Mohammed al-Dynee, a member of Iraq's Parliament and I had our hour-long meeting in Baghdad with Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb and General Paul Newton moments after our fortuitous run in with General Petraeus in the hallway of the Embassy. Lamb and his team are British and living proof that the British dimension of the "Coalition Forces" is extremely valuable to us. Lamb and Petraeus were division commanders in Iraq. Lamb has been the deputy for General Petraeus. General Lamb is in charge of the reconciliation process and was specifically chosen because of his involvement in Northern Ireland and other places requiring reconciliation skills. (Note: You will find a very good explanation from Lamb about the process of reconciliation in the full transcript.) I'm not sure what General Newton's role is on the reconciliation team; however from his comments and suggestions it was clear that he is an important player who knows his stuff.
As anyone who has followed this story knows, getting access to the right people is key - particularly when trying to facilitate meetings between people who could work with each other rather than against each other. For what Mohammed was trying to accomplish, he was talking with the right people. From my point of view, so were they. (Note: General Lamb shared with me at the end of the meeting, that he has been having similar meetings with people claiming to represent the Nationalist Forces, or Resistance, for the past four years, so he is somewhat skeptical. However, the generals did take the meeting with Mohammed and they are hopeful for a breakthrough.) The meeting is long, so if you are interested in the full transcript, go here.
Mohammed's main goal was to begin a process of reconciliation between the Coalition Forces and the National Forces. A secondary goal was to air grievances and observations, and offer suggestions about how the Coalition Forces might be helpful in resolving them.
Among many things Mohammed wanted to discuss were the problems with the Maliki Government: including its incompetence, the Iranian infiltration of it, the threats the government poses to members of the Parliament, its secret prisons, the death squads comprised of Iranian mercenaries working inside the Minister of Interior's office, the twelve members of Parliament who are Iranian, and why the border between Iran and Iraq is still open. (See transcript for the discussion about the open border.)
General Lamb acknowledged that there is some Iranian infiltration and interference in the current Iraqi government, but did not think it was as extensive and prevalent as Mohammed felt.
Mohammed was also looking for the Coalition Forces to support the Parliament by protecting it. Most of the 70 or so members who don't show for Parliament meetings do so because -- as opponents to the Maliki government -- they fear the very government that is supposed to protect them. Here is an excerpted part of the transcript that highlights this point:
Mohammed: But the Coalition forces are not supporting the Parliament. They would like to have a new coalition inside the Parliament and they are afraid to do so because they might be assassinated. For example, you said that you are a representative for the government. While it is clear that you are supporting the political process not this government...
General Lamb: I support the government of the day.
Dal, to General Lamb: It is not your responsibility to protect the Parliament, right? It is the government's responsibility.
General Lamb: The physical protection sits with the Ministry of Interior. But in effect, we are in support of the government of the day...
Mohammed: Okay. We have 70 to 80 members of Parliament because they are afraid; they are out of Iraq. They cannot come back to Iraq. What can we do to let these people come back and join the political process in the democratic way?
Dal, to Generals: That is an issue. They are afraid to come back. I had a meeting with seven of them the other day and I was wondering as I was talking with them in Amman, why aren't they here in Baghdad while the Parliament is in session. Why are they in Amman?
General Lamb: Yeah but it occurs at the administrative level, too. There are many people who have elected to be out of the country. That is their choice. They can elect to be back in this country. And that is a choice. The answer is that there are many people who are in this country in the provinces in....
Dal, interrupting: But these people are afraid to come back. They feel their houses are attacked.
General Lamb: Again, that remains pause their choice.
Clearly, there is a dilemma. It is the Ministry of the Interior that is responsible for protecting Parliament members. However, some Parliament members who oppose the Maliki government fear reprisal or assassination attempts emanating from within the ministry charged with their protection. It brings to mind the well-known quote: "We have a problem Houston."
After listening to all the people whom I've met though Mohammed, it's apparent that most believe that the American forces basically pull all the strings and have the ultimate power over the government of Iraq. Another erroneous assumption is that America is in charge of Iraq's political future.
However, Generals Lamb and Newton made it very clear that the Coalition Forces are there to support the sovereign government of Iraq; that the Maliki government is the country's legitimate government, appointed by a Parliament, which was created by free elections. They made it equally clear that any complaints that Mohammed or others might have with the government should be dealt with in Parliament.
Here is another typical exchange during the meeting, during which Mohammed offered to bring all resistant groups together - except al-Qaeda - to reach a consensus and full agreement:
Mohammed: We can have an influence on the resistant groups, the tribals by working directly with the Coalition Forces not through the governmental channel because it will take time and we will find that we are losing everything through the time of the process. (My note: This is polite Mohammed-speak; what Mohammed meant was that he and his associates do not want to work through the government channel because it is the government itself that it fears and does not trust.)
General Lamb: The answer is that we would welcome that dialogue. We always do and we have had some of the dialogue. The answer is what we do. It is not working through the government. It is working with the government. There are three legs to the stool. (My note: Lamb had earlier designated these three legs as the Coalition Forces, the Iraq government, and the Nationalist Forces.) And all I have to say at this moment is that the dialogue I have right now is working just fine through this and with this government. So it can work. It does work.
What follows below are other excerpts of the conversation that seemed most important, that deal with what is currently being done in the area and what can be done to help minimize the violence.
About Civil War
Some Sunni argue that there is no sectarian war going on in Iraq and are adamant that there will not be one if the U.S. withdraws. I've lost track of the number of times I have heard a Sunni tell me his wife is a Shia and he is a Sunni as an example of how the two interact peacefully. Lamb concurs that there is no sectarian civil war in progress in Iraq.
General Lamb: I have been a soldier for 35 years. I know what a civil war looks like. I look at Mogadishu; I look at Kinshasa. You know these places - parts of Sarajevo. People have left town here. What they have done is shut the door and the house is still here. Some of them have been occupied; some haven't.
This is not like an awful lot of places I have been to and found myself in (Note:where civil war was in process). That doesn't mean that there aren't serious difficulties and challenges with what we call a level of violence, which needs to be reduced. But as I fly across the country, farmers are farming. The answer is that people are going about parts of their business. It doesn't look like other parts of the world.
About Building Confidence Between the Coalition and Iraqi National Forces
General Newton: But back to your original point about leaders who might not be able to explicitly control, but who can influence anything. They can be encouraged to say (something) which will diminish the violence and the stress. This is welcome by everyone.
General Lamb: It is various confidence-building measures: for instance, the passing of information, the cessation of hostility, dropping attacks against the Iraqi Security Forces, dropping attacks against us.
This is applicable to not only the Resistance, but also to the militias. So our reconciliation engagement runs both side of the coin. It is about building confidence in order to reduce the level of violence. And at the same time very clearly seeing a reduction in the attacks, (a reduction) of sectarian attacks that takes place.
Dealing with Current Problems
Mohammed: When you mentioned about going with steps forward, I went by invitation of a member of Congress and I met with him about a lot of problems that are in Iraq. They heard from me things that were never heard by them before. I know that the situation in Iraq is very complex. But we need to reach a solution over here. The multinational forces should use or start working with the nationalist people, with the patriotic people who would like to see Iraq moving forward with progress. We can see that we have chaos in Iraq. The people in Iraq are in chaos. The multinational forces are in chaos. And the political process might be going into chaos.
General Lamb: But at the end of the day, the Iraqis say but we haven't got this, we haven't got that. My point is that when the opportunity was presented to the Sunni community to join the Army and the police they elected not to. That is why the figures are slightly out of balance. They are being brought back into balance. We are seeing this now in Anbar, when I went to Hit in November there were no policeman when I went to Hit two months ago there were 700 policeman. They were all Sunnis.
Going Forward
Mohammed walked away from this meeting with and understanding of the "next steps". It is time for action. He will bring back a proposal from his groups and they will have a confidential dialogue about it.
-- Dal LaMagna