[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 15820-15821]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1930
                SECTARIAN BREAK-UP OF IRAQ IS INEVITABLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Westmoreland). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow this House will be treated to a 
real interesting historical event. The Prime Minister of Iraq will be 
here. His article today in the Wall Street Journal says: ``Iraq is a 
sovereign nation.''
  He goes on to talk about one province of Iraq that has some stability 
and makes that appear that that is the Iraq that he is here to 
represent. If one reads the European newspapers, the Independent, and I 
will enter this into the Record, the Independent from Great Britain 
says, and the title of this article is, ``Sectarian break-up of Iraq is 
now inevitable admit officials.''
  They talk about the fact that Mr. Maliki yesterday met with Tony 
Blair in London, where he talked about the fact that things were going 
just fine. But the article goes on to say that senior Iraq officials 
are saying that the break-up of the country is inevitable.
  This is a quote from one: ``Iraq as a political project is finished. 
The parties have moved to plan B, that is that the Shiia, Sunni and 
Kurdish parties were now looking for ways to divide Iraq between them 
and decide the future of Baghdad where there is a mixed population. 
There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into the Shiia, east 
Baghdad, and the Sunni west Baghdad.''
  The foreign minister said in an interview with the Independent, 
before joining Mr. Maliki in London ``that in theory the government 
should be able to solve the crisis between Shiia, Sunni and Kurd,'' but 
then he painted a picture of a deeply divided administration where 
senior Sunni members praise the anti-government insurgents as the 
heroic resistance.
  So you have ministers inside the government praising the insurgency 
that is making this huge instability in the country. To show you how 
bad it really is, there is an average of 100 deaths of Iraqis every 
single day. This month there will be more killed than were killed in 
June.
  3,148 people died in sectarian violence. A civil war. Even the New 
York Times now calls it a civil war. And the Prime Minister is going to 
come here and try and tell us that everything is just fine.
  Now, that is a part of our domestic politics, it is to give the 
American people and the Members of Congress a feeling that things are 
just going swimmingly. But what the Iraqis are saying to reporters from 
the Independent is, the government is all in the green zone, like the 
previous one, the one that was in before. And ``they have left the 
streets to the terrorists.'' That is a quote from Mahmoud Othman, a 
veteran Iraq politician.
  He said, ``The situation would be worse but for the war in Lebanon, 
because it would intensify the struggle between Iran and the U.S. being 
waged in Iraq.'' The Iraqi crisis will now receive much less 
humanitarian attention because of what is going on over in Lebanon. It 
is taking the focus off. And we have Mr. Maliki coming in and standing 
behind me tomorrow, and he will say that things are going just fine.
  Now, clearly this is not true. And what is happening in Iraq is that 
the leadership is now deciding the south will be for the Shiia, the 
north will be for the Kurds, and the west will be for the Sunnis. It 
will be tied into Jordan. Jordan already has a million Sunnis living in 
it. People who have fled from Baghdad because they are not safe, 
bankers, university professors, doctors, the intelligentsia, anybody 
with any money in the Sunni community has left Baghdad because it is 
such a dangerous place.
  And the decision now is only how do they break it up, and what do 
they do about the oil revenue. This situation is an absolute mess. On 
top of it all, Mr. Maliki has taken the position that what is going on 
in Lebanon as caused by the Hezbollah is okay. He is encouraging it. He 
thinks it is a good thing.
  Now, this is a man that we hold up as our democratic leader. But the 
fact is that the country is in absolute chaos, and the Members of this 
House should understand that tomorrow when they listen to the speech 
that the American newspapers are not telling you what is going on in 
Iraq.

                 [From The Independent, July 24, 2006.]

     Sectarian Break-Up of Iraq Is Now Inevitable, Admit Officials

                         (By Patrick Cockburn)

       The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, meets Tony Blair 
     in London today as violence in Iraq reaches a new crescendo 
     and senior Iraqi officials say the break up of the country is 
     inevitable.
       A car bomb in a market in the Shia stronghold of Sadr City 
     in Baghdad yesterday killed 34 people and wounded a further 
     60 and was followed by a second bomb in the same area two 
     hours later that left a further eight dead. Another car bomb 
     outside a court house in Kirkuk killed a further 20 and 
     injured 70 people.
       ``Iraq as a political project is finished,'' a senior 
     government official was quoted as saying, adding: ``The 
     parties have moved to plan B.'' He said that the Shia, Sunni 
     and Kurdish parties were now looking at ways to divide Iraq 
     between them and to decide the future of Baghdad, where there 
     is a mixed population. ``There is serious talk of Baghdad 
     being divided into [Shia] east and [Sunni] west,'' he said.
       Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, told The 
     Independent in an interview, before joining Mr. Maliki to fly 
     to London and then Washington, that in theory the government 
     should be able to solve the crisis because Shia, Kurd and 
     Sunni were elected members of it.
       But he painted a picture of a deeply divided administration 
     in which senior Sunni members praised anti-government 
     insurgents as ``the heroic resistance''.
       In the past two weeks, at a time when Lebanon has dominated 
     the international news, the sectarian civil war in central 
     Iraq has taken a decisive turn for the worse. There have been 
     regular tit-for-tat massacres and the death toll for July is 
     likely to far exceed the 3,149 civilians killed in June.
       Mr. Maliki, who is said to be increasingly isolated, has 
     failed to prevent the violence. Other Iraqi leaders claim he 
     lacks experience in dealing with security, is personally very 
     isolated without a kitchen cabinet and is highly dependent on 
     30-40 Americans in unofficial advisory positions around him.
       ``The government is all in the Green Zone like the previous 
     one and they have left the streets to the terrorists,'' said 
     Mahmoud Othman, a veteran Iraqi politician. He said the 
     situation would be made worse by the war in Lebanon because 
     it would intensify the struggle between Iran and the U.S. 
     being staged in Iraq. The Iraqi crisis would now receive much 
     reduced international attention.
       The switch of American and British media attention to 
     Lebanon and away from the rapidly deteriorating situation in 
     Baghdad is much to the political benefit of Mr. Blair and Mr. 
     Bush.
       ``Maliki's trip to Washington is all part of the U.S. 
     domestic agenda to put a good face on things for November,'' 
     a European diplomat in Baghdad was quoted as saying.
       Ever since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein a succession of 
     Iraqi political leaders have been feted in London and 
     Washington where they claimed to have the insurgents

[[Page 15821]]

     on the run. Mr. Maliki's meetings with Mr. Blair today and 
     Mr. Bush tomorrow are likely to be lower key but will serve 
     the same purpose before the U.S. Congressional elections in 
     November. U.S. commanders are considering moving more of 
     their troops--there are some 55,000 near the capital into 
     Baghdad to halt sectarian violence.
       Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein has begun to receive fluids 
     voluntarily after being taken to hospital following 17 days 
     on a hunger strike to protest against biased court procedures 
     and the murder of three defence lawyers. Among fellow Sunni 
     his defiant court performances have rehabilitated his 
     reputation, though he is still detested by Kurds and Shia.

     

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