Iraq’s Interior Minister on why his country is impotent against the militants' murderous campaign

[Jefferson23]

With the jihadis able to bomb Baghdad and elsewhere with apparent impunity, Mohammed al-Ghabban tells Patrick Cockburn that it is a legacy of the country’s bloated bureaucracy and chronic corruption


A jihadist suicide bomber killed 73 people in Sadr City in Baghdad on Sunday; Iraq’s bloated security forces have proved unable to stop the bombers Reuters


Patrick Cockburn
Baghdad

38 minutes ago

When Mohammed al-Ghabban became Interior Minister of Iraq in 2014, he found that he was employing 230 brigadier generals and 660,000 policemen.

The vastly bloated size of the Iraqi security forces, most of whose members hold their jobs through political patronage, goes a long way to explaining why they cannot stop Isis bombers murdering people in the streets and markets of Baghdad.

Seventy-three people died in a single incident in the Sadr City district of the capital last Sunday and another 40 died when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral at Muqdadiya in Diyala province.

“I have reduced the number of brigadier generals to 110 and I am not recruiting new policemen or replacing those who retire,” said Mr Ghabban in an interview with The Independent in Baghdad. He admitted that the Iraqi public did not trust the police because of their failure to stop the bombers and the high level of corruption, which was pervasive in the system.

snip* He added: “The corruption is a huge support for Daesh [Isis].” He said that bombers frequently travel through checkpoints that supposedly protect Baghdad because they bribe the police, soldiers or paramilitaries in charge. A further problem with the patronage system is that jobs are unfairly distributed in favour of those with the right political or sectarian connections.

in full: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/war-with-isis-iraq-s-interior-minister-on-why-his-country-is-impotent-against-the-militants-a6905941.html

[bemildred]

1. Bremer's Folly + Neocon corruption.

"Pallets of cash".

[Jefferson23]

2. There should be an official prize for Bremer..The Death and Destruction Award..something like that.

All that "free market" democracy they brought to the region should get them
at least a mention, since jail is not in the cards.

[bemildred]

3. Yes. The thing is I cannot think of a better way to destroy a functioning modern govenment.

Last edited Wed Mar 2, 2016, 11:09 AM - Edit history (1)

It is a recipe for setting up patronage networks, which is kind of the normal political arrangement in tribal parts of the world, which much of the Middle East is. It is either very stupid or very smart. Ordinarily in these things I tend to favor "very smart", and bad; but this is Washington DC and the Sauds, so very ignorant and stupid gets the nod. But still bad. Worse.

[Jefferson23]

4. Yea, and once the harm is done it is stupid to imagine you can control the reactions, the

indifference to peoples lives is stunning and so depraved it makes me crazy to
hear anyone say, THEY are the crazy ones, those people! How did the perpetrators
of illegal and immoral acts get off the hook in the minds of Americans? I get why
they got away with it in the DC political power bubble, but voters can reject that.

This morning I feel down and discouraged, Americans look to be on course to
nominate a militant/corporate mindset on the Democratic side when they could have
voted, no more.

[bemildred]

5. Well, I'm very up and down these days.

Chickens coming home to roost is like that.

On the one hand Trump or someone Trump-like is to be expected, he is utterly ordinary in every respect. Big man politics is old as the hills and still very popular everywhere, everybody wants a savior.

And we do need saving.

The problem is there is none, no savior, and it makes you a sucker when you believe it. If there is a deity, it has no intention of interfering.

So we are going to have to save ourselves or we just won't get saved.

---

But personally, I'm doing great, it's just hard to enjoy it watching this.

[Jefferson23]

6. Trump? The guy is on course to take down the entire Republican Party, which is a good thing.

After last night, looks like Democrats are on the same course.

[bemildred]

7. Exactly, and they both deserve it, both got it coming.

Both have been shitty stewards of the public trust. Long time now too.

But it won't be pretty, and the result may well be worse than what we have now.

In the past the US' ruling elites have shown an ability to curb themselves and some have seen the wisdom of being first among equals, puissant and perceptive, rather than ruling the rubble of a functional state, but owning it all, which is what we have, and what they always seem to go for when they get the chance, plutocracy.

But then there was also the Civil War, which was never really resolved, and continues to contaminate our political discourse 150 years later.

[Jefferson23]

8. Yes, it will likely be hell like at first but hopefully a path to a functioning democracy.

So true, so much left unresolved after 150 years..what a stain indeed.

When I read this morning that Trump took Massachusetts..wow. lol
The GOP can't even get their adorable neocon Rubio nor the mild
mannered Kasich to win in Romneyland...they are seriously fucked in
their efforts to get rid him.

If they do knee cap him, they also risk enraging Trumps voters and they have no
alternative..not one guy can fill the hole they created all these years. I watch
their debates, when Trump gets booed, he says..those are their special interest
groups doing that to me. lol. NONE of them respond to that charge, they never
go after him about lobbyists since they can't. It is hilarious to watch and sad
too b/c the Republican working class know things are just wrong and corrupt yet
still get it terribly wrong when blaming minorities.

[bemildred]

9. Yep.

"Bullshit will only take you so far."

[Jefferson23]

10. It's hard to know if Trump supporters believe him to be more than a snake oil salesman

or if he is in their minds their only hope despite his own bullshit.

[bemildred]

11. He is a brand, a salesman who is his own brand too. Easy to remember that way.

Generally they lack critical thinking skills so it's more about how they feel than what they think, and Trump, being a salesman, is long practiced in manipulating people's feelings without even letting them know, I've watched him.

[malthaussen]

12. I think they get off for a very sad and simple reason:

... most of us either don't care what happens to ragheads, or want them to hurt. The bigotry, white supremacy, and anti-semitism run deeper in this country than we like to believe. So on the one hand, you have a ruling class that doesn't care who bleeds, as long as their bottom line benefits, and on the other, a vocal bunch of bigots who think foreign policy consists in bombing whomever we don't like back into the stone age. What's a poor humanist to do?

-- Mal

[Jefferson23]

13. True. Spreading/fueling bigotry has its benefits for the elite, no doubt about it. It makes me ill

when they cloak it in "our American values"...then we proceed to bomb innocent people
and destroy their infrastructure to the point their government is ripe to produce only
more hell.

[malthaussen]

14. The things they do would make anyone ill.

The veneer of humanity has worn quite thin on the ruling class, exposing them for the monsters they are. Obviously, not all. But we have a social system which rewards bullies, too many people confuse brutality with strength, and anyone looking out for his own interest has to calculate whether it is better to have principles or principal. You know that old question, "What does it profit a man if he gain the world, and lose his soul?" The answer is: plenty, because the only god most of these people really worship is Mammon, but they'll use Christian rhetoric to manipulate the marks if it gets them what they want. It works really well, too.

And even those who are truly religious -- I will grant there may be one or two, although I remain skeptical of those who protest the loudest -- take their religion right from the Old Testament, where the God of Battles and retribution reigns, and not from the New, where the testimony of love dominates (well, at least outside of the Epistles of Paul). And yet this, too, is inevitable when we culturally define "strength" as "the ability to make others do your will."

-- Mal

[Jefferson23]

15. Sustaining our interests is what nations do but it does not mean it has to take the form

it has..which has been ongoing for decades. We don't just want a fair stake in a
negotiations level for oil contracts, as one example..we want to dominate at
the expense of other nations sovereignty. If said governments collapse as a result
we blame them for not submitting to us fast enough.

I am not a religious man, but I see what you're saying and agree..the fundies
appear to cling to poorly defined yet rigid interpretations so as to maintain
control over women and minorities..the "good old days" philosophy.

I am encouraged somewhat when I saw Jeb Bush's campaign burn to the
ground..it is hard to know what definitively led to that complete collapse
from the perspective of the right but it was an indicator to me they
may be considering a different way to lead. Was Jebs fall more to do with
his lack of ideas to build a wall or was it also a view the right acknowledges
his brothers outright insane ideas and lies about Iraq? Racism prevails
at the base of the GOP and clearly Trump capitalizes on it..but he does
so with a different message. Trade deals and WS not good for the average
Americans at the same time immigrants/minorities are to blame. I'm not
sure what the percentages are but it seems to be more than enough
to help Trump and enough to destroy the Republican Party..which is
good and high time it happened. Bizarre it is taking place with an egotistical
snake oil salesman...but maybe that's why its working.

[malthaussen]

16. I think it is simply that all the Republicans have fled to the Democratic Party...

... the cultivation of the crazies has driven thoughtful, genuine conservatives to the Dems, where they all favor Mrs Clinton. To the extent that candidates such as Bush, Kasich, and Christie embodied the "moderate" wing of the Party (ie, slightly left of Attila, rather than right), they simply have no constituency anymore. I don't believe anything has really been "learned" from Iraq by the ruling class, for the simple reason that Iraq did not injure the ruling class. As for the base, they aren't concerned about foreign affairs, except insofar as they favor bombing anyone who disagrees with us so they can beat their chests and chant "U-S-A, U-S-A!" Anyone who has learned a lesson from Iraq and George Bush's general failure to "keep us safe" has, again, fled to the Democrats. But I think, overall, that not a lot has been learned there, either, because even at DU, we still have avid hawks who think the best way to deal with foreign countries is to bomb them. There were a lot of people who opposed Iraq back when, and they still do, but how many converts they have gained after the event is problematical. (OTOH, the media seem to be willing to acknowledge at least that "mistakes were made," which might indicate some awareness that mistakes were, in fact, made: except that if such a lesson has been drawn, it is a sterile one, because our rulers are just as eager to make the same "mistake" again if it appears expedient)

-- Mal

[Jefferson23]

17. Point well taken.

It is also true the right wing agrees with Clinton with respect to foreign
policy..that is what worries me about a Clinton administration and why
I believe she will inadvertently collapse the party...that and her ties
to WS.