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.
