Iraqi politician Saleh al-Mutlak gives a press conference in Baghdad on January 8. A parliamentary official told MPs that all 511 candidates banned from running in Iraq's general election had links to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's political and military infrastructure. (AFP/File/Sabah Arar)
The Brookings Institution has an excellent article on Iraq's pre-election political crisis. "Iraq's Ban On Democracy" profiles the destructive role Bush administration sweetheart Ahmed Chalabi has played in this latest round of sectarian exclusion. We have previously profiled Chalabi's lackey, Leagues of the Righteous supporter, and former detainee Ali Faisal al Lami here.
It's true that many of the disqualified politicians were once Baathists. But Iraq needs reconciliation, not payback. Any bans must be careful, selective and well-explained. They should not disqualify people like the defense minister — a former Baathist, but one who turned against the party in the 1990s and was imprisoned and tortured by the regime. Moreover, in recent years he has served the new Iraqi government loyally.
Before the surge of American troops in 2007 and the so-called Anbar Awakening, many Iraqi Sunnis boycotted Iraq's elections in the belief that the system was rigged against them. This created a self-fulfilling prophecy when the elections took place without them and the resulting government was dominated by Shiite and Kurdish groups. This vicious cycle helped fuel civil war.
Civil war is a very real prospect for Iraq. Unfortunately, USF-I insists on pointing out how violence today is far lower than its peak in 2007; a fact continually becoming irrelevant in the wake of this political crisis. I am by no means suggesting that the sky is falling, but rather noting the fact that it is sliding in that direction yet again.
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