Dexter Filkins and Richard Oppel Jr. get right to the point in their NYT’s article:
Iraqi leaders on Saturday approved a full-term government here for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein more than three years ago, but one that appeared to lack the cohesion needed to quell the sectarian and guerrilla violence that has brought the country to the brink of civil war.
Iraq created their government today and named 36 ministers. But they couldn’t fill the most crucial positions at the Ministries of Defense, Interior and National Security. This is really the moment of truth. We’ve invested hundreds of billions of dollars and ruined or lost the lives of tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. We have made these sacrifices in an effort to replace an odious dictator with something better. So far, we failed to improve the economy, increase oil production, or the supply of electricity. The country is embroiled in one deadly terrorist attack after another. Kidnapping is rampant. Mass executions occur every day.
We have been waiting for the Iraqi government to organize itself, and it appears incapable of taking care of the single most important job they have…providing internal security for the Iraqi people. The Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites simply cannot agree to cede or share power with each other. It is hoped that Prime Minister Miliki will be able to fill the positions in the coming week. However, filling the positions is not going to erase the underlying problem.
…Sunnis like Mr. Mutlaq said they were discouraged about their future role in the government.
“This is going to be a very aggressive government,” Mr. Mutlaq said after the vote. “It is going to be a very tough government. A lot of blood is going to be spilled.”
The unfortunate reality for Iraqis is that there is no way for the government to restore order without being very aggressive and spilling a lot of blood. Saddam Hussein was insane and sadistic, but that doesn’t fully explain why Iraq was run as a Stalinist police state. The tribal, ethnic, and sectarian rivalries of Iraq are such that it is extremely difficult to govern.
Here is my message for my fellow Americans. We do not want to be associated with either success or failure with the new Iraqi government. If they succeed in putting down the insurgency it will only be at the expense of the very human rights and democracy we claim to defend. It will require Saddamesque tactics. If they fail, and the government fails, what are we left with?
The Iraqi people are going to suffer a very sad fate as a result of our invasion and occupation of their country. We can do very little more to lesson the blow of the cruel fate we’ve delivered them. They now have held elections, seated a 275 member parliament, and chosen most of their ministers. It’s time for us to announce a timetable for withdrawal.
The Iraqi government needs to make up a list of the things they would like from us. We should supply them with the tools they will need to create and maintain security in their country. And we can agree to provide intelligence, logistical support, training, equipment maintenance, etc. If they would like a new Air Force or Navy or armored division, we can supply those things and the technicians they will need to use them. But, the vast majority of American troops need to retreat from Iraq into nearby bases. We cannot be a referee over a civil war, and the time has come in Iraq for the central government to engage in and win that civil war.
Iraq is the biggest tragedy to befall America since our own civil war. We cannot the escape the consequences of Bush’s reckless madness. We will be tarnished not only for what has already happened in Iraq, but even more so for what the new Iraqi government is about to do. Even as we support them they are about to wage a lethal war on their own citizens. It will be a war that is likely to cause the swift dissolution of parliament, as minority parties resign in protest. But there can be no indefinite postponement of the score settlings…not at a cost of $10 billion a month and scores of casualties…not with no improvement or abatement of the security problems.
It’s time to tell the American people that we have stood up a government and they will stand or fall without the crutch of over 100,000 American soldiers. If we do not use this opportunity to announce a timetable for withdrawal, we will find ourselves presiding over the complete dissolution of Iraq right under our feet.
There will never be a better time to declare victory and come home than the moment Iraq finally names their security ministers. Every day after that will be more tragic and terrible than the day before it.
And if there is any prospect of this government holding together and avoiding a brutal civil war, it will be helpful for them to be able to announce that the Americans are leaving.
I can’t believe how badly Bush has blundered and how terrible the consequences have become. Let’s stop compounding the problem. Let’s stop pretending that the consequences can be put off forever. We need to take our lumps and admit that we have failed in our mission in Iraq. There is no better opportunity to take that step than the week the Iraqi government is finally seated and their ministers announced.
We gave them a Democracy, however flawed. Leaving our presence open-ended at this point only serves to undermine the legitimacy of the new government and allows them to avoid taking the horrifying measures that will surely be needed to create order.
I know that Bush is not going to take my advice. I know that we are going to stay in Iraq until either another President is sworn in, or another Congress cuts the funding. And that means that we will fail all that more spectacularly. The parliament will fail on our watch, while the human rights abuses will make a mockery of our professed beliefs and purposes for being there. And we will surely be blamed for the atrocities.
It’s a hard thing to witness…the humiliation and destruction of two great countries under the leadership of George Walker Bush. But there it is. A clusterfuck.
As I posted in another thread, Today, The Independent UK has Patrick Cockburn reporting,
“Iraq is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold on a massive scale.”
and get this, in a related leading article,(subscription required)
“Iraq is being ethnically cleansed, and our troops can do nothing”
Published: 20 May 2006
I never thought I’d ever read such a headline…’our troops can do nothing’, but watch!! We have taken Iraq all the way to Bosnia. Now we dare not leave. Ever. Yet, there’s nothing we can do?
On the other hand, this chaos suited a certain hidden agenda. What does the chaos have to do with building the world’s largest US embassy, and bases too, in secret while all along denying we would be staying?
We had no plans for a quick exit. None. Another lie.
“We” have a timetable for withdrawal, which is one part of the international agreements on the “situation in Iraq”. As is too often the case, writer’s perspectives are almost totally U.S.-centric. What we do, how do we disengage/end the conflict? The correct question is what do the Iraqi people want and need?
Last week the third in a series of business conferences devoted to Iraq was held in Jordan. Not much attention given in the U.S. press. Nor to the fact that Iraq is moving forward in spite of the Bush administration on rebuilding their Country. (See IraqRevenueWatch, among others).
I think we need to show some respect for that “clusterfuck”. It is comprised of 25 million human beings, most doing their damndest just to turn the lights on and take a shit without having it back up in their houses. If the greater collective “media” – including “blogs” – ever gets off it’s collective dead ass and actually reads the information coming out of Iraq, they might find the Iraqi people agree with the notion of “phased withdrawal”.
Not sure though, can’t verify the information ’cause that comes right out of the mouth of John Murtha. You know, the man who keeps harping on the Iraqi responsiblity – and desire – for self-determination.
Yes, I know rba, you remind me on a regular basis that the UN has set the end 2006 as the termination of the occupation. That fact, however, has no relationship to whether we will or should start to draw down our troops, and whether we should announce it.
It is a simple matter for the Iraqis to ask for an extension. And under current circumstances it is likely that they will do so. If they do not, then June 15th will be an interesting day.
That fact, however, has no relationship to whether we will or should start to draw down our troops, and whether we should announce it.
My point is that it should. Each case of malfeasance under this administration is discussed in terms of our law, and in this particular case we have the added bonus of irony: they drafted and fought for the resolution. Granted that sword cuts both ways, but clearly the side arguing for adherance to that law cuts deeper.
Also not so simple for the Iraqis to ask anymore. Their government is very aware of the timetable, and like any electeds, their internal polls. According to John Murtha (who I trust) now running 80% for an announced withdrawal, and with 40% saying it’s ok to kill Americans.
1546 was not just a timetable, it was a fully-formed plan for Iraqi self-determination. Helluva tool to throw out the window.
Now, taking a look at another issue, specifically Part D and the enrollment period ending May 15 and George W. Bush’s response to pushing back the deadline.
link
Why can’t those same words that he used apply to Iraq?
yes. but take a look at Iraq. Iraqi politicians will be considering not just their polls but their life expectency. It’s unlikely there will ever be another election anyway. At least, not of a unified Iraq.
You state that “the vast majority of American troops need to retreat from Iraq” and then add “into nearby bases”. This advice sounds suspiciously similar to Congressman Murtha’s resolution, in which he called for “an over-the horizon presence of U.S. Marines” to be “deployed to the region”. That advice is seriously flawed. Whether the troops are positioned over or under, above or beyond the horizon, Iraqis, as well as other ethnic groups in the region, recognize that those U.S. troops can be called back into the region at a moment’s notice, thereby continuing to fuel resentment, justifiably, against the United States. The U.S. military does not belong in Iraq or in the adjacent region. Period. Additionally, if the U.S. were to go back into Iraq once they were to redeploy [not withdraw], it would then add more dead Americans to those who have already been killed, and many more who have been maimed and crippled and returned to this country missing and arm and/or a leg, paralyzed from the waist down, with eyes that can no longer see, fractured skulls, and traumatized from the fog and horrors of war, as evidenced by the massacre of Iraqi civilians at Haditha. I finds it simply astounding that the Democrats continue to remain pusillanimous in not calling for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq while the liberal hawks continue to maintain the policy of staying the course, albeit a course that seems bent upon suicide.