The New York Times
FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2006
Ibrahim al-Jaafari's agreement Thursday to step aside and let his Shiite bloc consider a new nominee for prime minister should finally break the stalemate that has been paralyzing Iraqi politics since last December's parliamentary election.
The most likely replacement nominees now being talked about are far from ideal. But the only conceivable path to a better future than civil war and chaos in Iraq is lined with distasteful compromise and leaps of faith. No one believes that success is certain.
A new prime minister will at least have a chance to make a fresh start and begin undoing some of the costly mistakes Jaafari has made since taking office last April. These include, most prominently, his willingness to allow sectarian militias, death squads and torturers to infiltrate the security services and his failure to insist on professional management of the oil industry and other essential economic sectors. Iraq's hopes for democracy, and even its existence as a single nation, could probably not have survived a second Jaafari term.
That is why the Jaafari nomination was subjected for weeks to a diplomatic full court press by the United States and Britain. What finally seems to have persuaded Jaafari to yield was not so much foreign jawboning, but the unforgiving arithmetic of Iraq's new Parliament.
To its credit, the main Kurdish party supported Sunni Arabs in refusing to vote for Jaafari in Parliament, thereby denying him the two- thirds support he would effectively need there to form a fully functioning government. That eventually caused even key Shiite allies to withdraw their support. But his critics' victory is only partial. The price of Jaafari's withdrawal seems to have been an understanding that his replacement will come from his own lackluster Dawa party, which, besides being fundamentalist and pro-Iranian, has formed a bloc with the most violence- prone and anti-American Shiite faction, led by Moktada al-Sadr.
No nominee sponsored by this Dawa-Sadr axis seems likely to be very enthusiastic about keeping militias out of the security services or cronies out of the key ministries. It will be up to the Kurdish and Sunni Arab parties that hold the balance of power in Parliament to insist on such steps as a condition for confirming a new government.
That process now needs to move forward expeditiously. Iraqi voters who were forced to wait so long for democracy deserve to see its fruits. Much of last year was wasted under Jaafari's inept rule. The first four months of this year have been consumed in endless maneuvering over his bid for a second term. Meanwhile, sectarian tensions have risen, militias have entrenched their power, and public morale has plummeted.
A new start is desperately needed
Ibrahim al-Jaafari's agreement Thursday to step aside and let his Shiite bloc consider a new nominee for prime minister should finally break the stalemate that has been paralyzing Iraqi politics since last December's parliamentary election.
The most likely replacement nominees now being talked about are far from ideal. But the only conceivable path to a better future than civil war and chaos in Iraq is lined with distasteful compromise and leaps of faith. No one believes that success is certain.
A new prime minister will at least have a chance to make a fresh start and begin undoing some of the costly mistakes Jaafari has made since taking office last April. These include, most prominently, his willingness to allow sectarian militias, death squads and torturers to infiltrate the security services and his failure to insist on professional management of the oil industry and other essential economic sectors. Iraq's hopes for democracy, and even its existence as a single nation, could probably not have survived a second Jaafari term.
That is why the Jaafari nomination was subjected for weeks to a diplomatic full court press by the United States and Britain. What finally seems to have persuaded Jaafari to yield was not so much foreign jawboning, but the unforgiving arithmetic of Iraq's new Parliament.
To its credit, the main Kurdish party supported Sunni Arabs in refusing to vote for Jaafari in Parliament, thereby denying him the two- thirds support he would effectively need there to form a fully functioning government. That eventually caused even key Shiite allies to withdraw their support. But his critics' victory is only partial. The price of Jaafari's withdrawal seems to have been an understanding that his replacement will come from his own lackluster Dawa party, which, besides being fundamentalist and pro-Iranian, has formed a bloc with the most violence- prone and anti-American Shiite faction, led by Moktada al-Sadr.
No nominee sponsored by this Dawa-Sadr axis seems likely to be very enthusiastic about keeping militias out of the security services or cronies out of the key ministries. It will be up to the Kurdish and Sunni Arab parties that hold the balance of power in Parliament to insist on such steps as a condition for confirming a new government.
That process now needs to move forward expeditiously. Iraqi voters who were forced to wait so long for democracy deserve to see its fruits. Much of last year was wasted under Jaafari's inept rule. The first four months of this year have been consumed in endless maneuvering over his bid for a second term. Meanwhile, sectarian tensions have risen, militias have entrenched their power, and public morale has plummeted.
A new start is desperately needed