They just got a different tool to use than we do: They kill innocent lives to achieve objectives. That's what they do. And they're good. They get on the TV screens and they get people to ask questions about, well, you know, this, that or the other. I mean, they're able to kind of say to people: Don't come and bother us, because we will kill you. Bush - Joint News Conference with Blair - 28 July '06

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Iraq: Ministries of 'political profit'

azzaman: Sectarian divisions and the run for illegal profits are the main hallmark of the new era, ushered in by U.S. 'liberation' troops.

Indeed sectarian affiliation has now replaced loyalty to the country and the flag. You no longer need to be an honest and patriotic citizen to get a government job, for example.

Sectarianism has become the road to riches, influence and government jobs.

The American occupier, already in a quagmire, has a big role in this. There is no need for the U.S.-installed Iraqi governments or officials to hide their sectarian tendencies. Iraqis are well aware of the tragedies such polices have brought to the nation.

The ministries are divided along sectarian lines. Therefore when a new minister assumes his post, the first thing he does is to exclude employees who belong to the opposite sect and replace them by members of his own sect.

This does not happen at the senior levels and posts. The new minister strives to make sure that members of sects other than his own should not be appointed even as janitors.

Cabinet ministers owe their existence and loyalty to the sectarian and ethnic parties that gave them their posts. To please their masters, these ministers resort to practices that are even worse than those reported to have taken place when the former leader Saddam Hussein was in power.

The ministries receive their instructions and orders from their political factions whose main target is to strengthen their popular and military base in the country.

Government officials are keen to enroll their employees in the parties they belong to. As a result the ministries have become arenas for sectarian rivalry and to hell with reconstruction, living standards and public amenities.

Cabinet ministers today have very little to do with human and constitutional rights. To please their sectarian factions, they apply rules that are comparable to those under the former Talaban government in Afghanistan.

Administrative and political formations close to those of the Talaban have taken roots in many ministries and many provinces in the country.

Shrouding such practices with then name of Islam, has given these ministers leeway to achieve their short-sighted sectarian goals at the expense of the nation.

The U.S.-sponsored administrations' aim has been to make as much profit, whether economic or political, as possible in the time they have been in office.

Iraq is in need of a government that puts an end to political feudalism and sectarianism.

Iraq needs a government that puts loyalty to the country above political and sectarian allegiance. Link