income from local taxes and from controlling the borders, the Kurds get 17% all Iraqi oil revenues. In order to reduce the effects of the Shiat majority to 33%, the Americans under the pretext of power sharing, appointed a Sunni Kurd as President with one Arab Sunni and One Arab Shiat for Vice presidents. Similarly, Shiat Al-Maliki has one Sunni Kurd and One Sunni Arab as Vice Premiers. This situation is untenable besides being undemocratic. It is like forcing Obama to appoint John McCain as vice President and Ralph Nadir as a foreign secretary. It is a real corruption of democracy, as all parties are in power and no-one is in opposition. The majority of the Sunni Arabs are pro-Saddam and Pro-Baath party. They embrace all acts of violence against the government of Shiat Al-Maliki whom they accuse of being an Iranian puppet. In their quest, they receive massive aids from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the USA. The Iraqis continue to suffer from the negative effects of foreign interference in their affairs. The Americans must drop their attempt to fragment Iraq and to leave the Iraqis to their own means. There will be some violence in the short-term but free and democratic election will result in a sustainable national regime that serves Iraqi interests.

 

Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times

 

*The night of the long knives in NAZI Gernany, 1934. See Wikipedia.org