Sunni Bloc To Rejoin Government
MichaelW on Apr 24 2008 at 2:59 pm | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Media, MichaelW's Page, Notes on the war
This is a positive development:
Iraq’s largest Sunni bloc has agreed to return to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s cabinet after a nine-month boycott, several Sunni leaders said on Thursday, citing a recently passed amnesty law and the Maliki government’s crackdown on Shiite militias as reasons for the move.
The Sunni leaders said they were still working out the details of their return, an indication that the deal could still fall through.
[...]
“Our conditions were very clear, and the government achieved some of them,” said Adnan al-Duleimi, the head of Tawafiq, the largest Sunni bloc in the government. Mr. Duleimi said the achievements included “the general amnesty, chasing down the militias and disbanding them and curbing the outlaws.”
The recently passed amnesty law has already led to the release of many Sunni prisoners, encouraging Sunni parties that the government is serious about enforcing it. And the attacks on Shiite militias have apparently begun to assuage longstanding complaints that only Sunni groups blamed for the insurgency have been the targets of American and Iraqi security forces.
Exactly which ministries will be given to which Sunni politicians is still under negotiation, said Ayad Samarrai, the deputy general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest party within Tawafiq. Among those under consideration are the Ministries of Culture, Planning, Higher Education and Women’s Affairs and the State Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Samarrai said.
What the greater affects of the Sunnis rejoining will be remain to be seen, and I wouldn’t be surprised if future events precipitate another walkout. But I think it’s hard to deny that Maliki’s offensive in Basra is paying the political dividends he had hoped for.
On another note, the NYT piece is prefaced with an incongruous image of what is claimed to be the remnants of a car bomb blast:
Caption: The site of a car bombing where one civilian was killed while six others were wounded on Thursday in Baghdad. // Photo by:Mohammed Ameen/Reuters
Does that look like the results of a car bomb? None of the buildings near the wreckage look like they’ve sustained blast damage. There’s no cratering in the ground, and there’s no shrapnel from the blast strewn around. And, of course, there’s the obligatory wailing woman in the foreground. Is this another fauxtography case? Even if it’s not, and the photo is exactly what it claims to be, what does it have to do with a story about Sunnis ending their boycott of the Iraqi government?
UPDATE: Keith provides another view of the car bomb wreckage in the comments. It appears to be a legitimate bomb scene, just with the staged wailing woman for affect. I guess the bomb wasn’t terribly big so there isn’t any noticeable damage to the surrounding scene. Either way, it does not appear to be a case of fauxtography, although it is a strange photo to accompany a news story about political reconciliation.
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Aside from it looking like the burned out remnants of a car, it might be. But is a surging wave of bombings and attacks in Baghdad not significant context to the Sunnis rejoining the government? I could be mistaken, but I don’t recall James Glanz (the Baghdad Bureau chief, if I recall, as well as a PhD Astrophysicist) grinding any particular axes in his coverage.
Yeah, I really can’t tell. It might just be that someone moved the remnants of the bombed car out of the way, and so there wouldn’t be any of the signs of the blast nearby. But what’s with the ubiquitous wailing woman?
I don’t why it would be, since the story mentioned nothing about a surge of bombings. It basically just talked about the Sunni bloc, the conditions given to Maliki and the offensive in Basra.
Well I really doubt that Glanz had anything to do with the photo one way or the other. But his coverage of the Basra offensive hasn’t been very straight … he’s of the opinion that Maliki lost that campaign.
Wailing woman is even pushing it.
But let’s look at one report of yesterdays violence.
So 4 civilians were killed by bombs. One suspected terrorist was killed. And two US soldiers were killed in an accident.
And the headline is IRAQ VIOLENCE CLAIMS AT LEAST 7 LIVES
Not exactly accurate.
Here’s another view of the same scene…
So, while I think it’s odd that they would choose this scene to accompany the article, it’s of an actual event. Well, it wouldn’t be odd behavior for the New York Times. Would they pair an article on say new councilmen being sworn in with a massively fatal traffic accident?
Thanks, Keith. I’ll update the post.
Hold up. Seven people confirmed killed terrorism, and the headline says “at least seven killed,” but that’s not accurate?
I’m missing something. And the jury is still out on Maliki. We have yet to see if walling off Sadr City and cutting off its inhabitants from basic services will pay good dividends or not.
Oh, and the woman crying at the bombing was just “for effect?” How calloused are you? You have no idea what her story is, or if she knew anyone killed in the explosion, or if she was just traumatized by it.
Maybe it was for real, but then again it wouldn’t be the first time there was a staged event involving a tearful Iraqi matron:
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/08/15/credulous-photojournalism-of-the-day/