{"id":13429,"date":"2011-12-29T08:46:38","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T16:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=13429"},"modified":"2011-12-29T08:46:38","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T16:46:38","slug":"us-sending-iraq-11-billion-in-arms-despite-malikis-turn-towards-dictatorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/29\/us-sending-iraq-11-billion-in-arms-despite-malikis-turn-towards-dictatorship\/","title":{"rendered":"US Sending Iraq $11 Billion in Arms, Despite Maliki’s Turn Towards Dictatorship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pointing out Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s turn towards dictatorship is no longer a fad for opposition members of parliament and voiceless Iraqi subjects. Now it’s so blatant that it’s recognized by everyone. Even the New York Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration is moving ahead with the sale of nearly $11 billion worth of arms and training for the Iraqi military despite concerns that Prime Minister\u00a0Nuri Kamal al-Maliki\u00a0is seeking to consolidate authority, create a one-party Shiite-dominated state and abandon the American-backed power-sharing government.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The military aid includes things like\u00a0advanced fighter jets and battle tanks and, as best I can tell, is in addition to<\/em> the $82 million in arms and equipment<\/a> the U.S. sent to Baghdad in October.<\/p>\n

It’s true that Maliki has shown signs of solidifying some level of authoritarian rule, and it isn’t particularly new.\u00a0He has\u00a0circumvented Parliament<\/a>, consolidated\u00a0illegitimate power<\/a>\u00a0in a\u00a0long trend of quasi-dictatorial behavior<\/a>,\u00a0harshly cracked down<\/a>\u00a0on peaceful activism,\u00a0harassed and even attacked journalists<\/a>\u00a0that were critical of his regime, and has been accused of\u00a0torturing prisoners<\/a>\u00a0in secret Iraqi jails.<\/p>\n

In September,\u00a0Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a statement accusing Maliki of \u201cbuilding a new dictatorship<\/a>.\u201d That same month, Iraq\u2019s head of the\u00a0Integrity Commission\u00a0Raheem Uqaili resigned and wrote an open letter accusing the Maliki regime of unutterable corruption and power grabs<\/a>. Just this month, Iraq\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq warned<\/a> in a CNN interview that Maliki is “going towards dictatorship.” Less than a week later Maliki ordered Iraq’s Sunni Vice President Tareq al Hashemi detained on trumped up terrorism charges<\/a>, in a broader plan to marginalize Sunni authorities in government. Finally, former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi\u00a0co-authored article in the New York Times<\/em><\/a>\u00a0this week,\u00a0along with fellow Iraqiya members Osama al-Nujaifi (Iraq\u2019s parliament speaker) and Finance Minister Rafe al-Essawi, warning that Maliki is taking the nation down the path of \u201csectarian autocracy<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In light of this, should we be surprised that Washington continues to send Iraq billions of dollars in aid and billions more in military weaponry? No, I don’t think so. In a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, US envoy\u00a0Ryan Crocker noted in 2009 that Maliki\u2019s turn towards more centralized rule is \u201cin US interest<\/a>.\u201d Even after Obama’s attempts to extend large-scale military occupation were rejected, ongoing responsibilities after the withdrawal\u00a0still\u00a0include carrying out<\/a> \u201ctwo of the largest Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Foreign Military Financing (FMF) programs in the world and to spend the $2.55 billion in Iraq Security Forces Fund (ISFF).\u201d<\/p>\n

This is literally what it means to receive U.S. economic and military support in a strategically important region. How many foul, tyrannical, genocidal dictatorships does America have to avidly prop up for people to stop being surprised about it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pointing out Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s turn towards dictatorship is no longer a fad for opposition members of parliament and voiceless Iraqi subjects. Now it’s so blatant that it’s recognized by everyone. Even the New York Times. The Obama administration is moving ahead with the sale of nearly $11 billion worth of arms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-13429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13431,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13429\/revisions\/13431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13429"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=13429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}