Joe Conason: Bush's non-exit exit strategy

[babylonsister]

Edit to hopefully update link:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/08/03/iraq_mullen/


Bush's non-exit exit strategy

Not only is the "surge" not working, it's destabilizing Iraq. Yet military leaders say troops should stay for the long term.

By Joe Conason


Aug. 3, 2007 | To read the prepared testimony of Adm. Mike Mullen, President Bush's nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is to understand that the Bush administration's Iraq strategy requires U.S. troops to remain in that country for a long time, perhaps permanently. With unusual candor, the admiral explained in answers submitted before his appearance in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that he and the president believe in the necessity of a "pragmatic, long-term commitment that will be measured in years not months."

snip//

Today, the real culmination of the surge is reflected in the resignation of the Sunni-led Iraqi Accordance Front from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Cabinet, following months of quiet efforts by American diplomats to prevent their departure. The failure of those efforts and the Maliki government's unwillingness to bring together the country's political blocs, including those representing the nationalist insurgents, have brought the government itself close to collapse. (On Thursday, Maliki asked the IAF to reconsider; it remains to be seen whether it will respond.) Cognizant of this reality, Gen. David Petraeus has downplayed the significance of his upcoming September report on the results of the surge.

Although Mullen also spoke of "incentives" to encourage Iraqis to come together on issues such as Sunni representation, the division of oil revenues and amnesty for insurgents, there is no reason for Maliki or anyone who might succeed him to make those difficult moves as long as the United States is determined to remain in Iraq indefinitely. Why should the Shiite and Kurdish parties deal with the Sunnis when we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives to ensure their continued and uncompromising domination?

The risks of rapid redeployment of American troops from Iraq are real, as Mullen warned -- and nobody who advocates that course should pretend otherwise. Minimizing those risks will require the kind of diplomacy for which this administration has showed little taste or aptitude.

But at this late date, as the political structures in Iraq fall, the war's advocates cannot pretend that their strategy is working, either. The way to encourage compromise, if not reconciliation, among the Iraqis is to place our withdrawal on the negotiating table -- and to warn those we have brought to power that we are leaving, sooner rather than later, and that their only hope for stability is to dither no longer. That was the essential recommendation of the Iraq Study Group, and it is still the only plausible exit strategy.

[acmavm]

1. The only way for an occupation to succeed is to have the sympathy or at

least the good will of the people being occupied. This has been pointed out here many times.

We will never have the sympathy or the good will of the people of Iraq.

[Kagemusha]

2. Your link isn't working for me.

I'll see if I can find the article on my own too but, just letting you know. Take care.

[babylonsister]

3. Thanks; here it is in its entirety hopefully:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/08/03/iraq_mullen/

[Kagemusha]

4. Looking good, thanks!

It's an interesting article.