one week on

Today Orrin Judd points up two very interesting stories from Iraq. The first is in the NYT: Suddenly, It's 'America Who?'

Through 22 months of occupation and war here, the word “America” was usually the first word to pass through the lips of an Iraqi with a gripe.

Why can't the Americans produce enough electricity? Why can't the Americans guarantee security? Why can't the Americans find my stolen car?
Last week, as the euphoria of nationwide elections washed over this country, a remarkable thing happened: Iraqis, by and large, stopped talking about the Americans.

With the ballots still being counted here, the Iraqi candidates retired to the back rooms to cut political deals, leaving the Americans, for the first time, standing outside. In Baghdad's tea shops and on its street corners, the talk turned to which of those candidates might form the new government, to their schemes and stratagems, and to Iraqi problems and Iraqi solutions.

And for the United States, the assessments turned unfamiliarly measured.

“We have no electricity here, no water and there's no gasoline in the pumps,” said Salim Mohammed Ali, a tire repairman who voted in last Sunday's election. “Who do I blame? The Iraqi government, of course. They can't do anything.”

Asked about the American military presence here, Mr. Ali chose his words carefully.

“I think the Americans should stay here until our security forces are able to do the jobs themselves,” Mr. Ali said, echoing virtually every senior American officer in Iraq. “We Iraqis have our own government now, and we can invite the Americans to stay.”

Well. Were that not enough, here's the WaPo: Top Shiite Welcomes Overtures By Sunnis.

The leading Shiite candidate to become Iraq's next prime minister welcomed overtures on Saturday by groups that boycotted national elections and declared that he and others were willing to offer “the maximum” to bring those largely Sunni Arab groups into the drafting of the constitution and participation in the new government.

But Adel Abdel-Mehdi, the current finance minister and a powerful figure in the coalition expected to dominate Iraq's parliament, rejected a key demand of those groups — a timetable for a withdrawal of the 150,000 U.S. troops in the country. […]

“If we start fixing timetables by now, we will be in a difficult situation if we reach that time and we are not prepared,” Abdel-Mehdi said in the interview at his home. “You can't announce it, and then say okay, I'll delay it for two months.”

“It's better not to go trying to fix dates then to break those dates,” he added.

As OJ notes, the supreme irony here is that the Shi'a are making acceptance of continued US presence a condition for joining the new government. He might well have also pointed out that, by echoing the calls for a departure timetable, leading Democrats from Ted Kennedy to Harry Reid are aligning themselves with the most recalcitrant Ba'athist elements within Iraq. Way to go, morons.

It is, of course, far too early to hold anything but the most guarded of optimism. A few days ago we saw the farce of an action figure held hostage, but also the mass execution of Iraqi army recruits. It is a long time indeed until the December election of a permanent government in Baghdad.

But the early signs are promising—not just in Iraq, but across the region: last week a protest in Cairo against Mubarak's one-man rule, this week municipal elections (sorta) in Saudi Arabia. And Secretary of State Rice is presently in Jerusalem, holding talks with both sides during her first mission as chief US diplomat.

Here's a picture of her arrival in Germany last week.

Just because.

MORE. Norman Geras transcribes BBC Radio 4 (via InstaPundit).

Hugh Sykes: [on the subject of intimidation] Here's Sergeant Imad. He's been ostracized by his mother for joining the Iraqi army, and his brothers have threatened to kill him.

Imad: My younger brothers and my sisters and my mother and my brothers, no one talking to me. I won't give up the army unless I'm killed.

HS: And you're wearing a hat with 'No fear' written on it.

Imad: Yes, 'No fear'. And I'm not scared of anybody. Yes.

HS: Imad. There's a moving, anonymous tribute appeared on a notice-board I was looking at yesterday evening, a tribute to the Governor of Baghdad, Ali al-Haidri, who was assassinated just a month ago. It reads: 'This country is overflowing with Iraqis willing to sacrifice their immediate security for the greater freedom of all Iraqis.'

Wow. People like the Iraqi army recruit, as well as US servicemen, make effete, pampered antiwar types look SO small