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Over the weekend, several Arab newspapers described the details of a postwar American political order in Iraq and named the officials who might rule the country.
In a front-page article on Sunday, the London-based Al-Hayat quoted U.S. officials as saying that postwar Iraq would be divided into three administrative zones. Taking a page out of British imperial history, the Bush administration intends to name a woman, Barbara Bodine, a former ambassador to Yemen, as administrator of the central zone that includes Baghdad. After World War I, Britain also appointed a woman, the colorful Gertrude Bell, to run Iraq, though Bodine might have less clout. According to the London-based Saudi paper Al-Sharq al-Awsat, she and the two administrators of the northern and southern zones (both former generals) will report to retired Army general Jay Garner, who heads the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, the euphemistically named body created by the Pentagon to govern Iraq. The paper also asserted that a four-member interim presidential council made up of Iraqis would be set up to advise the Americans. It may include former ministers "Adnan Pahchachi, an Arab Sunni now based in the United Arab Emirates; Fouad Aref, a Kurdish Sunni headquartered in Kurdistan; Abdelghani Dalli, an Arab Shiite living in Britain; and Ahmed al-Habboubi, another Arab Shiite currently residing in Egypt."
The alleged U.S. intentions in fashioning such an arrangement are criticized by the United Arab Emirates' daily Al-Khaleej. In a leader, the paper excoriated the "wicked, fiendish intentions" of the Bush administration, pointing out that the subdivision of Iraq suggested the country would be carved up along sectarian and ethnic lines—the north has a substantial Kurdish population, the south is predominantly Shiite, while Sunnis are concentrated in the middle of the country. However, the appointment of retired military men to administer the north and south suggested, on the contrary, that the administration might impose tighter control over the Kurds and Shiites precisely to avoid Iraq's partition, which virtually everybody in the region opposes.
In a front-page article on Sunday, the London-based Al-Hayat quoted U.S. officials as saying that postwar Iraq would be divided into three administrative zones. Taking a page out of British imperial history, the Bush administration intends to name a woman, Barbara Bodine, a former ambassador to Yemen, as administrator of the central zone that includes Baghdad. After World War I, Britain also appointed a woman, the colorful Gertrude Bell, to run Iraq, though Bodine might have less clout. According to the London-based Saudi paper Al-Sharq al-Awsat, she and the two administrators of the northern and southern zones (both former generals) will report to retired Army general Jay Garner, who heads the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, the euphemistically named body created by the Pentagon to govern Iraq. The paper also asserted that a four-member interim presidential council made up of Iraqis would be set up to advise the Americans. It may include former ministers "Adnan Pahchachi, an Arab Sunni now based in the United Arab Emirates; Fouad Aref, a Kurdish Sunni headquartered in Kurdistan; Abdelghani Dalli, an Arab Shiite living in Britain; and Ahmed al-Habboubi, another Arab Shiite currently residing in Egypt."
The alleged U.S. intentions in fashioning such an arrangement are criticized by the United Arab Emirates' daily Al-Khaleej. In a leader, the paper excoriated the "wicked, fiendish intentions" of the Bush administration, pointing out that the subdivision of Iraq suggested the country would be carved up along sectarian and ethnic lines—the north has a substantial Kurdish population, the south is predominantly Shiite, while Sunnis are concentrated in the middle of the country. However, the appointment of retired military men to administer the north and south suggested, on the contrary, that the administration might impose tighter control over the Kurds and Shiites precisely to avoid Iraq's partition, which virtually everybody in the region opposes.
), but who knows until it actually happens?
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