It was an impressive double whammy for Iraq’s new prime minister: first announcing the death of the country’s most notorious terrorist, then getting approval for his government’s final, key posts. With that rapid fire of good news on Thursday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki grabbed strong control of his country —
and the United States seemed overjoyed he did.
”The success we are looking for — a stable Iraq — requires more effort … But we can say that we had a good start,” the prime minister told his people at a TV news conference to announce al-Zarqawi’s killing.
Flanked by the country’s top US general and ambassador, he pledged: ”Whenever there is a new Zarqawi, we will kill him, [too].”
For an Iraqi public that — above all else — craves security, that pledge alone could create a huge pool of good will and support for al-Maliki. That is what he needs, almost everyone agrees, to take on Iraq’s other, still-looming problems.
The fact that US officials — whose military actually killed al-Zarqawi — allowed al-Maliki to announce his death made clear that US officials realise they have just as much to gain from al-Maliki’s success as he does.
US officials have said repeatedly that they can’t begin to draw down US troops in Iraq until the country has a strong government and security forces that can control the violence. And, al-Maliki can’t create those strong security forces until he gains his people’s trust enough to support him when he does unpopular things like close down militias.
To a large extent, much of that progress had been held up, and Iraq’s fledgling government had appeared paralysed in the eyes of its people, because of the relentless violence.
It’s too soon to how much that violence might fall — if at all — because of al-Zarqawi’s death alone. His group pledged to press on with its ”holy war,” and two bombs that struck a market and a police patrol in Baghdad, just hours after the announcement, killed at least 19.
But the news of al-Zarqawi’s death seemed certain at least to provide a burst of momentum and optimism — and thus support for al-Maliki. As some of the first good news from Iraq in months, it could hardly fail to do at least that.
Al-Maliki, in fact, got a burst of spontaneous applause as he announced the death. He in turn went out of his way to credit assistance from Iraqi citizens — as if to make clear to his people that if they inform on the insurgents, they can have some effect.
The US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, could not resist flashing a thumbs up sign. He called the death ”a good omen for Iraq, Prime Minister al-Maliki and the overall effort in the war on terror”.
The prime minister’s naming of candidates to the remaining unfilled Cabinet posts just a short time later — while less dramatic — was no less a good omen.
Parliament promptly approved the names — a far cry from its earlier reluctance to even meet to consider al-Maliki’s proposals to run the army and national police. That stalemate had dragged on for weeks because of a Shi’ite-Sunni-Kurdish inability to agree on who was acceptable.
With those posts now filled, al-Maliki can presumably turn to the still-overwhelming tasks ahead — including reining in militias, and getting his Iraqi forces trained and cohesive enough to slowly take over from the US military.
No one thinks it will be easy.
Al-Maliki will need help from both his fellow Iraqis and other Arabs, all working to ”take advantage of the gap left behind by al-Zarqawi to gain back his followers,” said one political analyst, Mohammed El-Sayed of the al-Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies in Cairo.
Thursday’s events just made clear he’s bound and determined to jump in and try.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday that he had ”no illusions” that al-Zarqawi’s death would alone lead to stability in Iraq but welcomed it as a blow to al-Qaeda everywhere.
Blair, speaking at his monthly press conference in London, said al-Zarqawi’s death undercut efforts by the Islamist network to sabotage international efforts to build democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
”The death of al-Zarqawi is a strike against al-Qaeda in Iraq and therefore a strike against al-Qaeda everywhere,” Blair said.
”We should have no illusions. We know they will continue to kill, we know there are many, many obstacles to overcome,” Blair said.
”But they also know that our determination to defeat them is total,” he said.
His death was significant because al-Zarqawi was more than a figurehead, Blair said. ”I don’t think there is any doubt that he was a hands-on leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.”
Blair portrayed Iraq as part of the broader war against terrorism, which began with the US-led war against al-Qaeda and its Taliban host government in Afghanistan following the September 11 2001 attacks.
Critics, however, have accused London and Washington of fueling Islamist extremists with the launch of the war in Iraq in March 2003, one that has cost Blair and US President George Bush heavily in public support.
”In Iraq and Afghanistan, al-Qaeda has taken a stand,” said Blair.
”They know that if progress and democracy take root in those two previously failed and terrorised states, then their values of violence and hatred against those who disagree with them will in turn be uprooted,” Blair said.
”That’s why they fight and why they will continue to fight very hard,” he said.
”But it is also why we should fight back and do so as a unified international community, putting behind us the divisions of the past and united under the United Nations mandates in both Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said.
The US-led invasion triggered opposition throughout the world, including in Europe.
”For three years, al-Qaeda have sought to murder innocent people, promote sectarian killing and wreck the democratic process in Iraq,” he said.
”This terrorism is a global movement. Their attack in Iraq has only ever been part of a wider attack that they have carried into conflicts and countries the world over.
”Indeed, there is barely a major nation in the world that has not felt the outreach of their evil.
”Defeat them in Iraq and we will defeat them everywhere,” Blair said.
”We need to do so armed, of course, with weapons, but also with one simple idea — that where people want to live in freedom and be governed by democracy, they should be able to do so and the world should stand united behind them.”
”In Iraq today, that idea has shown its worth.” – AFP
