Posted on 04/08/2003 10:11:54 PM PDT by a_Turk
The Iraqi opposition, for so many years waiting in exile, was back in central Iraq last night with more than 700 of its fighters, flown in by the US to help the Allied forces with their push to topple Saddam Hussein.
Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the London-based Iraqi National Congress (INC), was reportedly in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, having been flown in with his men from northern Iraq and another undisclosed location.
In a statement released in Kuwait, Mr Chalabi urged the Iraqi people to rise up against the regime. "The war of national liberation which Iraqis have waged for 30 years is now nearing its end," he said. "We call on the Iraqi people to join with us in removing the final remnants of Saddam's Baathist regime."
The statement from the INC said that the 700 fighters, equipped with light weapons, would be integrated into the general forces of what America has called "Operation Iraqi Freedom". They will ultimately serve under the command of US General Tommy Franks.
They are also to be involved in humanitarian work – including efforts to restore electricity and water supplies – in much of southern Iraq, now broadly under the control of American and British forces.
It is also possible that the fighters will be used in a law-and-order role. The Allied forces are desperately short of Arabic speaking skills as they enter what will in effect be a policing role.
Just how long that role will last is one of the big debates raging in Washington and London. Both have insisted that their forces and the military governors that they intend to install will not be here a day longer than is required.
The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has reportedly proposed to President George Bush that an interim Iraqi authority composed of exiled leaders should be installed quickly in the southern part of the country, partly to deflect international criticism that the US wishes to remain in control of Iraq indefinitely.
But in an interview, Mr Chalabi said he believed that US forces would need to remain in Iraq for at least two years before the situation was sufficiently stable for an Iraqi security force to police the country. He said it was essential that fair elections were held and that a democratic government was elected before the US forces pulled out.
"I'm not prepared to give a time frame. But we expect to have a constitution ratified within two years," he said in the interview last Thursday at a fortified complex in the Kurdish-controlled mountains of north-eastern Iraq before he flew to Nasiriyah.
Mr Chalabi's return to Iraq appears to represent the closing of a circle in regard to his position as a key part of the Iraqi opposition. He was once considered Washington's closest ally in the opposition diaspora, though for some he has lost credibility for predicting that Allied forces would encounter no opposition from Iraqi forces and that people would rise up against the regime.
Asked about this he said: "The army did not fight to defend Saddam. The marines and the US 3rd Division cut like knife through butter, through two divisions of the Republican Guard near Baghdad in less than 24 hours.
"The US government had asked the Iraqi people not to do an uprising. They asked them to stay at home when military operations were going on."
Mr Chalabi's credibility has also been dented by fraud allegations. The former banker has been sentenced to 22 years of hard labour in Jordan for fraud and embezzlement charges that he denies.
There is no doubt, however, as to the strength of support he enjoys among Iraqi exiles. At a US Marine camp in Nasiriyah, The Independent met an Iraqi exile, Mousa al-Mousa, 31, who had fought against the Americans during the 1991 Gulf War, surrendered, became a US citizen and was among the first exiled Iraqis to sign up to join US forces after the passing of the 1998 Iraqi Liberation Act.
Now serving with the civil affairs group of the US Marines, he said he wanted to break away from what he was doing and serve with Mr Chalabi's people in Nasiriyah. "I think this is what I want to do," he said.
Asked about the high number of civilian casualties in Nasiriyah – doctors said 250 people were killed – he said: "There are lots of people getting killed but I think that to get rid of Saddam Hussein after 35 years, it is a price worth paying."
Such was Mr Mousa's loyalty to Mr Chalabi that he flew to northern Iraq from his home in Michigan in 1996 when the INC leader was trying to lead an uprising. The attempt failed and soured relations between the INC and the Kurds, who felt the uprising could have exposed them to revenge attacks from Baghdad. The relationship between the INC and the Kurds of northern Iraq has not greatly improved.
And we do know that they have an election authority. Saddam just won 100% of the votes with 100% of the population voting, remember?
I'm sure it will be months after the shooting stops before anything resembling an election could be held, but I don't think it's an insurmountable problem.
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