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Julie Flint, "Iraqi
Exiles Oppose US Plans" Institute for War and Peace
Reporting March 12, 2003
Non-aligned Iraqi exiles opposed to
American plans to occupy their country are stepping up their efforts to
gather support for a UN-supervised interim administration that would pave
the way for a new, Iraqi democracy free of American control.
Ferry Biedermann Iraq's
X factor: The tribes SALON March 26
More than
three-quarters of Iraqis belong to tribes. Some of them have been paid off
or threatened into backing Saddam -- but their real allegiance is to
themselves.
Iraq
Research and Documentation Project
The Iraq Research and
Documentation Project (IRDP) website is a collection of resources documenting
the government, politics, and society of modern Iraq. This online collection
is made available to the public to provide a window into the inner workings of
the repressive state system evolved under the aegis of the Iraqi Ba'th
Socialist Party in Iraq since 1968.
Preston
Mendenhall Stark
warning for U.S. military MSNBC Feb 25, 2003
Key
Iraqi opposition leader says long-term presence would be unwelcome
George Packer, "Dreaming
of Democracy," New York Times March 2, 2003
Kanan Makiya, "Our
hopes betrayed" Observer February 16, 2003
How a US blueprint for post-Saddam government quashed the hopes of
democratic Iraqis.
Faleh
A. Jabar , "Too
soon to stop thinking: the view from Iraq" Open Democracy
Saddam
Hussein has used the complex social and political landscape of Iraq to
create a system of rule highly resistant to peaceful change. An
intelligent strategy for a better Iraq requires not a military crusade,
but long-term thinking and creative solutions – from the offer of
exile to Saddam and his clan to reviving the real economy through a
mini-Marshall Plan.
Yasser
Alaskary, "The
Iraqi dictatorship: a unique case needs an exceptional solution"
Open
Democracy
A
young Iraqi dissident argues that the incomparable nature of his
people’s burden makes the forced removal of Saddam Hussein the only
ethical solution. ‘Regime change’ from outside, wrong in
principle, is in this case justified and necessary.
The
Internally Displaced People of Iraq
The Brookings Institution-SAIS Project on Internal Displacement,
October 2002 [PDF
for complete report]
In
Iraq, the expulsion of people from their homes has long been state
policy. Expulsions have been undertaken to punish and subdue
recalcitrant populations. To this end, genocidal acts have taken place
against the Kurds in the 1980s and against the Marsh Arabs in the 1990s.
On other occasions, expulsions have been part of a strategy to secure
valuable economic resources, as with the on-going 'Arabization' campaign
against the Turkmen, Kurds, and Assyrians. Expulsions have also been
used to undermine the growth of political opposition as with the Shi'a*
in the south, or to forestall a fifth column as with the taba'iyya,
those thought to be sympathetic to Iran, at the beginning of the war in
1980. In Iraq, over the last thirty years, there has never been a time
when one group or another was not being expelled from their homes.
International Crisis Group, "Radical
Islam In Iraqi Kurdistan: The Mouse That Roared"
Ansar al-Islam is a small group of radical
Islamist fighters in north eastern Iraq that has become a fresh target in
the war on terrorism and a focus of recent international
interest...officials from Ansar's rivals, the PUK, who stand most to gain,
deny that there is collusion between Ansar and Baghdad. Profound
ideological differences and a history of atrocities committed by the
regime against the Kurds make a strong connection between Saddam Hussein
and Ansar al-Islam extremely unlikely.
Jason Zengerle , "Can
the Iraqi Exiles Remake Iraq?" The New Republic
Ghassan Aityyah, "Iraqis
Plan a Post-Saddam Future," Open Democracy, Dec. 5, 2002
Iraqi exiles
in London, of all backgrounds and opinions, are coming together in a major
conference to chart a political way forward for their homeland. It is the
latest in a long series of such efforts. Can this one work?
Craig S. Smith, "Hussein
Foes Meet in London, but Rivalries Fracture Unity," New York
Times,
Dec. 13,2002
Judith Miller and Lowell Bergman, "Iraq
Opposition Is Pursuing Ties With Iranians," New York Times
Dec. 13, 2002
In advance of the expected war
against Iraq, the American-backed Iraqi opposition is solidifying ties to
Iran, part of what President Bush has called the "axis of evil,"
and opposing the possibility of an American-installed government in a
postwar Iraq.
Yahia Said, "A
question of trust: Iraqis, the US, and regime change" Open
Democracy Dec. 12, 2002
Many
Iraqis are skeptical about US plans for their country. The recent history
of actual or attempted regime change in Iraq explains why.
International
Crisis Group, "Voices
From The Iraqi Street" Full
Report (PDF) Dec. 2002
Robert Dreyfuss, "Tinker,
Banker, NeoCon, Spy" American Prospect November 18, 2002
Ahmed Chalabi's long and winding
road from (and to?) Baghdad
Conn Hallinan, "Favored
Post-Saddam Leaders Belie Bush's Democracy Rhetoric," Foreign
Policy in Focus November 26, 2002
David
Pratt,
"Unveiled: the thugs Bush wants in place of Saddam" Sunday
Herald Sept 25, 2002
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