[Interesting hopeful glimmer of sense]
Sunday, November 9, 2003; Page A01
Washington Post Staff Writers
Alternatives to Iraqi Council Eyed
Inaction of Hand-Picked Baghdad Officials Frustrates Washington
By Robin Wright and Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Increasingly alarmed by the failure of Iraq's Governing Council to
take decisive action, the Bush administration is developing possible
alternatives to the council to ensure that the United States can turn
over political power at the same time and pace that troops are
withdrawn, according to senior U.S. officials here and in Baghdad.
The United States is deeply frustrated with its hand-picked council
members because they have spent more time on their own political or
economic interests than in planning for Iraq's political future,
especially selecting a committee to write a new constitution, the
officials added. "We're unhappy with all of them. They're not acting
as a legislative or governing body, and we need to get moving," said a
well-placed U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"They just don't make decisions when they need to."
Ambassador Robert Blackwill, the new National Security Council
official overseeing Iraq's political transition, begins an unannounced
trip this weekend to Iraq to meet with Iraqi politicians to drive home
that point. He is also discussing U.S. options with L. Paul Bremer,
civilian administrator of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional
Authority, U.S. officials said.
The United States is even considering a French proposal, earlier
rejected, to create an interim Iraqi leadership that would emulate the
Afghanistan model, according to U.S. and French officials. During the
debate before the new United Nations resolution on postwar Iraq was
passed Oct. 17, France and other Security Council members had proposed
holding a national conference -- like the Afghan loya jirga -- to
select a provisional government that would have the rights of
sovereignty.
Among several options, the administration is also considering changing
the order of the transition if it looks as though it could drag on
much longer than the United States had planned. The United States has
long insisted that a new constitution was the essential first step and
elections the final phase in handing over power.
But now U.S. officials are exploring the possibility, again backed by
other Security Council members, of creating a provisional government
with effective sovereignty to govern until a new constitution is
written and elections held. This is again similar to Afghanistan,
where President Hamid Karzai has governed while a new national charter
is written. Elections are scheduled there next June, two years after
the fall of the Taliban.
"If our exit is going to take longer, if it looks like it could go
more than two years to get it all done, then there's an incentive to
look into a transitional phase and some other governing mechanism," a
State Department official said.
The move comes after repeated warnings to the Iraqi body. Two weeks
ago, Bremer met with the council and bluntly told members that they
"can't go on like this," a senior U.S. official in Baghdad said.
Bremer noted that at least half the council is out of the country at
any given time and that at some meetings, only four or five members
showed up.
Since the council appointed 25 cabinet ministers in late August, the
body has done "nothing of substance," the U.S. official in Baghdad
added. The council has been seriously remiss in oversight of its own
ministers, holding public hearings, setting policy for cabinet
departments and even communicating with cabinet members, he said.
The United States, which financially and politically backed several of
the council members when they were in exile, has also been
disillusioned by the council's inability to communicate with the Iraqi
public or gain greater legitimacy. The senior official in Baghdad
called the council "inept" at outreach to its own people.
As a result, the council has less credibility today than it did when
it was appointed, which has further undermined Iraq's stability, U.S.
officials here and in Baghdad said.
The administration is not yet at the point of abandoning the council.
"Ambassador Bremer is working with the Governing Council. Our priority
focus now in working with the council is to formulate a plan to meet
the December 15 deadline outlined in U.N. Resolution 1511, which calls
for the council to formulate a timetable and program for the drafting
of a new constitution and for the holding of democratic elections
under that constitution," a White House official said yesterday.
U.S. officials are still hoping that they can "stay the course, only
faster," the well-placed U.S. official said. If the council exercised
its responsibilities, Bremer would even be prepared to hand over
greater authority "by the truckload," the senior official in Baghdad
added.
But with time rapidly slipping away, the administration is preparing
options in the event that the Iraqi body does not come up with a
constitutional convention or meet the Dec. 15 deadline. The CPA
"hasn't totally given up yet on the Governing Council. There's no
sword yet over their heads," an administration official said. "But
we're certainly looking for change next year and if they can't do it,
then we have to be realistic."
Ironically, Iraqi council members counter that they should be given
the powers of a provisional government -- with rights of sovereignty
-- because they have no real powers to act as long as the CPA occupies
and rules Iraq.
In an interview, a council member also charged that the United States
has an "unrealistic idea" that difficult issues can be sorted out in a
day or two. "It's not possible," the Iraqi added. A senior Iraqi
National Congress official added that just because the principals are
not at meetings does not mean they are not working.
Adel Abdel-Mehdi, a council member with the Supreme Council for the
Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said the Iraqi mission should not be
rushed. "Figuring out how to write the constitution is the most
important thing we will do. We have to make sure we take the time to
do this right," he said. Council members, he added, were busy talking
to Iraqis about the issue informally.
Coming out of decades of either a dictatorship or a monarchy, Iraqis
also need time to learn how to use and share power.
"The council is trying its best. You have to remember we are 24
personalities," said Mowaffak Rubaie, a moderate Shiite Muslim
physician who returned from exile in Britain. "We have never worked
together. There is no precedent for what we are doing."
Chandrasekaran reported from Baghdad.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company