How Not to build a Nation (NYT/ IHT)

[Up2Late]

How not to build a nation

The New York Times

MONDAY, JUNE 13, 2005
Nothing is more important to the future of Iraq's new Shiite- and Kurdish-run government than convincing the angry, alienated and underrepresented Sunni Arab minority that it will have an equitable and secure place in a new democratic Iraq. And nothing could have been better calculated to defeat that effort than the recent announcement that the private militias of Kurdish and Shiite parties will be allowed to continue operations under the loose supervision of the national government.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's government now depends on the nearly 140,000 U.S. troops who are trying to contain the insurgency on its behalf. If Iraq is ever going to take over that fight for itself, it will need to create a legitimate national army, which can have no place for ethnic and sectarian militias. Indeed, those militias have no place in a democratic society.

Washington sought to disarm the militias during the months of formal occupation, but failed. It sought to prohibit them under the Iraqi interim constitution and failed again. Now, despite Washington's advice to the contrary, the elected government has embraced these militias and showered them with public praise. Many Sunnis, meanwhile, are convinced that the Badr Organization, an Iranian-trained group led by the powerful Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, has begun waging warfare against Sunni communities.

The only really encouraging news from Iraq in recent weeks has been the decision by at least some Sunni Arab leaders to try to join a peaceful political process that they previously shunned. The current focus of their efforts is on expanding Sunni representation in the drafting of a new constitution. Right now, just two Sunni Arabs sit on the 55-member parliamentary committee that has been assigned this task. Involving more, and more representative, Sunnis is crucially important.

(more at link above)