[lbo-talk] WP: US considering junking IGC for provisional govt

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Sun Nov 9 06:37:35 PST 2003


[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withdrawn, according to senior U.S. officials here and in Baghdad.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



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