Clinton: Troops Perhaps out in a Year;
Al-Hakim Slams Awakening Councils;
Rice Bunkers Down
Reuters says that Iraq made a comeback as a campaign issue on Wednesday through Friday of this week. On Wednesday, Senator Hillary Clinton told a voter that she could get all US troops out of Iraq by early 2009. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who has called for an immediate and complete withdrawal of troops from Iraq, accused Clinton of changing her position. Clinton's aide, Harry Wolfson, responded, "Governor Richardson knows that Senator Clinton has been clear and consistent: If George Bush has not ended the war in Iraq, she will . . . As she has said, she would accomplish that by beginning to withdraw our troops within 60 days after inauguration at the rate of one or two brigades a month. This would mean that nearly all troops could be home within a year."
In the past, Clinton has declined to pledge that all troops would be out of Iraq by the end of her first term if she were elected (i.e. by 2012). She has also spoken of keeping a US base in Kurdistan, apparently for the long term. But perhaps she is changing her mind about all that, and if so it is an excellent development. Of course, as Richardson implies, it may not be so much a commitment as the expression of one possibility among others.
The other part of the Reuters piece on the return of Iraq referred to Secretary of state Condi Rice's testy slamming of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee for his characterization of Bush administration policy as unilateralist and exhibiting a bunker mentality.
Secretary Rice appears to have forgotten that the US invaded Iraq despite the opposition of the United Nations Security Council, and that Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz vowed to "punish France" for having refused to support the US war on Iraq. She also seems to have forgotten that then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld dismissed France and Germany as "old Europe," in an attempt to divide the European Union and strong-arm the Western European countries into toeing his line. It has also apparently escaped her attention that the Bush administration she serves blew off the Israeli-Palestinian peace process for 7 years even though UK PM Tony Blair and other NATO allies pleaded with them to continue the process begun by Bill Clinton at Camp David. Bush said he wanted to "unleash Sharon" (the then hard line Israeli prime minister), and maintained that sometimes "conflict clarifies things." (I guess things are very clear now.) Rice's own support for continued Israeli bombing of poor little Lebanon in August of 2006 was also opposed by virtually everyone in the international community.
The problem with a bunker mentality is that those inside the bunker forget that that is where they are.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) on Friday warned against the Sunni Arab "Awakening Councils" or US-funded tribal levies as a potential threat to Iraq's stability if they were not closely integrated into Iraqi security forces. Al-Hakim has met with Awakening Council leaders. He even recently applauded the one in al-Anbar Province for helping some Shiites come back to that region after they had earlier been ethnically cleansed by the Salafi Jihadis.
McClatchy gives us a preview of a forthcoming UNICEF report on the condition of Iraqi children in 2007, which is poor. Main findings:
' # Twenty-eight percent of Iraq's 17-year-olds took final exams this summer; 40 percent in south and central Iraq passed.
# Eighty percent of children outside Baghdad don't have working sewers in their communities, limiting access to safe water.
# An average of 25,000 children per month were displaced within Iraq by violence or intimidation.
# An estimated 760,000 children were out of primary school in 2006, and 220,000 more displaced children had their educations interrupted in 2007.
# By the end of 2007, about 75,000 children were living in camps or temporary shelter.
# About 1,350 children were detained by military and police, "many for alleged security violations." '
AP reports that that bombing in Kanaan on Thursday killed one US soldier and wounded 10 others, along with the Iraqis killed and wounded. In Muqdadiya, US troops found a torture chamber and mass grave in a facility of the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq,' a Salafi Jihadi organization.
McClatchy reports political violence on Friday:
Baghdad
- Around 1 p.m. a suicide car bomb targeted Al Rasheed police station in Al Yousifiyah, killing four policemen and one civilian and injuring seven policemen and one civilian.
- Police found three bodies in Baghdad; one in Doura, Kasra and Camp Sara.
Diyala
- A mortar shell slammed into Al Salam town (about 25 Kilometers north of Baquba) and hit a house near the town's police station killing one child and injuring two others.
- Gunmen killed three men in Baladrouz market today.
Salahuddin
- One mortar shell landed in Balad city causing damages to one shop.
- Gunmen kidnapped a citizen in Al Touz town, Iraqi police said.
Anbar
- The U.S. military and Iraqi police said one Iraqi police officer was killed and one marine was injured in an altercation at a joint outpost in the Jazeera area of Ramadi on Wednesday. The police officer died of stab wounds and the marine was treated for minor injuries from lacerations at a military hospital. . .
Reuters adds, "BASRA - A suspected roadside bomb exploded next to a British military armored vehicle east of Basra International Airport, where British forces in Iraq are based, but there were no casualties from the blast, a British military official said."
At our group Global Affairs blog, Barnett Rubin shares a column by a Pakistani journalist on President Pervez Musharraf, "Banned in Pakistan: Comedian of the Year," by Ahmad Faruqui.
See also Philip J. Cunningham on China.
At the Napoleon's Egypt blog, Bonaparte's letter to the Ottoman Grand Vizier. Remember that "Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East," available in most bookstores, makes a fine last-minute gift for the holidays . . .
Other good reading for the New Year - Rebecca Solnit's Library of Hope.
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 12/22/2007 12:30:00 AM
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13 Comments:
Condoleeza Rice has no room to criticize anyone. She is incompetent. She was incompetent as National Security Advisor. She ignored information that could have prevented 9/11. She is incompetent as Secretary of State. The woman has accomplished nothing of substance. She is a full-time mouthpiece for George W. Bush and Richard Cheney's ideology of pre-emptive war and cowboy diplomacy.She has done nothing to repair the image of the United States in the eyes of its former allies. The world views us as a rogue nation, and with good cause.She defends her "husband", with a blind and destructive zeal that proves nothing but the fact that she is an ardent "True Believer." If there is wisdom in the academic world, no one will offer her any kind of position at any institution of learning. She has nothing to teach of genuine
value to students. Her predisposition to spin and manipulate information shows a lack of personal integrity and decency.She has chosen to cast her lot with the extremist Far Right of the Republican Party. Let her remain with them. Let her spend her days in some Far Right Think Tank revising history, as that is her only true talent. She has wasted her intelligence, her time and her effort on an administration without conscience or principle. May she dwell in infamy with those of her kind.
' Of course, as Richardson implies, it may not be so much a commitment as the expression of one possibility among others. '
Do ya think?
The Bushes and the Clintons work for the same people. Their policies are the same. They each tell different lies to a different constituency to get elected.
Gravel, Kucinich, Paul. Take you pick.
The rest are undistinguished and indistinguishable. And the election of any one of them means the continued occupation of Iraq.
The folks they all work for think that Israel's occupation of Palestine is such a great success that they have decided to re-implement the same model in Iraq, using the same source of funding, that would be us, but using our blood this time as well as our treasure.
Turn off your TV. Talk with your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Don't believe the doom and gloom of the received analysis. The one who wins is the one with the most votes.
We can elect Gravel, Kucinich, or Paul.
All we have to do is vote for them.
Concerning the image of a US "bunker mentality", it doesn't strikes me as particularly fitting tot he actual foreign policy of teh Bush government (and of the Americans who reelected him for a second term), but probably not for the same reasons as Condoleeza Rice. By definition a bunker is a strong defensive construction, preventing any entrance; it has a strong conotation of staying enclosed within its limits. The politic of the Bush government has been exactly at the opposite : the US didn't stay in its own limits. She has invaded two other countries and is trying to change the whole ME. Trying to extend one's dominance over the rest of the world isn't a defensive politic. It's an imperialist attitude. In order to try to impose your own philosophy and way of life to the rest of the world, you have to get out of your frontiers/bunker. It's true however that the US is more or less completely isolated on the world stage. She get often booed in public assembly, the last time was during the Global warming conference in Bali (I bet your Mainstream media didn't air that scene, which took place when a Papouasia delegate told angrily to the US to accept the general consencus or to get out and thus allows the other good willing countries to go forward).
Lest we forget those who DID know better that we might listen to them better next time. From Informed Comment, the blog of Juan Cole, Professor of History at the University of Michigan…
Juan Cole: Outstanding U.S. Citizen
I hope you will publish this comment, Dr. Cole, off-topic as it may be, and I hope others will follow my lead in bringing attention to others who did the right thing from the start as we head in to 2008.
The threat by the Awakeining groups to Hakim, and the others too, is deeper and wider than what is appreciated outside Iraq.
The groups are very popular among the Shiia people. The Shiite militias; the Iraqi forces; and the Americans had failed to protect them (and facilities such as roads) from al-Qaida the way the Awakening groups have. This has done two things: the secterian tension (based on the "Sunnis want to kill you" tauted by the other groups) is diminished and, secondly, the value of their earlier supposed protectors, including Shiite militias, is diminishing too.
The Sunni leaders are also in deep trouble. They Awakening guys are displacing them in politics.
The American military are actively spreading the Awakening scheme to the Shiite south. Take no notice of the reports that they have failed: the Americans offer badly needed cash and more stature to the tribal leaders. Consider it done. This will be the last straw for the religious mafias in the south.
There is another "awakening" brewing in Iraq, which is the rejection of the religion-based politics. The Marjiia (the Shiite top leaders) are getting the blame for the corruption and ineptitude of the government too, so they are trying very hard to distance themselves. The likelihood of Sistani endorsing Hakim or anyone else is zilch, which means that Hakim will may do a Chalabi and win no seats next time.
Hakim and the others have lost their influence in US circles too. There was a time when Meghan O'Solivan, or some top American official, would run like an obedient servant to Hakim when he got angry. Now he can bark for all he wants without anyone taking any notice of him. He described his last meeting with Bush as "very frank". No more back-slapping or flattery.
http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/25300
Babil's new provincial IP commanding general, newly promoted MG Fadhil Raddam Kadhim
You gotta read the fine print at the bottom when the pols posit on Iraq withdrawal. "Depending on the situation and, principally, advice from my generals".
Helena Cobban has posted about how the Israeli generals dictated the 2006 Lebanon invasion. The US and Israel seem to be the only major countries under the sway of the military. Petraeusism. Would Clinton fire Petraeus if he refused to follow orders, a la Truman/MacArthur? Not likely.
What a fine kettle of fish for supposed "democracies" held captive in foreign policy by their own armies.
Mrs Clinton did say she wanted to keep troops in Iraq to look after American vital interests. She did vote for the war, and she did know that the WMD stuff was all lies: her husband invented it in the first place and she had access to the plentiful evidence against.
Richardson did say he wants to keep troops in Iraq "to protect the embassy and Americans". This cannot be done with few people as in London, as Obama says, because they will get slaughtered. They will need the 30,000 to 50,000 in plan A by Bush and Rumsfeld.
In any case, didn't Bush mock nation building and foriegn intervension when he was campaigning? What does it matter what verbal gymnastics they use. See who is supporting and funding them, not what they say.
How can these people talk with a straight face.
Leila Fadel had a report yesterday on the Shiite religious parties increasing confrontation with the Awakening councils, which parallels what "anonymous" posted about. It's titled Shiite leaders oppose expansion of U.S.-backed citizens groups. Leila quoted Ali Hatem al Suleiman, a powerful Sunni tribal sheik from Anbar, who said the Shiite government is threatened because the councils are more secular than the religious parties that dominate the government.
Suleiman also said that Iraq needs to confront Shiite militias, which he said prey on civilians. He said "Bush is paying to have a new group established that is made up of nationalistic people. Why don't they take the garbage government and throw it away?"
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND - NOT!!!!!
Two current items to ponder:
1. Today's blog contains the following quote:
"Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) on Friday warned against the Sunni Arab "Awakening Councils" or US-funded tribal levies as a potential threat to Iraq's stability if they were not closely integrated into Iraqi security forces."
2. This week "Charlie Wilson's War" opened in cinemas.
Both items should remind any sane person that we are repeating the same foreign policy mistake over and over again. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" is the dictum behind this approach to foreign policy. It was wrong in Afghanistan when we funded and armed Osama bin Laden. It was wrong in Irag when we funded and armed Saddam Hussein (but note that George Bush's war was not the answer either). And it's still wrong as we fund and arm the "Awakening Councils".
What can we do - what can I do - to stop this repeated madness?
Sean Connolly, Charlotte NC
Sean...
' What can we do - what can I do - to stop this repeated madness? '...
Vote for Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, or Ron Paul.
Stop looking at the TV to discover the future. Take charge. Make it happen.
We're the only ones here.
Great picture, Raphie. Both well and timely said.
Dr. Cole, I read the UNICEF preliminary report, and wrote quite a long post. It is available here.
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