Crime and Punishment

Saturday November 21

Haifa Zankana, in her regular AlQuds alArabi op-ed today (p. 19, if you need to use the archives) compares Maliki's deal with the Americans to the sale of indulgences by the Church of Rome in the 16th century (this came to a head when when Leo X, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, short of money for the rebuilding of the Basilica, ordered the stepped-up marketing of indulgences for sin as a fund-raising measure, scandalizing Luther among others). The difference with Maliki, she writes, is that absolution is offered not just to individuals for their sins, but to the entire British-American criminal project including the unprovoked attack on the country in 2003, and the destruction, killings and other crimes that followed. It's the same idea, and all of the collaborators with the Maliki government are in on it.

The differences between the various groups in the Maliki government are like the differences between the person that brings the knife to the killer, the person that puts it through the heart of the victim, and those others who stand aside in satisfaction. The differences are superficial, but the essence of the participation in the killing of the Iraqi homeland is without excuse. The bankrupt Pope and Church of the [16th] century sold indulgences to collect wealth, at the expense of religion, moral principles and values. What we have here is the occupation government headed by Maliki selling to the occupation forces, not only the future of Iraq [he noted earlier there is also a long-term strategic framework agreement included in the package] but also indulgences for the killing of a million and a half Iraqi martyrs, all in exchange for their acquisition of wealth, the slaking of their thirst for revenge, and the chance of being granted asylum in the countries of the occupation once they are expelled from by their own, and by their own people.

Because their fate, which they themselves have chosen, is within the womb of the occupation, and they are linked to it by an umbilical cord, which will be severed on the day that [the occupation forces] withdraw.

It is also worth noting that the parties that are expected to vote together in Monday for ratification of the agreement(s) are themselves already at loggerheads, with Barzani threatening Talabani (for not being tough on Maliki's creation of support councils in territory Barzani considers his), who in turn is threatening Maliki (with the possibility of replacing him with a "government of national unity(!)", who for his part accuses the whole presidency council of ignoring the constitution in permitting Kurdish oil contracts and so on and so forth. Links at RoadstoIraq. It is almost as if the gang was starting to come apart of its own accord, ahead of time, in anticipation.