Less than a week ago we learned that Iraq's top Sunni official was setting a deadline of May 15th for there to be significant progress on making changes to the Iraqi constitution. In an interview with CNN Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi announced plans to pull his political bloc out of the government -- and resign as vice-president -- on May 15 if promised constitutional changes were not made.
This is the way the Iraqi Study Group described this key figure:
"Hashimi is one of two vice presidents of Iraq and the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Muslim bloc in parliament. Hashimi opposes the formation of autonomous regions and has advocated the distribution of oil revenues based on population, a reversal of de-:Baathification, and the removal of Shiite militia fighters from the Iraqi security forces. Shiite death squads have recently killed three of his siblings."
He has also recently come under pressure from Sunni elements
The vice president is feeling the heat on all sides. Al Qaeda in Iraq -- which is made up of Sunni extremists -- recently issued a warning to him, saying he was on the "wrong political path." Al-Hashimi said that al Qaeda is gaining strength in some areas, including parts of Baghdad, because Sunnis were frustrated by the lack of political progress.
On Wednesday the 9th Hashimi met with Vice President Cheney who had come to Baghdad to try to advance political reconciliation
During his day in Baghdad, Cheney also met with Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni who is one of Iraq's two vice presidents. At the meeting, Hashimi asked for the release of detainees who are languishing in custody without being charged and called for greater Sunni participation in the Shiite-led government. . .
But time moves very fast indeed in Baghdad because now we learn from Juan Cole via McClatchy that among the many acts of violence on Saturday the 13 was this
-Around 9 a.m., a roadside bomb exploded in the Amiriya neighborhood, targeting civilians. Among the injured civilians was the son of Iraqi vice president Tariq al-Hashimi.
As of now there seems to be no sign that Cheney's visit to the area has broken the log jam in the Iraqi Parliament or that any of the changes demanded by the Sunni party headed by Hashimi will be forthcoming any time soon, let alone by the Tuesday deadline.
The whole idea about having smart people in Washington who spend their time looking at the world and trying to see where it is going is that only in this way can a nation hope to stay ahead of events rather than just be pushed along by them. It looks like Cheney's trip to Baghdad was an attempt to stave off a collapse of any hope of political reconciliation in Iraq, but at this point it looks to have been way too little and way too late.
And meanwhile, back in Washington, the whole argument seems to be over whether we will take another look at our military and political progress in Iraq sometime in July or sometime in September. It is like when the Mad Hatter pulls out his watch and announces that it is two days slow. It seems to me that Washington time is many months if not years slow when it comes to keeping up with the events in Baghdad.