I haven't written directly about Iraq in a long time, but I've been particularly upset over the situation there in the past couple days. For a couple weeks now the Bush admin has been floating this idea that by replacing American troops with Iraqi police forces currently being trained, we can avoid all of these horrific casualties.
This approach is despicable. We've seen throughout the post-conflict conflict that Iraqis who cooperate with US forces are targets just as much as American forces - in fact, Iraqi police are dying at a much higher rate than American troops. Since the transfer of policing responsibilities wouldn't be accompanied by a complete American pullout, there's every reason to think the attacks will continue, and that more Iraqi police forces will die.
At the same time, Iraqi forces are surely less well equipped to deal with the threat - certainly they don't have Kevlar, which is the main reason 35 attacks per day against American troops result in so few (relatively speaking) deaths. This is plainly a political move on the part of the Bush administration to placate the American public in advance of the 04 elections in exchange for the lives of, conservatively, several hundred Iraqis.
On the broader question of Iraqi self-governance, the Bush admin seems to be pushing hard to get the Iraqis to take charge of their own country. As nice as all this sounds, it's essentially a death knell for hopes of strong democracy in Iraq - the same hopes, by the way, which have turned out to be the only even arguably legitimate reason we invaded in the first place. Without military control of the country, there is no way an Iraqi government can even start to establish the rule of law, property rights, and a host of other basic prerequisites for a functioning democratic government.
The United States has a moral responsibility to provide the security necessary for democratic reforms, and Iraqi police forces aren't going to cut it. The Bush admin must find a way to commit the necessary military resources to bring an end to this war - whether it means sending the troops American generals requested for the operation to begin with, or bringing real diplomatic pressure on our allies to assist. This pussyfooting our way to a shameful withdrawl will just leave a horrific scar on the hearts and minds of people throughout the Muslim world.
We've seen throughout the post-conflict conflict that Iraqis who cooperate with US forces are targets just as much as American forces - in fact, Iraqi police are dying at a much higher rate than American troops.
I think you're right about this, but have you seen any numbers on it anywhere? I'm not sure how many potential Iraqi security people have been killed by guerrillas.
Generally speaking, you're certainly right, what a disaster. I still think this whole Iraq war/re-construction could be/could have been done right, but not by the clowns who are running our country. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they've screwed it up so badly.
I have seen numbers on Iraqi police casualties, somewhere in the several hundreds, but I can't remember where I saw the figure.
I do think that we screwed up in the way we went about this, and I was opposed to the invasion from the start, but I still think the situation can be salvaged, in the sense that the Iraqi people could end up with a strong democratic government in a matter of years.
My point in this post was just that we won't get there by backing out - if anything, I'd advocate a more targeted and serious military and diplomatic effort, and if you're concerned about American political support, a public relations blitz to match. When Sanchez came out the other day and referred to this as a war, I saw that as a good sign that they're taking the situation more seriously, but it turned out that was a pointed statement to his masters.
What, our president play up for his adoring public?? My my. Are you sure he's not doing this because gawd told him to??
That Happy Chica,
Marcia Ellen
It seems to me that this is about trust. Neither one of us really has the information at hand in order to make a decision about when the correct time is to withdraw.
I trust the president. He's not going to screw over millions of people just to get re-elected (and it's questionable whether the timing of the withdrawal will help him in an election anyway).
You don't trust the president, so I can understand your worries. Nonetheless, I think that no matter when we withdraw, you'd be worried, because you don't trust the president or his advisers. On the other hand, I'm guessing you would begin to worry about our intentions if we stayed.
We have made a commitment to the Iraqi people, and we must not fail. Not only is it necessary and humane for them, but it's important for us. I believe that, and that is essentially what Bush has publicly said to date.
And Ms. Ellen, I find your comment to be personally offensive.
How come none of my paragraphs came out as paragraphs?
Right now it's set up so you have to include html tags to get line breaks, but I've gone ahead and fixed your post.
This isn't just about trust. I may not have daily intelligence briefings, but I'm absolutely convinced that backing out now wouldn't lead to a strong democracy in Iraq, regardless of who makes the decision. Democracies need strong legal systems, property and political rights, and most importantly some kind of domestic security, none of which have been provided. I'm disappointed that we didn't find WMD in Iraq, and it doesn't exactly help with the whole trust issue, but the most compelling argument for invading was always this neocon notion of an exemplar democracy in Iraq. That coherent (if misguided) plan is what's being betrayed now - which means we're left with neither practical results nor right action.
By the way, what's so offensive about pointing out Bush's God fetish? This is a man who thinks God put him in office for a reason, someone who didn't even have the good sense to get rid of an operationally key general who's publicly casting this as a religious war. It's a legitimate concern within the context of our invasion of a Muslim country.
It turns out that the June deadline is for turning over control to the Iraqis. However, the troops stay in, according to Rumsfeld.
Does that help alleviate your fears?
It's a start, but I still think having "democratic elections" before the country is even secure is a mistake. I'm actually more heartened by the US military's apparent crackdown - if they can crush the resistance, those elections and the handover of power will have a much better chance of success.
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