EARL NASH,WTFG
"democracy" Correspondent
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The Obama administration is sending a
clear signal that it wants the secular
Iraqiya coalition headed by Iyad Allawi, a
former CIA asset and one-time US-installed prime minister, to become
the new Prime Minister.
Under conditions in which a US war with
Iran is being openly discussed, Washington does not want the next government in
Baghdad to once again be dominated by
Iraqi Shiite parties that have longstanding relations with the Iranian regime.
Allawi, by contrast, is thoroughly
steeped in the hostility of the region’s
pro-US Arab ruling elites to Iranian influence in the Middle East.
From the standpoint of the US, the next
Iraqi government has three primary responsibilities apart from aligning with
Washington against Iran.
* It will have to sign a new agreement with the United States by the end of
2011—the date the current Status of Forces Agreement expires—to allow the US military indefinite use of air
bases that have been constructed at places like Balad, Al Asad and Tallil.
* It must implement laws that sanction
the privatization of Iraq’s oil industry and give foreign corporations greater
access and control over the country’s vast untapped reserves of oil and natural
gas. The current legislation is widely regarded by the energy
transnationals as inadequate as it does not allow for the production-sharing
agreement model that delivers them the greater profits.
* As the bulk of American troops withdraw over the next 18 months, the Iraqi
government will be required to suppress
the ongoing opposition among the Iraqi working class and rural poor to
poverty, lack of services, the plunder of the country’s resources and an
ongoing US military presence.
At the same time, the puppet government in Baghdad will have to try and hold the country together. In
the north, the Kurdish elite is growing increasingly bitter over its inability
to get control of Kirkuk and the northern oil fields, which was its main motive
for supporting the US invasion in 2003. Sections of the Shiite establishment
linked with the religious parties are deeply hostile to any substantial Sunni
influence over the government. If the Sunni elites are sidelined again,
however, they could resume their sponsorship of widespread armed resistance.
