US Faillures in Iraq
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| Thu, 04-08-2004 - 2:59pm |
Commentary, William O. Beeman,
Pacific News Service, Apr 07, 2004
Editor's Note: Fighting in Iraq has widened and intensified dramatically. The U.S., the writer says, has failed at grass-roots politics in Iraq, pursuing policies that guarantee that a social contract with Iraqis -- necessary for successful reconstruction -- cannot be established.
Suddenly Iraq has exploded in our face, and the White House has no plan to contain the violence. The Bush administration can drone on about Al Qaeda, the world terrorist threat and the holy mission of democratizing Iraq, but the plain truth is that America has failed in Iraq because our officials have failed at grass-roots politics.
The United States has established no social contract with the Iraqi people and thus it has no authority to lead. It is thus no surprise that our troops are fair game on all fronts.
The Bush administration continues to maintain the mythology that those attacking American troops are a monolithic enemy spurred on by "external forces." President Bush announced on April 6, "We're not going to be intimidated by thugs and assassins."
But labeling all the attackers with a single set of adjectives hinders the creation of an effective defense, by blurring the lines that separate the attackers. The attackers belong to disparate, unconnected groups whose concerns are local and unaffected by the likes of Osama bin Laden.
Iraq is now a free for all. Different groups are attacking the United States for completely different reasons.
The attacks in the Sunni Arab towns of Ramadi (Ramadiyah) and Falluja bear all the cultural marks of revenge killings that have escalated out of control. The horrific mutilation of the bodies of the American workers on March 31 shows a desire not just to inhibit the United States, but to humiliate it, and to exact payment for deaths that have taken place in the past. As U.S. military forces crack down on the citizenry of the two towns, they kill more people, perpetuating the revenge cycle.
The case of Muqtada al Sadr is more complex. Al Sadr is a young cleric full of rage for the murder of his father and other male relatives in the past. Because he is not a position of international authority, he is freer to operate in a radical manner than older colleagues such as Grand Ayatollah Al Al-Sistani, who is the moral leader of hundreds of thousands of adherents. Moreover, al Sadr is impatient with the older clerics and hungry for leadership.
The United States has attacked al Sadr repeatedly, closing his newspaper, attacking his deputies and finally, engineering an Iraqi judge's accusation of al Sadr's responsibility for the death of another moderate cleric, Abd al-Majid al-Kho‚i, who was murdered last year by a mob after returning from London. Al Sadr thinks he has nothing to lose in attacking the United States, and could unseat the more moderate clerics by implicating them with complicity with America.
Other Shia forces in the south are rebelling as the time for transfer of power to Iraqis approaches. The United States, they see, is doing everything possible to prevent them from assuming power in the nation where they are a majority, especially by handpicking some Iraqis for leadership positions and excluding others.
Still other violent groups, such as those fomenting attacks in Kirkuk, are fighting proto-ethnic wars that have yet to reach their full explosive power. (Kirkuk is a potentially explosive mix of Kurds, Turkmen, Sunni and Shia.) That conflagration will come later, and here again, the United States will have no moral authority or political suasion to contain it.
In order to lead in the Arab world, a social contract is necessary. The United States never tried to establish one. The naïve assumption of Bush officials such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was that Iraqis would magically bow to American leadership out of gratitude for freeing the country of Saddam Hussein. But in the Arab world, the conqueror, in order to secure loyalty, must actively care for the conquered -- something the United States was unwilling or unable to do. American forces couldn't even talk to the Iraqis -- they had barely any translators, and no Arabic language training. The Iraqi army and police forces were fired, as were most "Baathist" civil servants, thus creating an automatic enmity at crucial nodes of the bureaucracy. Reconstituting those forces now is not an advance -- it is simply a return to zero.
Months of waterless, electricity-less days did little to help win Iraqi hearts and minds, and helped break whatever fragile social bond might have given the United States the social capital it needed to govern.
Having never established ties of loyalty in Iraq, the United States has now lost all hope of maintaining authority. It has tried to rule indirectly through a council of émigré Iraqis, such as Ahmad Chelabi, who have no standing among Iraqi citizens.
It might be possible to re-establish confidence and authority by starting over with a new set of faces. The international community has repeatedly suggested that the United Nations or a conflict resolution group such as the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) be brought in to take over the process. But in an election year, President Bush desperately needs closure and a personal "win" in Iraq.
The administration has been flooding U.S. airwaves with tens of millions of dollars worth of voter-pleasing bromides about American leadership in promulgating Iraqi democracy. Unfortunately, at the same time they are pursuing policies that guarantee that the Iraqis will never respect or follow them.
PNS contributor William O. Beeman (William_beeman@brown.edu) teaches anthropology and directs Middle East Studies at Brown University. He is author of the forthcoming "Iraq: State in Search of a Nation."
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=9882125f15a7bf33d13c8f1b5d324148

>" The international community has repeatedly suggested that the United Nations or a conflict resolution group such as the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) be brought in to take over the process. But in an election year, President Bush desperately needs closure and a personal "win" in Iraq. "<
It's time to ask for help. I hope ego doesn't stand in the way.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/168379_insurgents09.html
A common enemy: U.S.
Sunnis and Shiites set aside differences to kill Americans
Friday, April 9, 2004
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
THE NEW YORK TIMES
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- When the United States invaded Iraq more than a year ago, one of its chief concerns was preventing a civil war between Shiite Muslims, who make up a majority in the country, and Sunni Muslims, who held all the power under Saddam Hussein.
Now the fear is that the growing uprising against the U.S.-led occupation is forging a new and previously unheard-of level of cooperation between the two groups -- and the common cause is killing Americans.
"We have orders from our leader to fight as one and to help the Sunnis," said Nimaa Fakir, a 27-year-old teacher and foot soldier in the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia. "We want to increase the fighting, increase the killing and drive the Americans out. To do this, we must combine forces."
This new Shiite-Sunni partnership was flourishing in Baghdad yesterday. Convoys of pickups with signature Shiite flags flapping from bumpers hauled sacks of grain, flour, sugar and rice into Sunni mosques.
The food donations were coming from Shiite families, in many cases from people with little to spare. And they were headed to the besieged residents of Fallujah, a city that has now become the icon of the resistance, especially after Wednesday's bombing of a mosque compound there.
"Sunni, Shia, that doesn't matter anymore," said Sabah Saddam, a 32-year-old government clerk who took the day off to drive one of the supply trucks. "These were artificial distinctions. The people in Fallujah are starving. They are Iraqis and they need our help."
But it is not just relief aid that is flowing into the city.
According to militia members, many Shiite fighters are streaming into Fallujah to help Sunni insurgents repel an assault by U.S. Marines. Groups of young men with guns are taking buses from Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad to the outskirts of Fallujah and then slipping past checkpoints to join the action.
U.S. leaders had been concerned that the rival sectarian groups would not find a common cause. Now, it seems, they have found a common enemy.
"The danger is we believe there is a linkage that may be occurring at the very lowest levels between the Sunni and the Shia," Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the occupation forces, said yesterday. "We have to work very hard to ensure that it remains at the tactical level."
He also said the call for unity is "clearly an attempt to take advantage of the situation."
Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, an assistant commander of the 1st Armored Division, said the military intelligence indicated there might be some loose coordination between the renegade Shiite movement of Muqtada al-Sadr and a Sunni extremist group called Mohammed's Army in the western portions of Baghdad.
He said 1st Armored and 1st Cavalry troops were conducting reconnaissance and operations against fighters from both groups, who have converged on the road to Fallujah.
Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, is in its fifth day of siege. Marines are trying to root out insurgents after four American security guards were ambushed there last week and their bodies were mutilated by a mob. According to people inside Fallujah, the situation is grim and getting grimmer.
"It's a disaster," said Sheik Ghazi Al Abid, a wealthy tribal leader, who was reached by telephone. "There's no food, no water, no electricity."
The sheikh said it was so dangerous, bodies have been left on the streets because people are terrified to venture outside to collect them.
The sheikh said more than 300 people have been killed, hundreds more wounded, and medical supplies and blood are running low. "There are so many injured civilians," the sheikh said, "they don't know where to go."
In Baghdad, blood banks were packed. Imams at both Sunni and Shiite mosques put out a message during the call to prayer that Fallujah residents needed blood fast. Yesterday, a group of Shiite men formed a line at one Baghdad blood bank that wended out the door. The men were ready to get pricked with a needle for their Sunni brothers.
"We share a cause now," said Mohammed Majid, a taxi driver. "Why not share our bodies?"
Pentagon officials said they had no definitive figures on the size or scale of the Sunni or Shiite militias. That is largely because the militia movement seems too fluid, and is split among factions.
Shiite extremist groups have a long tradition of hiding their true strength, in large part because their history has been marked by persecution by Sunni elites in many Muslim countries. In southern Lebanon in the 1980s, for example, the CIA was never able to get solid estimates of the number of Shiite fighters involved in Hezbollah or the Islamic resistance that eventually forced the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, former U.S. intelligence officials said.
© 1998-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
cl-nwtreehugger
U.S. struggles to contain insurgents
Intense fighting continues in Fallujah and elsewhere as more foreigners are taken hostage
Saturday, April 10, 2004
By LARRY KAPLOW
COX NEWS SERVICE
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- On the anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, American forces struggled to contain a growing insurgency and lawlessness before it further unraveled a year of U.S. efforts to build a new Iraq.
The 5-day-old battle for Fallujah continued yesterday with intensity except for a short break in which Marines allowed families to flee or to bury hundreds of dead in a soccer stadium. A rapidly deployed force of more than 1,000 soldiers arrived before dawn to retake most of the town of Kut, 90 miles south of Baghdad, from militias belonging to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, but two key towns remained largely under his control.
Militants continued to act on major roads with unprecedented boldness, capturing more foreign hostages.
The military announced five American deaths, two yesterday -- one when a fuel convoy was attacked outside of Baghdad and another by a roadside bomb -- and three Thursday, making 42 killed this week in the biggest losses in such a short time since the invasion. The Associated Press estimates that 460 Iraqis have died.
Two U.S. soldiers and an unknown number of civilian contractors were missing yesterday after the convoy was attacked at midday near Baghdad Airport, a military spokesman said. One U.S. soldier and one civilian contractor were killed.
The intensifying warfare began to force fissures in the nascent political structure cobbled together by U.S. administrators. A member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council suspended his membership in the body, decrying the "mass punishment" in Fallujah in an interview on an Arabic television network, and two others threatened to quit.
The fearful state of Iraq seemed encapsulated in the same downtown Baghdad square where triumphant troops, with cheering Iraqis, pulled down a statue of Saddam Hussein a year ago. But this time, anticipating demonstrations by al-Sadr supporters in a fearful city, soldiers closed off the Paradise (Firdos) Square to all, threatening over a loudspeaker to shoot anyone seen with a weapon and blaring loud heavy-metal rock music to the annoyance of the residents. One soldier climbed a ladder to the same pedestal upon which Saddam's image stood a year ago, this time tearing down two posters of al-Sadr.
The Shiite Muslim insurgency sparked by al-Sadr began just about a week ago. He unleashed the militia he had been forming for months after the U.S.-led coalition closed his newspaper and arrested a top aide. Shiites comprise at least 60 percent of Iraq and, though it could still be tamped out, al-Sadr threatens to ignite a resistance that would be much more lethal than previous attacks by Sunnis.
American officials insisted that prospects were improving after a tough week and looked ahead to the Shiite holiday of Arba'een tomorrow that will draw enormous crowds of pilgrims and probably pose huge security problems.
"Iraqis have been relieved of a dictator who, as a matter of policy, repressed their rights to practice their faith," coalition spokesman Dan Senor told reporters. "Now, individuals who seek to take power through mob violence and by blocking Iraq's democratic path are also making it unsafe for Iraqis to worship God. We are fighting to restore law and order so that all Iraqis can enjoy their new freedoms."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the BBC network that he was surprised at the state of Iraq one year later. "There is no doubt that the current situation is very serious and it is the most serious that we have faced," he said. A Briton believed to have been working as a security guard for a U.S. firm has been killed, Britain's Foreign Office said.
Amid growing Iraqi and international criticism of the battle in the city of Fallujah, U.S. administrator for Iraq Paul Bremer announced that the Marines had temporarily halted their attacks on insurgents there. Coalition officials said they were allowing members of the Iraqi Governing Council to talk to Fallujah leaders about ways to lessen the bloodshed but insisted they were not negotiating with the insurgents. It was in Fallujah March 31 that four U.S. security contractors were killed and publicly mutilated by a cheering crowd.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt called the operations in Fallujah "extraordinarily precise" and "focused exclusively on people that we suspect of, and have intelligence on, being perpetrators of crime, of violence."
Meanwhile, there was growing international concern about hostages being held by unknown insurgents. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi condemned the kidnapping of three Japanese civilians but vowed to keep Japanese troops in Iraq despite a growing political crisis since the abductions. Also yesterday, an aide to Yasser Arafat said the Palestinian president would intervene to try to free two Arabs captured by militants. One, Nabil Razouk, is a Palestinian from Jerusalem.
Insurgents also claimed to have seized four Italians and two Americans on the western outskirts of Baghdad, the Reuters news agency reported.
Fighting continued between coalition troops and followers of the cleric, al-Sadr. Kimmitt said there might be 10,000 al-Sadr fighters in the country. Army officials have been hesitant to attack them in Najaf and Karbala because the cities are swelling with Muslim pilgrims in the country for Sunday's holiday. Al-Sadr, wanted on an Iraqi warrant in connection with two murder cases, is said to be in Najaf surrounded by armed supporters.
This report includes information from The New York Times.
© 1998-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
cl-nwtreehugger
>"A member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council suspended his membership in the body, decrying the "mass punishment" in Fallujah in an interview on an Arabic television network, and two others threatened to quit."<
This doesn't bode well.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=War%20Protest
Wednesday, April 14, 2004 · Last updated 12:49 p.m. PT
Vets, families march for end to Iraq war
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Holding American flags and pictures of fallen loved ones, military families and veterans urged President Bush on Wednesday to end the war in Iraq.
"We don't belong there. We're never going to win this war," said Sue Niederer. Her 24-year-old son, Seth, was killed two months ago while defusing a bomb south of Baghdad.
"It's time for us to get out," she said.
After a news conference, the families and veterans joined about 40 supporters in a march to the White House a few blocks away where they laid pink, white and yellow carnations in memory of the more than 670 American troops killed since the war began last year.
They also placed rose petals for the thousands of Iraqis who have died.
The march was organized by the group, Military Families Speak Out, and United for Peace and Justice, an anti-war coalition.
Michael Hoffman, a Marine who spent two months in Iraq fighting a war he opposed, said the country has deteriorated into chaos. "We are not making a better world for the Iraqis," he said.
Anas Shallal, an Iraqi-American, rejected suggestions that Iraq would spiral into further violence if U.S troops withdrew.
"It's really rather offensive to the Iraqi people to think they cannot govern themselves," said Shallal. "There's a lot of civil structures in Iraq right now, a lot of unions, a lot of organizations where people on the ground are taking leadership roles. I think we need to act as facilitators and take a back seat to this process so that the Iraqi people govern themselves."
cl-nwtreehugger
Z>"Michael Hoffman, a Marine who spent two months in Iraq fighting a war he opposed, said the country has deteriorated into chaos. "We are not making a better world for the Iraqis," he said.
Anas Shallal, an Iraqi-American, rejected suggestions that Iraq would spiral into further violence if U.S troops withdrew.
"It's really rather offensive to the Iraqi people to think they cannot govern themselves," said Shallal. "There's a lot of civil structures in Iraq right now, a lot of unions, a lot of organizations where people on the ground are taking leadership roles. I think we need to act as facilitators and take a back seat to this process so that the Iraqi people govern themselves." "<
I agree. The American hand picked 'governing council', however well intentioned, doesn't reflect Iraqis. Some council members haven't even lived in Iraq for decades.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20040416-9999-7m16zinni.html
Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni wondered aloud yesterday how Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld could be caught off guard by the chaos in Iraq that has killed nearly 100 Americans in recent weeks and led to his announcement that 20,000 U.S. troops would be staying there instead of returning home as planned.
"I'm surprised that he is surprised because there was a lot of us who were telling him that it was going to be thus," said Zinni, a Marine for 39 years and the former commander of the U.S. Central Command. "Anyone could know the problems they were going to see. How could they not?"
At a Pentagon news briefing yesterday, Rumsfeld said he could not have estimated how many troops would be killed in the past week.
Zinni made his comments during an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune before giving a speech last night at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice as part of its distinguished lecturer series.
For years Zinni said he cautioned U.S. officials that an Iraq without Saddam Hussein would likely be more dangerous to U.S. interests than one with him because of the ethnic and religious clashes that would be unleashed.
"I think that some heads should roll over Iraq," Zinni said. "I think the president got some bad advice."
Known as the "Warrior Diplomat," Zinni is not a peace activist by nature or training, having led troops in Vietnam, commanded rescue operations in Somalia and directed strikes against Iraq and al Qaeda.
He once commanded the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton.
Out of uniform, Zinni was a troubleshooter for the U.S. government in Africa, Asia and Europe and served as special envoy to the Middle East under the Bush administration for a time before his reservations over the Iraq war and its aftermath caused him to resign and oppose it.
Not even Zinni's resumé could shield him from the accusations that followed.
"I've been called a traitor and a turncoat for mentioning these things," said Zinni, 60. The problems in Iraq are being caused, he said, by poor planning and shortsightedness, such as disbanding the Iraqi army and being unable to provide security.
Zinni said the United States must now rely on the U.N. to pull its "chestnuts out of the fire in Iraq."
"We're betting on the U.N., who we blew off and ridiculed during the run-up to the war," Zinni said. "Now we're back with hat in hand. It would be funny if not for the lives lost."
Several things have to happen to get Iraq back on course, whether the U.N. decides to step in or not, Zinni said.
Improving security for American forces and the Iraqi people is at the top of the list followed closely by helping the working class with economic projects.
But it's not the lack of a comprehensive American plan for Iraq nor the surging violence that has cost allied troops their lives – including about 30 Camp Pendleton Marines – that most concerns Zinni.
"In the end, the Iraqis themselves have to want to rebuild their country more than we do," Zinni said. "But I don't see that right now. I see us doing everything.
"I spent two years in Vietnam, and I've seen this movie before," he said. "They have to be willing to do more or else it is never going to work."
Last night at the Kroc institute during his speech "From the Battlefield to the Negotiating Table: Preventing Deadly Conflict," Zinni detailed the approach he believes the United States should take in the Middle East.
He told an overflow crowd that the United States tries to grapple with individual issues in Middle East instead of seeing them as elements of a broader question.
"We need to step back and get a grand strategy," he said.
How can someone actually feel, knowing the history of the region that we are fighting in, that some of what is going on would actually not happen?
>"How can someone actually feel, knowing the history of the region that we are fighting in, that some of what is going on would actually not happen?"<
No kidding! I knew it & I'm definitely no expert. Bush received poor advise, IMO.
It looks like a disease passed on from administration to administration.