The Independent reports just how little the IGC(Iraqi Governing Council) knows about the customs and culture of Iraq. Once again, the U.S. resorts to using outdated material in order to get round a current troubling situation. At least this time, Powell won't be going to the UN and waving a student's thesis about.

Coalition uses 1918 British report on tribal system

By David Usborne in New York and Glen Rangwala
18 January 2004

As the United States scrambles to end a dispute with Shia leaders over plans to elect an interim government in Iraq before July, it has emerged that American commanders are seeking to reach out to tribal leaders by relying on a report devised in 1918 by Britain, the country's then ruler.

Lieutenant-Colonel Alan King, head of the Tribal Affairs Bureau set up by the US-led coalition last month, admitted last week that he had been referring to the pages of the British report to fathom Iraq's network of tribal sheikhs - regardless of the fact that it dates back to the First World War.

The revelation is not likely to improve confidence in the ability of the US to sort out the deepening muddle over how it means to relinquish political power to the Iraqi people by this summer. The plan to create an interim government before a 30 June deadline has been in doubt since objections were raised last week by the powerful Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani. His words set off mass demonstrations against the proposal in southern Iraq on Thursday.

The American head of the occupying coalition, Paul Bremer, indicated on Friday, after talks in Washington with President Bush, that he will be flexible in how the process might run. He suggested, however, that Ayatollah Sistani's demand for fully fledged direct elections would be impractical. One of the problems Mr Bremer faces is having to deal with the cleric through intermediaries, as Ayatollah Sistani refuses to meet him. Much more at link

Read the entire piece. It is very good. This is a glaring example of just how ill prepared we were to go into Iraq. Gulf war 2 was ill-conceived, poorly orchestrated and now is likely to reduce America's ability to respond to real threats around the globe.

No one in Washington seems to have a clue about how to effectively deal with the Iraqi situation. I am certain that there are people with the expertise to oversee things in Iraq, and who understand things a lot better than members of this administration, but you'll never hear those voices. Pretty sad.