Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti
.Iraqi policy architect
senses vindication,
For Wolfowitz, both elation and caution
ByErlc Schmitt
MOSUL. Iraq: The long personal
journey for Paul Wolfowitz on Iraq
spread out before him Monday in a
modest second-floor conference room
in this bustling northern cityl
There. sat the newly elected mayor
and his ,council- Arabs, Kurds, Christians
and Turkomen ~ the' very multiethnic
and ii:J.terfàithmix that Wolfowitz
has long argued can overcome their
differences and thrive in a free, democratic
Iraq ifSaddam Hussein were ous-
-ted. ,
Now it has happened, and WolfQwitz"
the deputy defense secretary and a
main intellectual architect of Iraq
policy ,for the administration of President
George W. Bush, expressed elation
. at the spectacle and a cautionary note
to his new allies in what he said wasa
running war on terror.
~ou 'don't build a democracy like
YOlfbuild a house," Wolfowitz said over
a spread of tea, honey pastries and water
buffalö cheese. "pemocracy grows
'like a garden. Ifyou keep the weeds out
.and water the plants and you're patient,
eventually you get something magnificent."
For Wolfowitz, crisscrossing Iraq
over the past five days on a fact-finding
trip to gauge the road ahead for America's
strategy produced soari~ emotions
and a sense of final vindication.
Since 1979he has issued a steady drumbeat
of warnings about the menace
. posed by Saddam and his Ba'ath Party
followers, lo~ before anyone feared
Iraq's suspected chemical and biological
weapons arsenal
Wolfowitz was greeted as a liberator
by two groups who sufferedthe most
under Saddam's th~decade rule -
Kurds here in the north and Shiites in
the south, especially marshland Arabs
- and listened to their horrific tales of
loved ontis tortured or killed bySaddam
henchmen. He has also been a magnet
for complaints that the all-powerful
United States had failed to provide
more security, more electricity and
more jobs.
"Even though there are many things
we can do, we are not gods, and the
things we can do take time," Wolfowitz
told the leaders here. "It's important for
you and your colleagues to teach patience."
Clearly, Iraq is still a very dangerous
place. Wolfowitz traveled in a heavily
armed ground' convoy, often with attack
helicopters buzzing overhead. His C-130
transport plane detected enemy ground
radar on aflight Monday to Kir~"#d'
it diScharged flares as a defensive dlea-, .
sure. The crew said it saw no missiles. .. .
Immense challenges lie ahead..
Thieves in Basra are tapping into
pipelines and smuggling oillnto nearby
Iran. The slightest rumor of fuel short-
'ages triggers huge lines' at gas stations,
~army soldiers to stand guard.
In d and Mosul, Iraqis who work
for the coalition have received death
threats. Foreign fighters' and terrorists
continue to infiltrate Iraq's porous borders
and ambush American troops. The
United States is scrambling to set up a
new Iraqi civil defense force to free
thousands of American troops to conduct
anti-guerrilla missions and to put
more of an Iraqi face on the postwar security
effort. '
Despite the huge challenges ahead,
Wolfowitz found an ebullient note here
as he wrapped up his trip. .
"I feel very encouraged over all that '
.conditions here are much better than I
thbught, they \\Tere before I came,"
Wolfowitz said at a news conference of
Kurdish journalists. "The biggest challenge
we £:leeimmediately is a very seri-
~us secunty challenge. But I believe it's
Just a very small minority of Iraqis and
$Onu: foreigners who are doing that."
Frôm Basra to Baghdad and points
north, Wolfowitz's message became
clear over time and willlikely influence
,the priorities and decisions ahead for
the Pentagon and the administration on
Iraq.
'
.. ' "Y~u'can't d~l with the complex
situation ofIraq In simply a one-dimensional
way,"he said. "The problem of security
is related to the problem of elec-
'The biggest challenge
we face Immediately Is'
a very serious security
challenge. '
tricity. They're both related to the
,~roblem of employment. And the question
of governance' affects everything.
We need a strategy that moves forward
on all those things."
And indeed there is progress. Here in
the north, the 100st Airborne Division
bas ~elped establish interim city and
proVinCial governments, restore commerce
along. ~e Syrian and Turkish
borders, repair schools, bridges' and
courthouses and broker a major harvest
agreement with local farmers .
In the holy cities of An Najaf and Karbala
in south-central Iraq, American
marines have worked closely with tribal
and religious leaders. Yet much of
Wolfowitz',s trip has the feel of being
.stage-managed to support his long-
.stated views. Reporters joined him on a
tour of a mass graveyard in Hilla, where
3,000 bodies were unearthed from shallow
pits. He led another tour through
the notorious Abu Ghraib prison out-
,side. Baghdad, where thousands of
'Jraqls were tortured and exeClited.
.; But not once during the entire trip
did Wolfowitz speak to 'any expert
about the hunt for Iraq's weapons of
.mass destruction. That despite the fact
'that Iraq's illicit weapons were the prin-
'cipal reason that Bush decided to wage
'war to topple Saddam's government,
and despite the fact that some 1,500military
and civilian specialists, headed by
a two-star U.S. Army general, recently
arrived to take up the search.
Aides to Wolfowitz said that mission
now belonged to American intelligence'
agencies.
.Wolfowitz took no~es throughout his
trip and threw out questions to everyon.e.
'
He said the barrage of information
and impressions over the past five days
had felt like drinking out of "two or
three fire hoses" at once, and many
questions remain.' .
None, perhaps, are as pointed as the
fate of Saddam. Military commanders
say he is still alive and almost surely in
Iraq, and Wolfowitz said he would eventually
be captured or killed.
He acknowledged that this was crucial
for ending the fear in which Saddam
still grips many Iraqis. At a city
council meeting in An Najaf, one councilman
asked if the United States was
secretly holding Saddam to ensure that
Iraqis do what the coalition wants. It
triggered a rare flash of anger from
Wolfowitz. . .
"We're not playing any games With
Saddam Hussein," he said.
The New York TImes
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
37