by anna missed
(lifted from a comment)
This report by Con Coughlin, "the Judy Miller of the UK", might be a harbinger of what is in store for the entire OIF:
A natural conclusion to be drawn from this latest flare-up in the
delicate balance of relations between the British military and the
local population it is seeking to protect is that Britain’s continued
presence in Iraq is no longer tenable, and that its forces should be
withdrawn forthwith.
Certainly that is how the voluble anti-war brigade is seeking to
portray the predicament of the British garrison in Basra, which now
finds itself virtually confined to barracks, fearful that its presence
on the streets will provoke further violent assaults.
And whats going on in the north has got to be more volitile. The
jist of which I think is that during the 3 years of "Gravity’s
Rainbow", no apparent government period, is that the political reality
has become so decentralized that it has become opaque to the occupation
authority.
Throughout the various incarnations and attempts to stand up
a central government — beholden to U.S. interests — have failed to
inspire any confidence beyond the green zone. And so have subsequently
been replaced by a governance of street culture, tribe, clan, gang, and
militia. The communication, structure, and alliances between these
factions have evolved at a pace that is beyond all attempts by the
occupation to generate intellegence on it, so they are left with an
ever diminishing circumstance of control or no control.
This has resulted in a situation where the so called puppet government has been
given increasing latitude (power) in the hopes that it can formulate a
counter-force or re-centralization of power back into a population that
has grown increasingly sceptical of its alliances to the occupation
force or its ability to counter the slide into sectarian stife.
The Iraqi government then is put into the position of serving two masters,
its occupation hosts, and an increasingly hostile population well on
its way to defacto self governance.
And because the occupation forces
have restricted the use of the army and security forces it has trained
to be loyal to them, this has forced the Iraqi government to rely
exclusively upon its connection to the main religious militias for the
enforcement of their will — and this is what the occupation is now
demanding to be dissolved, or at least incorporated into the army.
This of course leaves the government toothless, or as a tooth fairy,
restricted to dolling out economic favors as a form of governance.
Which has had another effect as evidenced by the rise of Muqtada Sadr
— the only politician on the ground in Iraq. The only politician both
working the street and the ministries to any effect — who incidently,
also pays more and offers better benifits than the Iraqi army to its
militia members. And who also happens to be the most openly
anti-occupation force, outside the insurgency. I hear today he openly
and publically credited his militia with shooting down the British
helicopter — and is aimig to increase his ministry portfolio from 2 to
5.
It’s just a matter of time, and not alot of it, before there’s
nothing left for the occupation.