Iraq and Kerry’s Ultimatum
06 April 2006 5:47 pm by Taylor Marsh
Iraq and Kerry's Ultimatum
This one is bad, really, really bad.
 |
| Clueless Commander in Chief |
… The Bush administration's preferred response to
increasing disintegration is to act as if it has a strategy that is succeeding.
“More delusion as a solution in the absence of a solution,” said
a senior state department official. Under the pretence that Iraq is being
pacified, the military is partially withdrawing from hostile towns in the
countryside and parts of Baghdad. By reducing the number of soldiers, the
administration can claim its policy is working going into the midterm elections.
But the jobs the military doesn't want to perform are being sloughed off on
state department “provisional reconstruction teams” (PRTs) led by
foreign service officers. The rationale is that they will win Iraqi hearts-and-minds
by organising civil functions.The Pentagon has informed the state department
it will not provide security for these officials and that mercenaries should
be hired for protection instead. Internal state department documents
listing the PRT jobs, dated March 30, reveal that the vast majority of them
remain unfilled by volunteers. So the professionals are being forced to take
the assignments in which “they can't do what they are being asked to
do”, as a senior department official told me.Foreign service officers, as a rule, are self-abnegating
in serving any administration. The state department's Intelligence and Research
Bureau was correct in its scepticism before the war about Saddam Hussein's
possession of WMDs, but was ignored. The department was correct in its assessment
in its 17-volume Future of Iraq project about the immense effort required
for reconstruction after the war, but it was disregarded. Now its reports
from Iraq are correct, but their authors are being punished. Foreign service
officers are to be sent out like tethered goats to the killing fields. When
these misbegotten projects inevitably fail, the department will be blamed.
Passive resistance to these assignments reflects anticipation of impending
disaster, including the likely murder of diplomats. …
The
tethered goat strategy (h/t Mahablog)
According to Sydney Blumenthal's article above, there were “eight
times as many assassinations committed by Shia militias as terrorist murders
by Sunni insurgents.” The militias are running amok in Iraq and
no one seems to be able to stop them. President Bush's solution?
Bush has decided to back out of the hostile towns so it looks
like our military is passing control over to the Iraqi military. It's a hoax,
a cruel dodge on what's actually going down on the ground.
Meanwhile, you have Condi the Incompetent doing a drop in – drop
out in the Iraqi desert, which is supposed to represent diplomacy and pressuring the Iraqis to form a government, already. Things have fallen apart in Iraq. The president's
policy is imploding and all we've got to show for it is a country hopping Condi the incompetent.
Someone needs to get the Iraqis to move on a government. (How many times do I have to say this?)
Let's follow Kerry's lead and get the hell out of the desert.
But first, let's give the lackadaisical Iraqis an ultimatum. We've done enough. Our military has done their job. It's time.
EXCERPTS OF JOHN KERRY’S JOINT RESOLUTION
INTRODUCED IN THE U.S. SENATE ON APRIL 6, 2006Purpose: To provide a strategy for successfully empowering
a new unity government in Iraq.Whereas the men and women of the Armed Forces have
performed with valor, honor, and courage in Iraq;Whereas Iraq can only achieve stability with a national
unity government embraced by Sunnis, Shias and Kurds;Whereas in order to find a political solution that
is necessary to undermine the insurgency, end sectarian violence and bring
stability to Iraq, the Iraqis’ must reach a comprehensive agreement
that includes forming a unity government, security guarantees, disbanding
the militias, and a process for reviving the reconstruction efforts and
securing Iraq’s borders.Whereas the commander of the Multinational Forces-Iraq,
General George Casey, testified before the Committee on Armed Services of
the Senate on September 29, 2005, that “[i]ncreased coalition presence
feeds the notion of occupation … contributes to the dependency of
Iraqi security forces on the coalition… [ and ] … extends the
amount of time that it will take for Iraqi security forces to become self-reliant;”
Whereas the withdrawal of U.S. forces
under a schedule agreed upon with the new Iraqi government would strengthen
and legitimize that government, enable the Iraqis to become more self-reliant,
and undermine support for the insurgency; Now, therefore, be itResolved by the Senate and the House
of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That:
Section 1. The President should immediately convene
a Summit that includes Iraqi leaders, our allies, members of the Arab League,
Iraq’s neighbors, and representatives of the Permanent Five members
of the U.N. Security Council to reach a comprehensive political agreement
that includes forming a unity government, security guarantees, disbanding
the militias, a process for reviving reconstruction efforts and securing
Iraq’s borders.Section 2. United States forces shall be
withdrawn at the earliest practicable date if Iraqis fail to form a national
unity government by May 15, 2006.Section 3. If Iraqis form a national unity government
by May 15, 2006, the United States should reach agreement as soon as possible
with such government on a schedule for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops
from Iraq, leaving only forces critical to completing the mission of standing
up Iraqi security forces. The President shall consult with Congress on this
schedule and shall present such withdrawal agreement to Congress immediately
upon completion.Section 4. Redeployment of United States forces to
rear guard, garrisoned status for security back up, training and emergency
response should be accelerated.
