Thursday, July 3, 2014

Assad’s Iraqi mirror

Editorial
The Daily Star

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been adept at following the playbook of Syrian President Bashar Assad when it comes to dealing with popular unrest.[Is this because Iran is behind both?]
There are several components to this strategy, and Maliki long ago mastered step one, blaming everything on foreign conspirators and plots. When people in Iraq rose up against him last year, Maliki blamed it on external agitation. When Maliki’s army melted away this month in the face of ISIS militants and an array of local insurgents, he blamed it on traitors in the armed forces.
Maliki and his policies, obviously, are above blame.
Maliki embraced step two Wednesday, announcing domestic “policies” that turn out to be nothing other than empty rhetoric.
The embattled Iraqi prime minister offered an amnesty for those who have taken up arms against the government, in the latest reminder of the strategy being employed by the regime next door. A whole set of amnesties by Assad, it should be remembered, have done little to turn the tide in his country’s crisis, as reports of arbitrary, systematic arrests continue to be heard.
Step three, talk up the dangers posed by the ultraconservative ISIS, a group too extreme for Al-Qaeda’s central leadership. Again, there is no mention of the massive political and security failure in eastern Syria and western Iraq, on the part of both Assad and Maliki, who allowed this fanatical group to carve out areas of influence.
Instead of absorbing the message from Tuesday’s parliamentary session, which collapsed because other political leaders want to see meaningful change, Maliki merely closed his eyes and ears and went straight to the Syrian playbook.

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