Brahimi quits

Fuck it, I'm out of here

Brahimi quits post as UN envoy in Iraq
By Shlomo Shamir

NEW YORK - Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations special envoy to Iraq, announced his resignation from the post at a meeting yesterday of the Security Council and in the presence of Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The resignation, brewing for a number of days, shocked the diplomatic community at the world body.

Brahimi explained that his decision stemmed from great difficulties and frustration experienced during his assignment in Iraq. He said that he does not intend to return to Iraq.

Well, that ends another Bush plan. I guess he didn't like the way the interim government was chosen over his head.

This is, of course, a disaster. Only Ha'aretz is reporting this now, but if confirmed, US policy in Iraq will have taken another bodyblow. Brahimi may have been mistrusted by some, but he was neutral. It means a gap in having the UN work with Iraqis. The UN pased what is an increasingly meaningless resolution, which will never garner either money or troops. Especially after Chirac, possibly the most pro-American French President since Clememceau, and Schroder, told Bush point blank last week that NATO wasn't coming to save his ass. They said it bluntly: we could never pass a resolution to send troops.

Of course, a leading Sadrist cleric said the following:

Sadr City: A Sadrist spokesman said late Friday that one Mahdi Army militiaman was killed and several others were wounded in clashes with American forces in Sadr City, Baghdad. Reuters television footage showed Muqtada's fighters firing machine guns and tossing hand grenades at American troops, who replied by calling in attack helicopters to open fire on insurgent positions in the Shiite slum. All this happened early morning on Friday. A Sadrist clergyman, Shaikh Nasir al-Sa'idi, preaching at the al-Hikmah mosque, warned nations considering joining the multinational force in Iraq that they will be treated the same way the present occupiers are treated. "We will not permit any state to send its troops to Iraq, and we will deal with any state that supports the occupation as an occupier." He attacked the caretaker Iraqi government for asking that Coalition troops stay in the country, saying that even some European countries had called for their withdrawal. .

And to make thing better, a Sunni cleric said this:

' And in one of Baghdad's largest mosques, a Sunni Muslim cleric implored veterans of Saddam Hussein's military to join the insurgency against the United States.
"Where are the military? They have indisputable experience and their silence means they keep their knowledge to themselves," Sheikh Ahmed Hassan al-Taha al-Samarai told worshippers at Abu Hanifa mosque in the capital's Sunni stronghold of Adhamiyah.
"The absence of combat experts from the battlefield is treason, in all senses of the word. It's treason against God, the prophet and the nation the experts belong to," he said. '

This is not the kind of political environment which encourages cooperation. The Sunnis are openly demanding the largely Shia Army join them in rebellion and Sadr is saying, UN, NATO, Coalition, if you come here, we will kill you.

Juan Cole has a lot on this week's Sadrist manuvering, and there was a lot. done. In this environment, the UN had little room to move. and the US's changing political goals made this all the much harder. No wonder he threw up his hands and quit. Between Chalabi's constant attacks and White House (read Dick Cheney) interrference, it was time to walk away. The random car bomb doesn't help matter either.

posted by Steve @ 6:47:00 AM