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By Harith Hasan
The Iraqi government and the leaders of the country’s ruling political factions have every reason for alarm. The US–Israeli war on Iran—and its profound consequences for Iraq’s security, political stability, and economy—has produced a national crisis.
Yet in Baghdad, political debate is still fixated on who will occupy which positions, what authority and resources they will control, and how to manage factional and personal rivalries through shifting, short-term bargains. Iraq’s political factions seem to be living in a parallel universe.
Their discussions do not seriously engage with how Iraq can navigate the current crisis with minimal losses.
Most important, Iraq’s ruling political elite—long accustomed to calibrating its choices to maintain a degree of balance between Iranian and US interests—did not adequately prepare itself for a wartime scenario in which even minimal common ground between Washington and Tehran became difficult to sustain.
Harith Hasan interviews Iraqi official. Photo courtesy of the Arab Center of Washington DC
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Syndicated columnist, radio host, writer at Ray HananiaRay Hanania is an award-winning columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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