Archivo categoría «Iraq»
By Hussain Abdul-Hussain, Washington correspondent for the Kuwaiti daily Al Rai and a visiting fellow with Chatham House, London (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 13/03/10):
“Here is another ballot, go vote again and let him take your picture,” Nabil al-Janabi, the Iraqi chargé d’affaires in Beirut, said while handing me a paper on the Day of the Great Crawl, when we — Iraqis at home and abroad — were required to vote for the only presidential candidate, Saddam Hussein.
It was in October 2002, and since I had to drive to the Iraqi Embassy in the upscale Beirut suburb of Hazmiyeh,… Seguir leyendo
Par Gaël Grobéty, doctorant à l’Université de Lausanne. Ce texte est un extrait, adapté par nous, d’une conférence tenue sous l’égide de l’Association des Amitiés gréco-suisses, le 28 janvier à Lausanne (LE TEMPS, 11/03/10):
Le 18 mars Le 18 mars 2003, on pouvait lire dans le New York Times le passage suivant: «Nous sommes à Troie, en Turquie. Ici, tout est tranquille sur les décombres du site présumé de l’ancienne Troie. Aucun touriste pour regarder d’un air hébété l’endroit où Achille a percé la gorge d’Hector, les hauts murs de pierre sur lesquels le roi Priam s’est arraché les cheveux,… Seguir leyendo
By Bartle Breese Bull, a journalist in Iraq from 2004 to 2008 and a founder of an Iraq-based investment firm (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 09/03/10):
During the Iraqi parliamentary elections on Sunday, this city’s main thoroughfares presented an almost overwhelming visual mosaic of politics. From the Karada neighborhood in the south to the Adhamiya district in the north, from poor Sadr City to rich Mansour, posters for the capital province’s 1,300 candidates hung from almost every tree and lamppost. Billboards crowded medians and roundabouts, promising Change, Justice, Unity, Jobs, Security and more.
Iraq’s underlying political currents are even more cacophonous:… Seguir leyendo
Por Feisal Amin Rasoul © Project Syndicate, 2010. Traducción: Carlos Manzano (LA VANGUARDIA, 06/03/10):
Los iraquíes acuden hoy a las urnas por segunda vez para elegir un nuevo Parlamento según su Constitución del 2006. Muchos politólogos consideran que las segundas elecciones generales, y no las primeras, son la puesta a prueba más importante de una nueva democracia. En este caso, estas elecciones parecen presagiar malos tiempos por venir.
La situación de la seguridad en Iraq se ha deteriorado dramáticamente en los seis últimos meses. Aunque gran parte de la violencia ha sido aleatoria, destinada a blancos fáciles, como mercados y… Seguir leyendo
By Ad Melkert, the special representative of the U.N. secretary general to Iraq and head of the U.N. mission in Baghdad (THE WASHINGTON POST, 28/02/10):
This city with many faces jostling to define its future is my new home. From my desk at the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq, it is striking how unreservedly foreign politicians, diplomats, think tanks and journalists offer their opinions or prescriptions on the future of this country. Yet Iraqis have a vivid sense of international interference over their long history. I am acutely aware that despite all the talk on how to… Seguir leyendo
By Thomas E. Ricks, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security who covered the war in Iraq for The Washington Post. He is the author of Fiasco and The Gamble. He also writes the Best Defense blog for Foreign Policy magazine (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 24/02/10):
Iraq’s March 7 national election, and the formation of a new government that will follow, carry huge implications for both Iraqis and American policy. It appears now that the results are unlikely to resolve key political struggles that could return the country to sectarianism and violence.
If so, President Obama… Seguir leyendo
By Henry Kissinger, secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 (THE WASHINGTON POST, 03/02/10):
In a 71-minute State of the Union address, President Obama managed no more than 101 perfunctory words about Iraq. Throughout its term, the administration has recoiled from discussing Iraq’s geostrategic significance and especially America’s relation to it.
Yet while Iraq is being exorcised from our debate, its reality is bound to obtrude on our consciousness. The U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq will not alter the geostrategic importance of the country even as it alters that context.
Mesopotamia has been the strategic focal point of the region… Seguir leyendo
By Anthony Seldon, Master of Wellington College and the author of Blair, the biography (THE TIMES, 29/01/10):
Today is the most important day in Tony Blair’s life since he left No 10 — hence his intense preparation, so desperate is he to clear his name of the accusations against him, and to show that his decision-making over Iraq was flawless in conception and execution. We will know by 5 o’clock today whether he has chosen to conduct himself as his own defence lawyer or as a statesman worthy of the high office he held. At stake is his reputation.
We… Seguir leyendo
By Kenneth M. Pollack, the director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at Brookings (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 18/01/10):
With Washington’s attention understandably focused on the tragedy in Haiti, Iraq has slipped onto the back burner. Yet there is a major problem brewing there — one that could jeopardize President Obama’s plan to draw down American forces and even reignite sectarian conflict.
Last Thursday, Iraq’s Independent High Election Commission upheld a ban on nearly 500 Sunni politicians handed down (possibly illegally) some days earlier… Seguir leyendo
By Ranj Alaaldin, a Middle East political and security risk analyst based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (THE GUARDIAN, 21/12/09):
When Iranian forces entered an oil area in Iraqi territory, the response from Baghdad was a quiet one. This starkly contrasted with the fierce nationalistic and potentially violent reaction that might have been expected of Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Was this just a taste of Baghdad’s future receptivity towards potential Iranian expansionism? Not exactly.
The Fakka oilfield – in an uninhabited part of Misan province where the precise line of the border with Iran is disputed… Seguir leyendo
Por Manuel R. Torres Soriano, profesor de Ciencia Política en la Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla (REAL INSTITUTO ELCANO, 02/12/09):
Tema: ¿Qué repercusiones tendrá para la seguridad internacional la “desactivación” de la yihad en Irak y el previsible movimiento de terroristas hacia otros escenarios internacionales?
Resumen: La creciente estabilización de Irak, el cambio de Administración estadounidense y el anuncio de la próxima retirada de Irak del grueso de su contingente militar supondrán la desactivación de Irak como factor de transformación y movilización del movimiento yihadista y el cierre de un ciclo que tendrá repercusiones en la evolución de la… Seguir leyendo
By Frank R. Gunter, an associate professor of economics at Lehigh University, was the senior civilian economics adviser to the Multinational Corps in Iraq from 2008 to 2009 (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 15/11/09):
After returning from the second of two tours in Iraq, I can attest to notable progress. Iraqi civilian casualties have dropped sharply, the result of both the United States surge and negotiations with Sunni groups. There has been political progress as well. Provincial elections were held this year and national elections are scheduled for early 2010.
The future of the Iraqi economy, however, remains bleak. Without fundamental… Seguir leyendo
By Jeremy Scahill, the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army (THE GUARDIAN, 11/11/09):
The mercenary firm Blackwater has become a symbol of the utter lawlessness and criminality that permeates the privatised wing of the US war machine. The company’s operatives have shot dead scores of Iraqi and Afghan civilians, while former employees allege in sworn statements that Blackwater’s owner Erik Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe”, and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life”. Five Blackwater
By Najim Abed al-Jabouri, a fellow at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington and the mayor of Tel Afar, Iraq, from 2005 to 2008. This article was translated by Sterling Jensen from the Arabic (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29/10/09):
Sunday’s coordinated suicide bombings in Baghdad, which killed more than 150 people, were a brutal reminder of how far Iraq still has to go in terms of security. While things are far better than a few years ago, one huge task remains: getting the public to trust the Iraqi security forces.… Seguir leyendo
By Catherine Philp, a diplomatic correspondent (THE TIMES, 27/10/09):
It was a photograph on the Times website that set my heart racing, my adrenalin spiking and gave me that strangely metallic taste of no taste in my mouth. Baghdad, its buildings and palm trees wreathed in smoke, like a Lower Manhattan on the Tigris on the morning of 9/11. Sitting at my kitchen table, I could hear the boom, smell the cordite filling Haifa Street.
I watched the television news with its mobile phone footage capturing the moment that two of the bombs went off. It was later that I… Seguir leyendo