Much Political Bluster, but Few Concrete Solutions on How to Rebuild Iraq

By Evan Kohlmann

Yesterday, President Bush met and responded to questions from the newly-formed, bi-partisan Iraq Study Group (chaired by James Baker III). The last year has seen a marked deterioration in the situation inside Iraq and the notion behind this sudden soul searching effort is to devise new and unusual ideas on how to stop the gradual slide into chaos. First off, the fact that Bush and his advisors waited until after the 2006 election season was almost over to "seriously" address the crisis in Iraq does not speak highly as to the nature of their motivations. Moreover, Bush's press commentary after meeting with Baker and other members of the Iraq Study Group yesterday does not inspire any great measure of confidence either. The President told the media, “I was impressed by the questions they asked. They want us to succeed in Iraq, just like I want us to succeed. So we had a really good discussion."

Unfortunately, a "really good discussion" is what should have taken place in April 2003. At this point, Iraq is so terribly plagued by sectarian bloodshed that it is difficult to imagine what concrete solutions can be devised by either the Democrats or Republicans to remedy the immediate crisis and open a reasonable exit door for U.S. military forces. Increasingly, the idea of partitioning Iraq into several homogeneous mini-states has surfaced, but this is hardly a silver bullet -- and could in fact lead to a regional war that draws in all of Iraq's neighbors. Recent crackdowns in the capital Baghdad on vicious Shiite militia groups have largely failed because the Mahdi Army and Badr Corps have effectively occupied the Iraqi Interior Ministry and have taken over the police force. Senior Iraqi Shiite politicians--such as former Interior Minister Bayan Jabr--now stand accused by both Iraqi and American eyewitnesses of, at a minimum, turning a blind eye to the torture and killing of innocent Sunni civilians (for more on this, check out Deborah Davies' most recent Channel 4 UK documentary "The Death Squads"). Even Al-Qaida has managed to dramatically expand its roots and network inside Iraq since this time last year, despite the much vaunted killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last June.

In short, U.S. leaders need to drop the flowery rhetoric and lipservice and start approaching Iraq with the responsible gravitas that it demands. If Republicans and Democrats want to regain the confidence of the general public--both inside America and in the Middle East--they must start talking on the level, even when the truth hurts. As the old saying goes, it's time to either put up or shut up.

(See also: June 28, 2005 - "Delusion and Disaster in Central Iraq")

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