Coalition uses 1918 British report on tribal system

[Aidoneus]

:eyes:

Coalition uses 1918 British report on tribal system
By David Usborne in New York and Glen Rangwala
18 January 2004

As the United States scrambles to end a dispute with Shia leaders over plans to elect an interim government in Iraq before July, it has emerged that American commanders are seeking to reach out to tribal leaders by relying on a report devised in 1918 by Britain, the country's then ruler.

Lieutenant-Colonel Alan King, head of the Tribal Affairs Bureau set up by the US-led coalition last month, admitted last week that he had been referring to the pages of the British report to fathom Iraq's network of tribal sheikhs - regardless of the fact that it dates back to the First World War.

The revelation is not likely to improve confidence in the ability of the US to sort out the deepening muddle over how it means to relinquish political power to the Iraqi people by this summer. The plan to create an interim government before a 30 June deadline has been in doubt since objections were raised last week by the powerful Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al- Sistani. His words set off mass demonstrations against the proposal in southern Iraq on Thursday.

The American head of the occupying coalition, Paul Bremer, indicated on Friday, after talks in Washington with President Bush, that he will be flexible in how the process might run. He suggested, however, that Ayatollah Sistani's demand for fully fledged direct elections would be impractical. One of the problems Mr Bremer faces is having to deal with the cleric through intermediaries, as Ayatollah Sistani refuses to meet him.

--snip--

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=482297

[slor]

1. Wow...

these guys are bigger idiots than I ever could have imagined.

[Judi Lynn]

2. So it's 86 years old. What's wrong with that?

Why shouldn't we expect it to be valid now? :silly: :crazy:

Whatever have they done with the money we've alloted them for intelligence. You really have to wonder.

[aquart]

3. Well, it was compiled by the British.

And their point of view might possibly be less than useful. Pukka sahib always had a kind of revulsion for those darkies.

[SOS]

4. Bush Cheney Rummy Colin and Condi

should have brushed up on the 1920s British occupation of Iraq before they attacked.

[JohnyCanuck]

5. Doubtless Chalabi assured them it wasn't necessary

as he had it all under control.

[calimary]

6. Heck, if they'd just studied the Crusades, they'd have gotten a

realistic idea of what was in the cards.

The Arab world does NOT like being overrun or attempted subjugation, especially from the purportedly "Christian" world. They never have. They never will. Who do we think we are that we can remake them in our image? What if they don't WANT our image? What if they don't believe in it or support it or accommodate it or adopt it or even want to understand it? What if they don't march to that drummer?

[T Bone]

7. The gop uses pre-1918 economic ideas & policies don't they ?

So this is actually an advance in their thinking.

heheh.

[ScrewyRabbit]

8. Good one!

I'm going to borrow that one, if you don't mind...

[leftchick]

11. sadly....

That is SOOOO true....

[SOS]

17. Very true

Here's a cartoon of McKinley and Hanna:



Hanna was McKinleys Rove. Rove is a big fan of Mark Hanna. He's the one leading the chorus of fat cats. The ineffectual little man playing the piano is McKinley (Bush).

[mbperrin]

9. At least it wasn't plagiarized from the Internet!

And we should use it because the Brits were SO successful there! A real happy ever after story!

(Memo to me: stop snorting Oxy this early in the day!)

[barbaraann]

10. Interesting article from NewsMax related to this

The Phony Nation of Iraq

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/10/2/170136.shtml

"America’s and the world’s security must no longer be held hostage to a promise made by a junior British officer to a bunch of camel-herders wandering around a lost desert 86 years ago – a promise made important by an ambitious journalist’s romantic froth of promotional puffery, resulting in incalculably tragic consequences as the Curse of Lawrence of Arabia."

Rightwingers just can't resist ethnic slurring, can they?

[Valjean]

13. NewsMax overlooks ...

What NewsMax overlooks is the value of super-states in the Middle East for Cheney types. That region is targeted for a major new oil pipeline. If Iraq is allowed to break into pieces, they will have to negotiate with more sovereign states and will have to bribe more officials.

I do agree that a lot of those states are kind of "phony" by nature. They are like Yugoslavia. They are aggregations of dissimilar peoples who would much rather be independent.

The tragic mistake of US foreign policy is played out again and again. We do what big corporations want instead of what the local folk want. We alienate all but a few corrupt local officials who have been paid off.

All this would be fine if we had the Iron Fist resolve of a brutal dictator. Americans wear off-white hats. We pretend they are white but they are tainted. This is one area where we need to absolutism.

When we wear white hats, we will gain the trust and admiration of the locals. We will have no trouble with finding supporters overseas.

If we wore black hats, we would brutalize local populations into submission with widespread atrocities and horrors. That would keep the locals in line.

Our hats are more white than black. But we need to clean them up. We need to start respecting universal democracy instead of just giving it lip service. We need to allow folks like Hugo Chavez to do the will of their people without interference from Washington. We need to accept that are elected leaders will disagree with Washington and respect that.

In the long run, when we wear the white hat, we will win more countries than we lose.

[barbaraann]

14. That's a great post.

If you haven't already been welcomed to DU, here's a welcome for you:

:hi: :bounce:

Hugo Chavez is one of my heroes, too.

[Jazzgirl]

16. Great post Valjean.

You are so right about the US needing to let countries do their own thing without inteferring.

Jazzgirl

[raifield]

12. I need reconstructive surgery...

My forehead is begining to get a permanent imprint of my hand on it.

This article can be summed up by only one thing:

:wtf:

[MrPrax]

15. Could be worst...!

I assumed these guys were only using the Bible and really good 'intelligence' reports--at least this is a step in the right direction...somebody got a library card.

[0007]

18. Jays'us, junior has seen the move, "Lawrence of Arabia"

If T.E. Lawrence ("of Arabia") had been a 21st-century neoconservative operative instead of a British imperial spy, he'd be Ahmed Chalabi's best friend. Chalabi, the London-based leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), is front man for the latest incarnation of a long-time neoconservative strategy to redraw the map of the oil-rich Middle East, put American troops -- and American oil companies -- in full control of the Persian Gulf's reserves and use the Gulf as a fulcrum for enhancing America's global strategic hegemony. Just as Lawrence's escapades in World War I-era Arabia helped Britain remake the disintegrating Ottoman Empire, the U.S. sponsors of Chalabi's INC hope to do their own nation building.

More......

http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/21/dreyfuss-r.html

A good read and right on with the 1918 attack plan. LOL!!

[TheDalaiMama]

19. They are taking our country back to 1918 with their policies...it's only

fair that Iraq..our sister city...gets the same treatment.