It’s just a cable (.pdf) from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, not the Pentagon Papers. But, the cable, if widely disseminated and discussed, could have a similar impact on America’s resolve to stay the course.
The Pentagon Papers is the colloquial term for United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, a 47 volume, 7,000-page, top-secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States’ political and military involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945 to 1971, with a focus on the internal planning and policy decisions within the U.S. Government. The study was commissioned in 1967 by Robert McNamara, the then-Secretary of Defense. McNamara appointed Leslie H. Gelb, who was also director of policy planning at the Pentagon, as director of the project. Gelb hired 36 military officers, civilian policy experts, and historians to write the monographs that constituted the content of the project. The Papers included 4,000 pages of actual documents from the 1945-1967 period, and 3,000 pages of analysis.
The Papers revealed, among other things, that the government had deliberately expanded its role in the war by conducting air strikes over Laos, raids along the coast of North Vietnam, and offensive actions taken by U.S. Marines well before the American public was told that such actions were necessary. All of this had happened while president Lyndon Johnson had been promising not to expand the war. The document increased the credibility gap for the U.S. government, and was seen as hurting the efforts by the Nixon administration to fight the war.
So far, the cable has received just a brief mention in the Sunday Washington Post. But its contents are shocking. There is really no substitute for reading the whole thing (.pdf), but Greg Mitchell’s highlights are below the fold. It has the same potential to widen the credibility gap to the breaking point as the Pentagon Papers.
Among the other troubling reports:
— “Personal safety depends on good relations with the ‘neighborhood’ governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders. The central government, our staff says, is not relevant; even local mukhtars have been displaced or coopted by militias. People no longer trust most neighbors.”
— One embassy employee had a brother-in-law kidnapped. Another received a death threat, and then fled the country with her family.
— Iraqi staff at the embassy, beginning in March and picking up in May, report “pervasive” harassment from Islamist and/or militia groups. Cuts in power and rising fuel prices “have diminished the quality of life.” Conditions vary but even upscale neighborhoods “have visibly deteriorated” and one of them is now described as a “ghost town.”
— Two of the three female Iraqis in the public affairs office reported stepped-up harassment since mid-May….”some groups are pushing women to cover even their face, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative.” One of the women is now wearing a full abaya after receiving direct threats.
— It has also become “dangerous” for men to wear shorts in public and “they no longer allow their children to play outside in shorts.” People who wear jeans in public have also come under attack.
— Embassy employees are held in such low esteem their work must remain a secret and they live with constant fear that their cover will be blown. Of nine staffers, only four have told their families where they work. They all plan for their possible abductions. No one takes home their cell phones as this gives them away. One employee said criticism of the U.S. had grown so severe that most of her family believes the U.S. “is punishing populations as Saddam did.”
— Since April, the “demeanor” of guards in the Green Zone has changed, becoming more “militia-like,” and some are now “taunting” embassy personnel or holding up their credentials and saying loudly that they work in the embassy: “Such information is a death sentence if overheard by the wrong people.” For this reason, some have asked for press instead of embassy credentials.
— “For at least six months, we have not been able to use any local staff members for translation at on-camera press events….We cannot call employees in on weekends or holidays without blowing their ‘cover.'”
— “More recently, we have begun shredding documents printed out that show local staff surnames. In March, a few staff members approached us to ask what provisions would we make for them if we evacuate.”
— The overall environment is one of “frayed social networks,” with frequent actual or perceived insults. None of this is helped by lack of electricity. “One colleague told us he feels ‘defeated’ by circumstances, citing his example of being unable to help his two-year-old son who has asthma and cannot sleep in stifling heat,” which is now reaching 115 degrees.
— “Another employee tell us that life outside the Green Zone has become ’emotionally draining.’ He lives in a mostly Shiite area and claims to attend a funeral ‘every evening.'”
— Fuel lines have grown so long that one staffer spent 12 hours in line on his day off. “Employees all confirm that by the last week of May, they were getting one hour of power for every six hours without. … One staff member reported that a friend lives in a building that houses a new minister; within 24 hours of his appointment, her building had city power 24 hours a day.”
— The cable concludes that employees’ “personal fears are reinforcing divisive sectarian or ethnic channels, despite talk of reconciliation by officials.”
The final line of the Cable is: KHALILZAD
“Khalilzad” refers to U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad. It’s possible that Khalilzad wrote this cable, although it is more likely that he merely approved it. In either case, it’s clear that the mission in Iraq has failed and that the United States does not have the power or legitimacy to attract, maintain, or protect allies in country.
The invasion of Iraq has unleashed reactionary patriarchal and Islamist forces that bode ill for the future of democracy and civil rights. America can do nothing to improve matters without…well…realistically, there is nothing we can do.
There is an enormous disconnect between what the administration says about Iraq in press briefings and interviews and what our commanders and ambassador are saying privately. The GOP wants to make a withdrawl equivalent to “cutting and running”, but they are using a completely flawed and misleading set of facts to make their case for “staying the course”. The (probably forged) Zarqawi safe-house documents are in stark contrast to the “sensitive” assessement of Khalilzad. Far from being demoralized, the resistance in Iraq (which has little to nothing to do with Zarqawi’s group) has succeeded in every important area.
If America becomes widely aware of the Embassy’s assessment, the people will reject the spin from the White House and the tough talk from the GOP. Perhaps that is why the media is keeping this cable so quiet.
