Though we have federalism in USA, the states have not exercised the rights a
lot. The diversity is not that great for the states to go their own way. Also
most people want to be an American first, then a Texan or a Californian.
If federalism fits the needs in Iraq, why not? Who says power needs to remain
in Baghdad?
Taking it further, who says Delhi has to control all of India? Why can't
there be federalism in India? Do some people including the central leaders
think federalism exists in India already?
Dilip Deka
==================================================
Shiite leader backs Iraqi regional plan
By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 56 minutes ago
BAGHDAD - The son and heir apparent of Iraq's top Shiite politician came out
strongly Saturday in favor of autonomy for Iraq's religiously and ethnically
divided regions, a potentially explosive issue on Iraq's already highly
polarized political landscape.
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Ammar al-Hakim, who is being groomed to take over the Supreme Islamic Iraqi
Council, the country's largest Shiite party, has been a firm supporter of
federalism from the outset. But his unusually strident language appeared to
signal growing impatience with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's inaction on key
issues and his failure to bring fractured groups together.
Addressing hundreds of supporters at the party's Baghdad headquarters,
al-Hakim called on Iraqis to press ahead with the creation of self-rule
regions, but cautioned that the country's unity must be safeguarded.
"Federalism is one way to accomplish this goal," he said.
He said Baghdad's monopoly of power over decision-making and national wealth
had turned the central government into a "tyrannical and dominating" body.
"I call on the sons of our nation to create their (self-rule) regions,"
al-Hakim said.
The idea of breaking up Iraq into self-rule entities has gained traction in
Washington after two lawmakers Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Sen. Sam
Brownback, R-Kan. proposed giving more control to ethnically and religiously
divided regions.
A nonbinding resolution to that effect won Senate approval last month, but
Republicans supported it only after the measure was amended to make clear that
President Bush should press for a new federalized system only if the Iraqis
wanted it.
Al-Maliki and other Iraqi politicians denounced the decision as an
infringement on Iraq's sovereignty. But President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd and
firm proponent of federalism, praised the resolution, saying it cemented Iraq's
unity and opposed its breakup.
Al-Hakim is the son of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the Supreme Council leader who
was diagnosed with cancer in May and has been receiving chemotherapy treatment
in Iran.
The younger al-Hakim delivered the remarks in a sermon commemorating the
start of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr feast that marks the end of Ramadan, the
Islamic month of fasting. His father, the organization's patriarch, greeted
well-wishers at the ceremony but did not address the crowd.
The Supreme Council has been a staunch backer of federalism and wants the
country's mainly Shiite and oil-rich south become a self-rule region similar to
that established 16 years ago by minority Kurds in northern Iraq.
The Iraqi constitution, adopted two years ago, provides for a federal system.
A year ago, parliament pushed through a law allowing the formation of federal
regions but not for 18 months.
Regardless, federal regions cannot be formed before nationwide elections are
first held for local councils. Those councils will decide on seeking union with
other provinces to form a federal region. No date has been set for the vote
because parliament has yet to pass legislation on the organization of local
elections.
The law is one of several Washington has been pressing al-Maliki's government
to push through parliament to enhance reconciliation. Others would ensure
equitable distribution of oil wealth and reinstatement of Saddam Hussein
loyalists in government jobs.
Al-Maliki has failed to achieve progress on the wanted legislation despite a
major eight-month-old security drive in Baghdad and surrounding regions that
was launched in part to give him the room he needs to make political
compromises.
The joint U.S.-Iraqi operation has reduced the level of violence but failed
to stem it altogether. On Saturday, a spokesman said Iraqi forces clashed with
suspected al-Qaida-linked insurgents during a four-day operation in a Sunni
enclave in central Baghdad.
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, said 48 gunmen
were killed in the fighting, in which Iraqi army soldiers were supported by
local Sunni tribesmen and other civilians who have turned against al-Qaida in
the volatile Fadhil neighborhood. The U.S. military did not immediately
respond to a request for comment. Saturday, however, saw Iraq's civilian
death toll fall to its lowest level in recent memory, with only four people
killed or found dead nationwide, according to reports from police, morgue
officials and credible witnesses. The daily number of civilians killed, not
including those on days when there were massive casualties from car bombings,
had climbed above 100 at the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007. Still,
security is the main concern in Iraq, more than four years after the U.S.
invasion, but the question of federalism is potentially explosive and could
deepen the sectarian divide. Iraq's once-dominant Sunni Arabs, for
example, fear that it would lead to the country's breakup into a Shiite south
and a Kurdish north, both with considerable oil wealth, leaving Sunnis the
resource-poor central region. They see the creation of an autonomous region in
the south as a scheme engineered by Shiite, non-Arab Iran to gain a permanent
foothold in Iraq. But not all of Iraq's majority Shiites back autonomy. The
Sadrists, a parliamentary bloc loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, are
flatly opposed to it, while others, like al-Maliki's Dawa Party, warn that
federalism could deepen Iraq's security and sectarian woes if implemented soon.
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