Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, believes the power of a centralized government in Baghdad should be “lessened,” and more autonomy given the 18 provinces that comprise Iraq. It’s a relatively new concept, the younger Talabani told an audience at the University of South Carolina, last week. It is an idea that will put his country on a governing fast-forward, and one in which Iraq’s neighbors are watching with particular interest, perhaps even concern.

I’ll get to the concerns as expressed by Talabani in a moment. Let’s first consider the idea and the current dynamics in Iraq.

According to Talabani, Iraq needs to form representative regional governments encompassing more than one province. “The country cannot again be ruled by a centralized authority,” he says. The Iraqi people have an inherent fear of a centralization of power, and a general mistrust of those outside their own communities.

Talabani points to his native region, Kurdistan – from which he serves as a representative to the United States – as an example of how this idea might be implemented.

“Iraqi Kurdistan [comprised of six provinces] has its own regional government, its own parliament,” he says. “Other parts of the country are looking at forming similar regions so they can govern themselves with as much autonomy as possible over their own affairs, thus reducing the powers of the central government. By reducing such powers, you will reduce the different communities’ insecurities because of the mistrust that exists today.”

He adds, “At the moment, Baghdad is the prize and everybody is fighting over it. We need to reduce the relevance of that prize so that we reduce the level of tension throughout Iraq.”

SADDAM’S LEGACY

The mistrust and tension, Talabani says, is a part of Saddam Hussein’s legacy, pitting one community against the other, as well as instilling fear from cruelties committed by the former regime against all segments of the population.

“My own region, Kurdistan, was decimated by Saddam,” Talabani says. “He destroyed about 4,000 villages, killed about 200,000 people, and used chemical and biological weapons in over 250 incidences – primarily against civilians.”

Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, most Kurds believed themselves to be the only victims of Saddam’s brutality. “But when the regime fell, we realized that Iraqi Arabs were also victims,” Talabani says. “We recovered hundreds-of-thousands of bodies in mass graves across the country, many of which were dedicated to children three to six-years-old. Most had been experimented on by the regime. I cannot describe the carnage and brutality in a way that you would be able to comprehend just how bad it really was.”

OFT’ SKIRTED NEWS

Despite problems stemming from fear and mistrust, Talabani is quick to point out the ongoing, and too-often underreported, positive developments in Iraq.

“Of the 18 different governorates [provinces] – similar to the states you have here in the U.S. – 13 or 14 of them are relatively calm and stable,” he says. “People are going about their daily lives and trying to rebuild the country.”

Additionally, the military and police forces are taking the lead, as opposed to U.S. and coalition forces (which were doing so a year ago), in operations aimed at quashing sectarian violence, terrorism, and crime.

“Today, Iraqis are out front, firing the first bullets,” says Talabani. “The Americans are now the ones in support.” He adds, Iraqi men, eager to serve in the security forces, are literally defying death to serve. “Time and again, the insurgents target recruiting centers,” he says. “But every time a recruiting center is bombed, the next day we see twice the number of recruits trying to enlist in the army.”

Despite the impatience and complexities surrounding the forming of a national unity government, there also has been enormous political progress in Iraq since the fall of Saddam. Iraq has held three overwhelmingly successful national elections. The last of which was a turnout of nearly 12 million people, more than 75-percent of Iraq’s eligible voters. Iraq now has a constitution and freely elected representatives from all regions and all ideological quarters.

“In Saddam’s day, 99 percent would have turned out for an election, because if you did not vote, you would be arrested,” says Talabani. “And he always managed to get 100 percent of the vote. Today we have thousands of candidates. We have a healthy system where people of different ideologies from Islamic organizations to secular groups are all trying to debate their issues on the political front. We have representatives from the different communities negotiating, bargaining, sometimes bickering over the formation of the new government. We know that some are impatient here [in the U.S.], and it is frustrating for us all, but the reality is politics are complex in Iraq, a multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian, opinionated society.”

SERIOUS CHALLENGES

Not one to sweeten facts, Talabani concedes there are serious problems and challenges ahead. Sectarian violence did indeed spike after the bombing of the Golden Dome shrine in Samarra. The terrorists are still operating in Iraq. And Iraqi society still bears the scars of the old regime.

“A colleague of mine once said that when the war is over, we are not only going to require several-hundred-thousand U.S. troops, but we are going to require several-hundred-thousand U.S. psychiatrists,” he says. “The citizens of Iraq have gone through a very traumatic last-few decades. It’s going to take a long time to rebuild our society and our trust in our neighbors.”

Economic development woes are perhaps the most important challenge facing the new Iraq, because economic problems fuel any unrest.

“We still cannot provide adequate electricity throughout the country,” he says. Continued...