IRAQ - BLUEPRINT FOR PEACE

As the conflict in Iraq grinds on in a seemingly endless cycle of sectarian violence and counter violence, very little has been done, its seems, to get a permanent and lasting solution in terms of obtaining stability and personal and financial security within Iraq's population.

Elections were held throughout the country that could have provided some stability were it not for rather complicated religious, economic and even tribal demographics of the country.

The results of these elections were handled incompetently, coming complete with the settling of old scores, an externally-driven insurgency as well as interference from U.S.-led occupation forces and undisciplined and badly trained military and police forces. The end result was chaos, as was long expected by the more knowledgeable observers. As the many, no doubt good intended, overtures for peace have all come and gone and as the U.S. intent and competency in Iraq have all but disappeared along with its credibility, clearer, more radical and more workable solutions need to be found.

While the process I am proposing is not a very difficult one, the drafting and flexible implementation of such processes could be time-consuming in terms of some of the drafting and implementation. That being the case, time and motion factors should not be relevant in relation to the process in a major way.

The proposal that I am putting here is one of a number of options, some more radical than others.

In simplified methodology, the proposal revolves around a State-Federal system with three States within a Federal Iraq. The entity of Iraq could be known as "The Federation of Iraqi States". A President would be Head-of-State of Iraq. A Prime Minister would be head of Government while Governors, or Premiers, would head State Parliaments.The States would be created along religious lines with Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish States each running their own Parliament, their own State economies, their own police forces, health systems, infrastructure, and their own legal system and judiciary for State matters. While it would be highly likely that the States would be dominated by religious factions, the State Parliaments must be run along secular lines as to ensure that all within any particular State has an equal representative voice within each State.

The Federal Government would have its own Parliament with two chambers, one being a House of Representative style chamber while an Upper House representation would be on a State-by-State basis. The Federal Government would be responsible for defence, the national economy, national reconstruction and reconciliation, national infrastructure as well as the national judiciary. Entities within the Federal structure would also ensure that any benefits of the national economy would be distributed equally and fairly among the three States. The Federal Parliament should run along secular lines as to ensure fair representation.

Federal representation in the representative chamber would be one vote, one value with an equal number of seats per head of population while the House of Review would be one vote, one value with an equal representation per each State.

Baghdad would initially be the Iraqi capital, governed initially by the National Government. A site for a new national capital would eventually be sought.

Each State and the National Government would, through their individual constitutions, guarantee freedom of religion, freedom of speech and the media.

Local representation would be village or city based with those entities providing basic local Government services. Elected representatives would provide the decision-making process but essentially, local Government would be run by professionals and other qualified persons on a day-to-day basis.

Given the nature of Iraq and the locations where its revenues are generated from, the system of wealth and economic distribution and the processes of reconstruction are extremely delicate and therefore external expert advice may well be required in order to enable proper implementation. Such advice should not involve U.S., U.K., or Australian representation. Assistance could be provided by other countries on a state-to-state basis through their representatives or be provided through other independent organisations or independent individuals.

There must also be a totally independent vehicle or organisation where those currently opposing processes must be able to be heard without being endangered or compromised.  Such negotiation would automatically require a cease-fire commitment. Some of such discussions have already taken place and are still in progress. I have a few organisations in mind to be further included in such processes but once again, none must involve U.S., Australian or U.K. representation.

The role of the military in Iraq would be solely to defend the country and to assist the nation in cases of disasters and other such events. It would be totally independent, non-political, non-aligned and non-religious and will take orders from the Government of the day. While the current military and police forces are being retrained, the focus of training would function along the lines of what is being proposed.

Once agreements as to participation is dealt with, expert advisers from all sorts of walks of life would be on hand to advise, not dictate, processes. Such people could come from anywhere in the world and may be sponsored by the Arab League, the E.U., minus the U.K. and individual countries, minus the U.S. and Australia.

As far as I am concerned, the U.S. and its allies have no further role to play in Iraq, they have done enough damage already and any external defence and security assistance should come from within the Middle-East or from neutral countries. The only thing remaining for the U.S. and its allies to contemplate is .to find the departure lounge at Baghdad Airport. There is no further role for the U.S in the Middle East as everything this current Government touches has turned to the proverbial brown matter.

The above is just a tiny spectrum of the actual proposal that I put which, tiny as it is, gives an overall view of what could work in Iraq and what simply would not. This particular proposal is not perfect but it is flexible, enabling modification as to suit local conditions and preference.

Finally, the time has come for the U.S. and her allies to depart. The time has come to cease-fire, and time has come to work towards a peaceful and prosperous Iraq through negotiation and workable and fair-to-all Government and support processes.

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David F says on 2007-02-20 12:36:24 about Blueprint for Peace. YES. I'll drink to that. Give the man a beer.

Henk Luf. says on 2007-02-20 11:52:49 about Blueprint for Peace. A slightly anti-American tone did you say Tony?. No I don't think the tone is anti-America or anti-American. Anti your current incompetent President who, in my view, has wasted over 3,000 valuable military lives and many more Iraqi lives, wasted billions of dollars worth of valuable resources and wasted a region in the process. What for might you ask? All because Bush and his neocon mates and hangers-on were looking for a bit of revenge and as he could not find the real culprits for 9/11, he found Iraq very convenient regardless of the fact that Sadam was a half-witted and grubby little dictator. In the process Bush has damaged the US reputation down to levels never seen before and turned the US into the world's laughing stock. I hope he will be happy with his archievements because I can tell you that the families of over 3000 dead Americans serving their country the best they could and the families of the hundreds of thousands Iraqi that have been killed are certainly not happy with George W. I think that the whole Iraq adventure was a disgusting farce. Regards to all. Henk.

Tony says on 2007-02-20 07:48:18 about Blueprint for peace. I agree with the other two comments. Dividing Iraq into three countries will result in one scenario. It is called a bloodbath. Some would call it stupidity. Do I detect a slightly anti-US tone in Mr Luf's articles? And rightly so.

BD says on 2007-02-20 05:21:28 about Blueprint for Peace As a person working in the intelligence industry, Mr Luf's proposal looks the most logical solution that I have seen thus far. Many theories, including one advocating the spitting of Iraq, are dangerous and disasterous. They are known in the trade as 'the boofhead scenario'. Unlike some other rampantly stupid theories that I have seen in recent months, this proposal looks credible too me warranting further investigation. A job well done.

Helen C. NZ says on 2007-02-19 10:05:41 about Blueprint for Peace. This perhaps the first time anyone has had the insight to come up with positive and constructive proposals. I, like so many others, am sick and tired of those providing analysis and very little else in terms of solid workable solutions. This is very solid and detailed work by this journalist. I hope people listen.

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