RSSZarqawi Death Suggests the U.S. Has Brought the Baathists in From the Cold
Late last year, after Musab al-Zarqawi’s group bombed hotels in Jordan, I wrote that the move would widen the rift between Zarqawi and the nationalist-Baathist leadership of the Iraq insurgency. It was already clear back then that the U.S. was negotiating with the latter element, and that these guys would have happily killed Zarqawi themselves as part of any long-term compact.
The Baathists are unlikely to stand by and watch their own interests imperiled by those who would seek to make Iraq a new headquarters for terror attacks across the Middle East. Their objective, after all, is to restore some version of a regime detested by al Qaeda.
And with everyone from Ayman Zawahiri to the Baathists alarmed by his appetite for snuff videos that repulsed even most insurgent sympathizers, and also his strategy of wanton murder of Shiites, he was being increasingly sidelined in the insurgent leadership.
The fact that the U.S. managed to find and kill Zarqawi the day after the new Iraqi government released 2,500 insurgent-sympathizers from prison (they were greeted and given money by leaders of the main Sunni party in parliament), announced a reintegration of Baathists into political society, and appointed a Sunni former Baathist general as defense minister seems to suggest that some sort of deal has been done. Obviously, the elimination of Zarqawi is not going to end the insurgency or stop a civil war. But it may be a sign that the U.S. and its allies in Iraq have reached a new understanding that rehabilitates the Baathists, which would likely split the insurgency and isolate the Qaeda element. Now, the question is whether the U.S. can hold the most powerful Shiite parties on board after tilting its policy back towards the Baathists. Much may depend on the state of play between Washington and Tehran. And on that front, so far so good. (More on this soon.)
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5 Responses to “Zarqawi Death Suggests the U.S. Has Brought the Baathists in From the Cold”
Zarqawi was too much of a psychopath, it seems. He’d begun to attacks Sunnis in Fallujah and probably crossed the red line.
Re. a US -Baathist rapprochement, it’s been my sense that unambiguous US support of the Shias has been the only brakes on a full-fledged civil war. Iran is watching, and if they don’t like what they see, US effort at sectarian triangulation might be too clever by half.
No doubt this is tied to the US doing a 180 on talking to the Iranians and possibly allowing enrichment.
Smacks of desperation, doesn’t it?
Well, yes, desperation in the sense that they don’t have any other option on Iran — I think the reason they’re talking is that they’ve finally digested the fact that regime-change is a bridge too far, and unless they achieve a framework for stabilizing relations with the regime in Tehran, the Bush administration could find itself presiding over a defeat in the Middle East that would reverse much of the post-WW II U.S. hegemony in the region
There was an article in last month’s Le Monde, which suggested an Iraqification of Tanzim al-Qaida had been taking place recently, with its local leadership now being Iraqis:
“This new generation is a mixture of fervent young Iraqis and opportunistic vagrants. They are generally far less predictable and more violent than their predecessors. The US obsession with al-Qaida in Iraq has only made the organisation more dangerous, by accelerating its Iraqification and allowing it to put down deep local roots. Tanzim al-Qaida has shown that it can successfully adapt by finding local replacements for apparently heavy losses in a short time.”
The whole article is worth reading:
http://mondediplo.com/2006/05/02irak
Thanks Markus, I’ll take a look
I hate spammers! (
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