Amnesty Iraqi National

In a true example of who's controlling the real ruling power in Iraq, today the interim government postponed their announcement to provide partial or full amnesty for low-level Iraqi insurgents who fought against the US occupation. It seemed very curious where they were going to draw the line between "low-level" and "high-level" insurgents; at the time of the announcement, the interim authority claimed it would only be granted to those who were "misled" by insurgency leaders. How can you possibly quantify that? In reality, this was seen by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi as a way to break the ties between the fedayyim (Saddam loyalists and former Baath Party members) and the coalition of Shiite militants and foreign fighters. Now, the fact that Allawi himself is a former Baath Party member makes it all the more suspect that he would offer amnesty to Saddam loyalists but not Shiites.

However, the entire plan crumbled at some point, and now the amnesty announcement has been delayed indefinitely. Hmm, let's see, the interim government comes up with an idea on its own, an idea that the US government probably will not like. The story gets leaked to the press ahead of time, they report it, and within two days, the plan is scuttled? I'm just surmising here, but it seems to me that Ambassador Negroponte made a phone call to a man who's name rhymes with "Lallawi" and mentioned ever so softly that perhaps it would be in everyone's best interest to do, well, exactly what I want (I'm paraphrasing, actually not even, I'm paraphrasing an imagined conversation).

Meanwhile, attacks and bombings are continuing at virtually the same rate as before, mostly against Iraqi targets (although several US troops have died since the handover). And if the Prime Minister has to go on television and answer criticism that he is NOT a puppet, well, when there's smoke there's fire. I haven't seen a puppet government like this since the time Tahiti elected Willie Tyler and Lester.