{"id":153,"date":"2006-10-14T14:41:48","date_gmt":"2006-10-14T18:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=153"},"modified":"2007-02-27T22:12:11","modified_gmt":"2007-02-28T03:12:11","slug":"bakers-coup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=153","title":{"rendered":"Baker’s Coup"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is increasingly high-profile chatter<\/a> these days about James Baker’s Iraq Study Group<\/a> and the idea of a pro-Sunni Arab coup in Iraq.<\/p>\n

After a flurry of speculation that Baker would embrace the breakup of Iraq, I think that idea has been put to rest.<\/p>\n

In his October 9, 2006 appearance on The Daily Show<\/em><\/a>, Baker was asked by Jon Stewart (Part 2 at 2:16), “You Gonna Split it Up?”<\/p>\n

BAKER: “No, no, I don’t think we can do that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But then Baker quickly recovered and provided the formal response:<\/p>\n

BAKER: “Although, we haven’t ruled anything out, Jon… That’s still one of the things we are looking at.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Notwithstanding Baker’s back pedaling, the Right Arabist consiglieri spoke his mind and no one should be surprised<\/a> by his opposition to a Right Zionist\/Dem Zionist plan for the breakup of Iraq<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It should also be obvious that Baker will be praised by many as a voice of reason, but Right Zionists will protest if Baker’s Right Arabist position becomes policy.<\/p>\n

The Eli Lake at the Right Zionist New York Sun<\/em><\/a> has already published one sign (among others<\/a>) of Right Zionist dissent, almost surely from one of the token Right Zionists (like Reuel Marc Gerecht) <\/a>who have been part of the Iraq Study Group’s “Expert Working Groups.”<\/p>\n

Here is the New York Sun<\/em><\/a> article, which includes leaked details of the Study Group’s work:<\/p>\n

On PBS’s “Charlie Rose Show,” Mr. Baker… hastened to distinguish between a Middle East that was “democratic” and one that was merely “representative.”<\/p>\n

“If we are able to promote<\/strong> representative, representative government, not necessarily democracy<\/strong>, in a number of nations in the Middle East and bring more freedom to the people of that part of the world, it will have been a success<\/strong>,” he said.<\/p>\n

That distinction is crucial, according to one member of the expert working groups. “Baker wants to believe that Sunni dictators in Sunni majority states are representative<\/strong>,” the group member, who requested anonymity, said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are at least two significant questions swirling around all the talk about impending Right Arabist coups in Washington and Baghdad.<\/p>\n

1. Is it Real or is it Rove?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert Dreyfuss<\/a> thinks his Right Arabist friends<\/a> are on the verge of seizing control of the ship of state.<\/p>\n

The realists may not be in charge, yet, but they’re getting there<\/strong>. John Warner is the muscle behind Frank Wolf, who created the ISG, and Warner isn’t happy. The military, behind Warner, ain’t happy, either.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dreyfuss is right about Frank Wolf<\/a>. And about the military brass<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But is Dreyfuss right that their campaign against Right Zionist influence in the Bush administration is actually “getting there”?<\/p>\n

His pal Laura Rozen<\/a> isn’t buying it.<\/p>\n

So how coordinated is [Baker’s] book roll out (Comedy Central, Meet the Press, NPR this morning) with the White House in advance of the November election? My sense: totally coordinated. Is it not a very deliberately timed reach out and wink and nod to GOP realists — see, we are listening to you? The adults are in the house?<\/strong>… Seems Baker is a witting campaign prop<\/strong> being coordinated by the White House to communicate the message, the realists will be in charge of foreign policy the next two years. Without<\/strong> the White House having to say it, or it necessarily being true.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is important precedent for this interpretation.<\/p>\n

A Rozen reader (“JR”) suggests from 1972.<\/p>\n

James Baker ploy is a subtler version of Kissinger’s Oct 1972 appearance at which he touched the breast pocket of his suit and said, about Vietnam, that the Nixon Admin had a plan for peace (‘…peace is at hand.’). Shortly after the election, the Paris peace talks broke down and two months later, the Christmas bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong began.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I noted in a September post<\/a>, there is another, more recent example: the 2004 Presidential election<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In an October 14, 2004 interview with the Financial Times<\/em><\/a>, Brent Scowcroft suggested that during the first term, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had Bush \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wrapped around his little finger.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

However, Scowcroft assured his Right Arabist allies, Right Zionist influence would diminish in a second term, once the Bush administration was fee from domestic (read, pro-Zionist) electoral considerations:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There has been some pulling back of the extremes of neo-cons\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Scowcroft said he hoped that if Mr Bush were re-elected he would change course more fundamentally.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is a man who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really driven to seek re-election and done a lot of things with that in mind<\/strong>,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have something of a hunch that the second administration will be quite different from the first<\/strong>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition to being an implicit swipe at the domestic political power of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Israel Lobby,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the interview was surely designed to produce a ceasefire in the Beltway insurgency against Bush.<\/p>\n

The trouble is, it wasn’t true. Election year 2004 was the high point<\/em> for Bush administration Right Arabist policy in Iraq.<\/p>\n

In 2004, Bremer reversed de-Baathification orders and appointed an ex-Baathist, Iyad Allawi, as the designated Prime Minister. In Fallujah, US forces handed power to a Baathist. The US even abandoned its new Iraqi flag in favor of the old Saddam-era flag.<\/p>\n

Then came the November presidential election.<\/p>\n

The polls closed and US forces swept back into Fallujah<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then came a series of votes–in January, October, and December 2005–that swept Iraqi Shiites into power.<\/p>\n

Scowcroft, it seems, had been a campaign prop–witting or unwitting. Nothing more.<\/p>\n

Will it be different this time?<\/p>\n

I have my doubts<\/a>, if only because–pace Scowcroft–I think the 2004 case–Fallujah, etc.–makes it clear that domestic political pressures (Rove) tend to put a brake on some of the most “adventurous” and “costly” Right Zionist policies. This administration is most “audacious” when it is most immune from retail politics.<\/p>\n

2007 could be another year of living dangerously.<\/p>\n

2. “Can we do it? Yes we Can!”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert Dreyfuss–aka, Bob the Baathist<\/a>–is certainly keen to see the US return power to the Baathists, presumably as a way of getting US troops home.<\/p>\n

Would it actually work? Would it turn out that way?<\/p>\n

Swopa<\/a>, for one, has long warned that such a move would likely generate a massive Shiite uprising.<\/p>\n

The madness of contemplating a coup, though, is that the same Shiite religious hierarchy which swept Allawi out of power through general elections in January 2005 has feared such a coup as their nightmare scenario all along, and so would almost instantly call for a popular uprising that would put the U.S. in helicopters-on-rooftops departure mode<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Shiite popular uprising is one problem. And then there are the Sunni insurgents who don’t want<\/em> to align themselves with the US, even in exchange for a role in governance.<\/p>\n

So, it would be a bloody mess (expect a media blackout, though; only the discredited Right Zionists will be complaining about the slaughter… the Right Arabist establishment that has been so happy to be featured on Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” while Right Zionists rule will suddenly stop taking her phone calls. Perle and Wolfowitz might call, but will Amy Goodman welcome them? We’ll see).<\/p>\n

But will it lead to “helicopters-on-rooftops” departure mode for the US?<\/p>\n

I don’t know. That may be one scenario. But the other scenario is a replay of the Shiite uprising of February\/March 1991.<\/p>\n

In that scenario, US troops align themselves with the old Iraqi military. Who will stand up for the Iraqi Shiites?<\/p>\n

Not Iran. Iran stood by in 1991. And Baker wants to “talk” to Iran<\/a> because he is going to make sure they will stand by this time, in exchange for a security guarantee.<\/p>\n

Not the Saudis, Egyptians, or Jordanians who have been complaining about a Shiite Crescent.<\/p>\n

And not the British.<\/p>\n

Indeed, if<\/em> the Baker coup is coming then it may be time to dig up the old files on British campaigns<\/a> to crush a Shiite rebellion and re-install Sunni Arab minority dominance when they inherited\/”invented” Iraq from the Ottomans after World War I.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is increasingly high-profile chatter these days about James Baker’s Iraq Study Group and the idea of a pro-Sunni Arab coup in Iraq. After a flurry of speculation that Baker would embrace the breakup of Iraq, I think that idea has been put to rest. In his October 9, 2006 appearance on The Daily Show, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,10,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}