[Marxism] Top Iraqi candidates expected not to push withdrawal

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The slates seem to be adjusting their campaigns to coincide basically
with the US stance of "Iraq-izing" the war, not withdrawal.
Fred Feldman



Posted on Tue, Jan. 25, 2005



Top Iraqi candidates won't press for withdrawal of U.S. troops

By Hannah Allam
Knight Ridder Newspapers


BAGHDAD, Iraq - Politicians from the two leading tickets in Sunday's
Iraqi elections backed away Tuesday from earlier campaign promises to
set a deadline for the withdrawal of American forces.


The decision not to set a deadline underscores concerns that Iraqi
troops are nowhere near ready to police their violence-wracked country
and removes one possible point of friction between the new government
and the Bush administration.


Militants continued their campaign to derail the elections, releasing a
video of an American hostage and gunning down a senior Iraqi judge in
Baghdad.


The U.S. military also announced the deaths of five 1st Infantry
Division soldiers near the city of Tikrit, north of Baghdad and said two
others were injured in the incident. The military was investigating, but
the incident appeared to have been a traffic accident.


Both interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who heads a secular
slate, and his chief rival, the Shiite Muslim-based United Iraqi
Alliance, are calling for a gradual transfer of responsibilities from
U.S. troops to Iraqis. The switch coincides with a U.S. military report
that some 120,000 American troops would remain in Iraq through 2006.


"I will not set final dates (for troop withdrawal) because dates now
would be both reckless and dangerous," Allawi told journalists at the
heavily protected Baghdad Convention Center.


The change is especially significant for the United Iraqi Alliance,
favored by many to dominate the balloting. Until this week, its campaign
materials listed its No. 2 promise as "setting a timetable for the
withdrawal of multinational forces from Iraq."


But the alliance rewrote its campaign materials this week, revising its
platform. The second item now reads: "The Iraq we want is capable of
protecting its borders and security without depending on foreign
forces."


The alliance, led by a prominent Shiite cleric and tacitly endorsed by
the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's highest-ranking cleric, is
expected to garner millions of votes.




With only five days remaining before Iraqi voters choose a national
assembly, the decision by leading candidates to forsake any plan to
press the United States troops to leave means the next government will
face the same conundrum that plagues current leaders: Iraqi troops can't
fight a sophisticated insurgency without the help of U.S. forces, but
the United States' presence only fuels the insurgency.




Iraqi transitional laws authorize U.S. forces to remain in Iraq until
full democratic elections at the end of this year. Though a clause
states that an earlier withdrawal could occur at the request of the
Iraqi government, that scenario is improbable, given the widespread
instability of the country.


Sheik Homam Hamoodi of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in
Iraq, the Iran-backed driving force of the United Iraqi Alliance, said
the change came with the realization that Iraqi troops weren't ready to
take charge - and probably wouldn't be for years to come.


"The item on the first platform called for a set time for U.S. forces to
leave Iraq, without taking into consideration the urgent circumstances,"
Hamoodi said. "The addition calls for an environment when Iraqis will be
able to protect themselves and, when we reach that point, there will be
no reason for U.S. forces to stay in Iraq."




Amer Hassan Fayadh, a political science professor at Baghdad University,
said the changes probably came about as a result of American pressure on
candidates and increasingly sophisticated insurgent attacks that
revealed how unprepared Iraqi security forces are to respond.


"The promise of putting U.S. troops on a timetable is not out of
sincerity, it's only for campaigning. These major lists know their
existence is linked to the presence of the troops," Fayadh said.
"Whenever the security situation gets worse, the issue of troops
departing becomes less of a priority in their platforms."




The release of a video of the American, Roy Hallums, was the first sign
of the 56-year-old since he was seized Nov. 1 from a compound in
Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood. He worked there for a Saudi company that
provides meal service to the Iraqi army. Five colleagues were taken with
him.


The bearded Hallums is shown with a rifle pointed at his head. He
pleaded for help from Arab leaders, saying, "I'm not asking for any help
from President Bush because I know of his selfishness and unconcern for
those who've been pushed into this hellhole."


Hallums' captors made no demands on the tape.


The Iraqi judge, Qais Hashim Shameri, was gunned down along with his son
during morning rush hour, police said. The militant group Ansar al
Sunnah claimed responsibility for the assassination in an Internet
posting.










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C 2005 KR Washington Bureau and wire service sources. All Rights
Reserved.
http://www.realcities.com


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