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

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
The grim realities
of rebuilding Iraq
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
On Tuesday, an explosion and other Pentagon officials had
ripped through a dining been claiming that many tens of
tent at lunch hour on an. thousands of Iraqis were being
American military base trained to take over frontline securi-
. near Mosul, killing at least 24people ty duties, allowing American forces
. and injuring 57.The day before, Pres- first to pull back from major cities
ident George W. Bush finally ac- and then, at a later phase, come home.
knowledged that many of the more Last week, at ~ meeting with Amerthan
100,000Iraqi trainees Washing- ica's two top military commanders
ton had been counting on to take responsible for Iraq, Bush got a canover
basic security tasks were far did evaluation of the actual combat
from being up to the job.And on Sun- readiness of these Iraqi trainees, who,
. day, car bomb attacks killed more now officially number about ll4,000.
: than 60 people in the Shiite holy cit- Bush was admirably blunt about it at
, ies of Najaf and Karbala, while in his news conference on Monday,not-
•Baghdad, unmasked assassins ing that while a few good generals
I brazenly dragged three election offi- and some good foot soldiers had
cials out of their cars in full daylight been trained, "the whole command
: and executed them on the spot. structure necessary to have a viable
\ This is not just pre-election may- military is not in place:~
hem. It is stark evidence that with a We are glad to hear Bush acknowlcrucial
election now less than six edge this sobering reality, but we are
weeks away, America's effort to still waiting for him to explain who
bring into being a new Iraqi govern- will have to fill in for these noncomment
representing all major pop~la- bat-ready Iraqis and for how long.
, tion groups and capable of defendmg Given the lack of other countries
. itself and its citizens still has a very willing to put up their hands as vol-
. long way to go. Some 21months after unteers, the only answer seems to be
the American invasion, U.S.military more American troops, and not just
forces remain essentially alone in through the spring, as currently
battling what seems to be a growing planned. Since the first days of the
'.insurgency, with no clear prospect of occupation, American troops have
decisive success any time in the fore- been too light on the ground in Iraq,
. seeable future. . allowing the looting and sabotage
Washington has no significant in- that soon turned into insurgency to
ternational military partners be- get a costly head start.
sides Britain, and no Iraqi military And facing the need for an expansupport
it can count on. The election ded American military presence
that once looked as if it might pro- means more than a simple reshuffduce
a government with nationwide ling of deployments. If more troops
legitimacy increasingly threatens to in Iraq are not going to translate into
intensify divisions between the a dangerously exhausted and overgroups
that ~re. expected to pa~~ic- stretched Army, Marine Corps and
ipate enthusiastically - the Shutes National Guard, these forces need to
and Kurds - and an estranged and be expanded through stepped-up reembattled
Sunni community, which cruitment. That means bigger spendat
this point appears likely to stand ing on the least politically attractive
aloof. part of the military budget, basic
There may still be time for Wash- personnel salaries, and less for
ington to try to salvage the election, costly new weapons systems.
but that would require paying much Another harsh reality that needs
more serious attention to legitimate to be confronted head-on is the pros-
Sunni grievances and showing an pect for the Iraqi elections. The Jan.
openness to postponing the election 30 elections were supposed to usher
for several months, if that had a rea- in a legitimate national government
sonable chance of attracting broader and a broadly representative as-
Sunni participation. So far, Bush has sembly to draw up a constitution acstrongly
resisted such an approach. ceptable to all elements of Iraq's
As weeks go by without discernible. fragmented population - secular
progress, hopes for a decent outcome and religious, Shiite and Sunni, Arab
get progressively harder to sustain. and Kurd. But things now appear
Right now, the only progress headed toward a badly skewed result.
seems to lie in the willingness of the Enthusiasm and participation seem
re-elected Bush to face some hard high among Shiites and Kurds, who
truths:
suffered greatly under Sunni minor-
One certainly involves Iraqi secu-' .ity rule a:p.d.!low thirst for self-govrity
forces, which have always been ernment.
presented as the key to American But in predominantly Sunni areas,
- withdrawal. For more than a year, including Mosul, parts of Baghdad
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de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
;. ,,; and m:ostof central and western Iraq,
'. /~ere is,a deep and growing aliena-
, .'tioll that 'threatens to depress 'elec-
, ,~: tor;i}.tui'nout and provides a large
reseryoil""bf support for the insur-
. gency.Without an acceptable level of
, participation across Iraq, the elections
will not be able to produce a legitimate
government capable of
,.,standing on its own, mastering the
, insurgency' and surviving without
the indefinite presence oflarge numbers
of American troops.
The timing of last month's
military assault on Falluja
rested, in part, on the argument
that Iraq's Sunnis
really wanted to participate in the
election, but we'rebeing held back by
intimidation from the insurgents.
, The causes of Sunni alienation from
the current political process actually
run far deeper, and affect large numbers
of people who cannot be classified
as Al Qaeda supporters, Islamic
fundamentalists or sworn followers
of Saddam Hussein. A broader feeling
has begun to take root that Sunnis
have no political, professional or
personal future in the new Iraq being
shaped by Washington and its Shiite
and Kurdish allies .
This feeling grew out of such earli
er American mistakes as the wholesale
dismissal of the old, Sunni-led
Iraqi national army and the blanket
exclusion of even midlevel former
Baathists from government jobs during
the early months of the occupation.1t
has fed off the continuing failure
to assure that authentic Sunni
nationalist politicians had an adequate
voice in the interim government
and election preparations.
A further level of resentment has
been added by the physical destruction
of homes, jobs and infrastructure
produced by American counterinsurgency
campaigns in densely
populated Sunni towns like Falluja.
A coalition of Sunni politicalleaders
led by Adnan Pachachi, a respected
moderate, has repeatedly called for
postponing the January election for
several months.to encourage broader'
Sunni participation. His pleas need
to be taken seriously, not brushed '
aside as they have been up till now by
Baghdad and Washington.
Leaving Iraq's Sunnis in such a
sullen, resentful mood would undermine
the creation of a new and stable
Iraq and poison its relations with the
rest of the Aràb world, where Sunnis
strongly,predominate. Iraq's interim
prime minister, Ayad Allawi, some-'
how seems unable to recognize this.
Instead of reinforcing him in his
folly,the Bush administration should
be actively encouraging him to think
afresh. If postponing the election
date can ensure more adequate
Sunniparticipation, it is in everyone's
interest to do so.