They Begin At Calais -

They Begin At Calais - The Administration plans to commence a War Crimes Tribunal, run by Iraqis.

Predictably, it's running into static from France the international community.

Iraq Now - written by a soldier in Iraq - responds:

"Ok, I don't get it. On one hand, these groups are saying the U.S. is too involved. On the other hand, they claim that the little dark swarthy savages - you know, the ones who invented the rule of law in the first place--aren’t competent to try the cases. So if the Iraqis can't do it themselves, and we can't help them, then the only option left is to forget about the tribunal at all.

And an interesting elaboration on politics in Iraq:

Here's what they don't get: If you look at a map of Iraq, superficially looks like one political entity. Ok, we know it really isn't. Almost everyone by now has figured out that it's really three: the minority Sunni muslims, and the Shias and ethnic Kurds who were so savagely oppressed by Saddam and a few of his favored Sunni clans.

So most informed people can draw two rough lines on the map and divide the populated areas of the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys, stick a Sunni, Shia, or Kurd label on the map as appropriate, and think that passes for a sophisticated understanding of the situation on the ground.

Wrong.

The reality is that there is no bright line along which the ethnic groups can be separated. Further, Sunni areas are further subdivided into tribes, clans, and sheikdoms—some of which—particularly the al-Tikriti tribe, had closer ties to Saddam than others. Other tribes, even in the Sunni areas, were marginalized and brutalized by Saddam themselves and are aching for payback.

Most people simply do not grasp how deep the interclan rivalries and jealousies are, even among Sunni tribes. Saddam the strong man kept a lid on things in the same way Tito kept a lid on ancient grudges between Croats, Serbs, and Bosnians in the Balkans."

There's more.

Posted by Mitch at December 8, 2003 07:08 AM