{"id":247,"date":"2007-02-27T08:20:13","date_gmt":"2007-02-27T13:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=247"},"modified":"2007-02-27T22:33:11","modified_gmt":"2007-02-28T03:33:11","slug":"a-shiite-tilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=247","title":{"rendered":"A Shiite Tilt?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Language\" content=\"en-us\" \/> <meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=windows-1252\" \/><title>Those trying to discern any impl<\/title>Those trying to discern any implicit political tilt to the Baghdad security  plan should not be satisfied by White House professions of (and demands for)  political neutrality and even handedness.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the best way to trace the contours of US policy is to listen for the  howls of protest.<\/p>\n<p>Here comes one now, and it suggests a pro-Shiite tilt.\u00c2\u00a0 Here is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/worldlatest\/story\/0,,-6442081,00.html\"> Associated Press<\/a> story:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The most prominent Sunni in Iraq&#8217;s fragmented government said Monday that  \tthe United States is going to have to come up with a &#8220;Plan B&#8221; if the  \tcurrent crackdown fails to stem the violence in the capital.<\/p>\n<p>Tariq al-Hashemi, the Sunni vice president, also warned that the Shiite-led  \tgovernment has no choice but to use force against sectarian militias, even  \tthough it may be too late to keep them from resuming killings and  \tkidnappings when the Baghdad security crackdown ends&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>The option of a political solution failed, and there is no choice  \tnow for the government except to use force against these militias &#8211; but it&#8217;s  \ttoo late<\/strong>,&#8221; he said&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Up to now, legal procedures have not been observed,&#8221; al-Hashemi said.  \t&#8220;The human rights of Iraqis have not been respected as they should be. In  \tthis regard, <strong>this (security) plan is being implemented in the same way  \tthe previous ones were. This is surely regrettable<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, he said efforts to lure Sunni insurgents to lay down their  \tarms was &#8220;moving at the speed of turtles&#8221; because the Shiite parties are  \treluctant &#8220;to bring them into the political process.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They view the resistance as a terror group that is no different from al-Qaida  \tand that&#8217;s the problem we are facing now,&#8221; he said of the Shiites.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Those trying to discern any implThose trying to discern any implicit political tilt to the Baghdad security plan should not be satisfied by White House professions of (and demands for) political neutrality and even handedness. Instead, the best way to trace the contours of US policy is to listen for the howls of protest. Here [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247"}],"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=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}