Iraq Through the Looking Glass

FCNL Iraq Through the Looking Glass

The discussion this week of U.S. policy in Iraq makes me wonder if we are now living in the world described in Alice in Wonderland.
How else to describe a week in which the House voted to affirm that the U.S. must stay the course in Iraq, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to reject calls for a change in policy, and the president declared during a visit to Iraq that the U.S. is committed to success in Iraq?
We must be on the other side of the looking glass, because these actions by both political parties here in Washington do not respond to the situation in Iraq that we at FCNL are hearing about. The bottom line is staying the course in Iraq is not a strategy for success.
We know that the debate about U.S. policy is continuing in Congress. We also know that many members of Congress, from both parties, would like to see a change in the direction of U.S. policy. But politics keep getting in the way. The discussion this week was a stark contrast to the votes by the House and the Senate earlier this year to approve resolutions declaring the U.S. will not maintain permanent military bases in Iraq. The administration lobbied successfully to have those resolutions defeated in back room negotiations, but others will propose them again.
Meanwhile U.S. policy continues on its present course and the situation in Iraq gets worse.The last three years of war and U.S. occupation in Iraq have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis and 2,500 U.S. troops. The Washington Post reported today that armed militias are running the prisons, freeing their friends and executing their enemies. Last month, the Baghdad morgue was busier than ever trying to cope with the onslaught of broken bodies.
Rick McDowell and Mary Trotochaud, our senior fellows who joined FCNL after nearly two years of living in Iraq, hear every day in telephone conversations the desperation of friends in Iraq. “The majority of people in Iraq would like to see an Iraqi government succeed, but there is not much faith in the new government,” Rick told us this week. “President Bush’s trip to Iraq may have played well in the United States, but in Iraq the trip confirmed the belief that the new Iraqi government is a puppet of the U.S. That impression undermines the new government and generates support for attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces.”
No wonder one Iraqi told Rick this week: “We are the 53rd U.S. State, aren’t we?”
Why is the U.S. government reluctant to say in this country what the Iraqi government is saying in Iraq? Iraq’s national security advisor, Mouwafak Al-Rubaie, said this week that large numbers of U.S. forces would leave this year, that the “majority” of coalition forces should leave in 2007 “and maybe the last soldier will leave Iraq by mid 2008.” The president refuses to discuss when U.S. troops might leave and The New York Times reports that the Pentagon plans to keep at least 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq for years to come.
We need to change the conversation from how does the U.S. win to how does the U.S. leave Iraq. The war in Iraq is raging, but security is not improving. A change in U.S. policy in Iraq, at this point, is no guarantee that a peaceful, stable Iraq will emerge. But we can be certain that staying the course in Iraq will lead to more civil war, more deaths, more destruction, and quite possibly the disintegration of the government.
Over a hundred members of Congress from both parties asked for a substantive debate on U.S. policy in Iraq this week. The debate happened on Thursday and Friday, and some members from both parties spoke eloquently about the need for a change in policy. But the leadership in the House engineered an up or down vote on a resolution endorsing president Bush’s war policy and rejecting calls to set a date for the withdrawal of U.S. military troops.
There is another way. We at FCNL urge Congress to enact legislation that:
states that it is the U.S. policy to remove all U.S. military troops and bases from Iraq;
requires the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. military troops and bases from Iraq; and
provides resources for reconstruction by the people of Iraq through appropriate multinational, national, and Iraqi agencies. Read more
In the House, Rep. John Murtha (PA) continues to propose alternatives to the current U.S. policy and, most recently, attached an amendment to military appropriations legislation that would bar funding for an agreement to build permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. Sen. Joseph Biden (DE) is considering offering a similar amendment in the Senate.
These proposals would begin a substantive discussion about how to change the failed U.S. policies in Iraq. There may be no strategy for success. But we must continue to seek a strategy that will end the killing, end the cycle of violence, and provide some hope that Iraqis may determine their own future.
Sincerely,
Joe Volk
Executive Secretary
P.S. As I write this, Mary is describing to us how U.S. troops are preparing for what they describe as a “major military offensive” against the city of Ramadi, similar to the attack on Fallujah two years ago. Ramadi is a city of nearly 400,000 people. The residents of that city, remembering what happened when U.S. troops leveled Fallujah several years ago, are fleeing, but they have nowhere to go. Baghdad is closed off and under a curfew. How will this new offensive help bring peace and stability to Iraq?
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