In the span of roughly a week, Iraq's new interim leaders have passed sweeping emergency laws, promised to "crush" troublemakers and use a "very sharp sword" to combat unrepentant insurgents.
The tough talk in tougher times has earned the applause of many Iraqis weary of the tide of violence gripping the country.
Analysts say the pugilistic propaganda is not only intended to intimidate, but also to separate, in the minds of Iraqis, the homegrown insurgents from the foreign fighters.
The latest verbal salvo was fired Monday, when President Ghazi al-Yawer said the government had "a very sharp sword ready for anyone who threatens the security of this country."
"He's using a language that these insurgents understand," said Guity Nashat, an Iraq expert at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "The sharp sword has worked before in Iraq."
The reference to the sword was not lost on Iraqis. Rooted in Arab tribal traditions, it was aimed at Islamic radicals who have decapitated two foreigners since April and threatened to slaughter several other hostages if coalition forces do not withdraw from the country.
Iraq's interim leaders have repeatedly said such incidents are spearheaded by foreign fighters and have sought to draw a clear line between foreign extremists and Iraqis waging a nationalist uprising.
Days earlier, after insurgents fired mortars that landed near his home, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi vowed that "these criminals will not only fail, they will be crumbled."
Allawi, whose links to the CIA have elicited mixed responses from Iraqis, said that "all Iraqis will unite to crush these foreign criminals."
As it threatens, though, the government also says it plans to offer amnesty for some insurgents, a move analysts and officials say is designed to bring into the political fold groups that have viewed the new leaders as lackeys of the US. Elections are scheduled for January.
These steps "are necessary if they are to restore law and order," said Nashat. "And that security is necessary before you can have democratic elections in Iraq."
The comments earned a grin from many in Baghdad, where car bombings and other attacks have shattered any semblance of a normal life.
"Iraqis can't be ruled without the whip," said Khalid al-Hafith, a 31-year-old cook, adding that the country's history, stretching several centuries, is one of firm, unyielding and, in the case of former president Saddam Hussein, despotic rulers.
"For all our lives we have not tasted freedom. We've wanted it, but we need a strong hand to secure it," said al-Hafith.
Pointing to damaged buildings within sight of Saddam's palace compound, which was used as the headquarters of the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority, he shrugs.
"Look around you, does this looks like security?" he said.
Just days after the June 28 handover of sovereignty, Iraqi officials announced the passage of sweeping emergency laws that allow for extraordinary steps such as curfews and backing up police with paramilitary forces, among other measures. But they were also careful to stress the safeguards against abuse written into the laws, which were announced by both the country's interim justice and human rights ministers.
That move is expected to be supplemented by the issuing of an amnesty to insurgents who have not been implicated in particularly egregious crimes.
The laws give the government legal means to crack down on restive areas, such as Fallujah or Ramadi in the so-called Sunni Triangle.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema